Move heat with fans??

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SuzeQStanSuzeQStan Forumite
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I’ve seen on here in the past about people using fans to move heat around their house.  

We have a multi fuel burner (built into chimney so no ‘top’ to put a fan on). It gets hotter than we need of an evening and would like to move this heat to other areas of our home. Like our bedroom upstairs - burner is in downstairs lounge.

we open the lounge door to the hall when it gets too warm and have an external door curtain in there which I’ve pinned a huge blanket to prevent drafts. 

The stairs in the hall are open to the landing and short hallway leading to our bedroom. We keep the bedroom door open and all blinds etc shut in the room but the heat never seems to reach all that far.

any thoughts what type of low energy fan we could use to encourage the heat to go upstairs? Or another method if possible?

grateful for any ideas, thank you


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PV 5.04kWp South/West inst March 2023
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Mortgage freedom February 2024 🤞🏻

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  • edited 9 February at 7:45AM
    ApodemusApodemus Forumite
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    edited 9 February at 7:45AM
    It may simply be the relative temperature.  We have a stove top fan and on a cold day, with the central heating off, you can feel the warmth through the house if you leave the doors open.  But it takes only a very little heat from the radiators to take the chill off the room to the point where you no longer feel any benefit from from the fan.  There is always going to be a temperature gradient from the stove to the bedroom, and there will always be a point in that gradient where the air-flow is no longer higher than the ambient room temperature. 
  • Alnat1Alnat1 Forumite
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    On another thread someone suggested a fan at floor level blowing air out of a cold room allowed heat to enter more easily but I'm not sure if this would work for an upstairs room. If placed on the bedroom floor it might help the slightly warmer air on the landing move in.
    Barnsley, South Yorkshire
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  • SuzeQStanSuzeQStan Forumite
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    Apodemus said:
    It may simply be the relative temperature.  We have a stove top fan and on a cold day, with the central heating off, you can feel the warmth through the house if you leave the doors open.  But it takes only a very little heat from the radiators to take the chill off the room to the point where you no longer feel any benefit from from the fan.  There is always going to be a temperature gradient from the stove to the bedroom, and there will always be a point in that gradient where the air-flow is no longer higher than the ambient room temperature. 
    Thanks @Apodemus - that makes good sense - we are looking to ‘move’ the heat of an evening as we only use the GCH for 2x hrs in daytime.

    our upstairs bedroom is typically around 13-14 degrees of an evening. With log burner on + hall & bedroom doors open we can usually get the bedroom up to 15-15.5 degrees but no higher.

    there is no supplemental heating in the bedroom from 1pm onward each day.

    we have a heated under blanket so don’t mind sleeping in a cooler bedroom, but I was just hoping we might be able to make use of the surplus heat from the log burner 
    NW UK
    PV 5.04kWp South/West inst March 2023
     6.5KWh Battery & 3.6K hybrid inverter.
    12 x 420w panels 

    Mortgage freedom February 2024 🤞🏻

  • SuzeQStanSuzeQStan Forumite
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    Alnat1 said:
    On another thread someone suggested a fan at floor level blowing air out of a cold room allowed heat to enter more easily but I'm not sure if this would work for an upstairs room. If placed on the bedroom floor it might help the slightly warmer air on the landing move in.
    Thanks @Alnat1 - I’m going to experiment with 3x small fans I’ve got from H&B for a fiver each. Am thinking to try one just in front of the LB, one at bottom of the stairs angled ‘up’ and another at the bedroom floor as you say.

    will let you know how I get on


    NW UK
    PV 5.04kWp South/West inst March 2023
     6.5KWh Battery & 3.6K hybrid inverter.
    12 x 420w panels 

    Mortgage freedom February 2024 🤞🏻

  • MsttyMstty Forumite
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    SuzeQStan said:
    Alnat1 said:
    On another thread someone suggested a fan at floor level blowing air out of a cold room allowed heat to enter more easily but I'm not sure if this would work for an upstairs room. If placed on the bedroom floor it might help the slightly warmer air on the landing move in.
    Thanks @Alnat1 - I’m going to experiment with 3x small fans I’ve got from H&B for a fiver each. Am thinking to try one just in front of the LB, one at bottom of the stairs angled ‘up’ and another at the bedroom floor as you say.

    will let you know how I get on


    What's the power rating of the fans and how long would you use them for. Always good to know the cost and if there's a different cheaper solution available.
  • edited 9 February at 9:59AM
    ApodemusApodemus Forumite
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    edited 9 February at 9:59AM
    SuzeQStan said:
    Apodemus said:
    It may simply be the relative temperature.  We have a stove top fan and on a cold day, with the central heating off, you can feel the warmth through the house if you leave the doors open.  But it takes only a very little heat from the radiators to take the chill off the room to the point where you no longer feel any benefit from from the fan.  There is always going to be a temperature gradient from the stove to the bedroom, and there will always be a point in that gradient where the air-flow is no longer higher than the ambient room temperature. 
    our upstairs bedroom is typically around 13-14 degrees of an evening. With log burner on + hall & bedroom doors open we can usually get the bedroom up to 15-15.5 degrees but no higher.

    :)  I'm talking about much lower temperatures than you!  Our CH is controlled by room thermostat in a bedroom and set at 16C, so getting it to 15.5C with the log-burner at the other end of the house would be a dream!  In practice we can "feel" the stove's warmth at lower temperatures, but it would probably struggle to get the bedroom up to 13C or 14C.  With heating off overnight, the bedroom drops to 10C or 11C, hence the benefit from the woodburner to take the chill off the bedroom in the afternoon. (Yes, the house is in need of insulating!  We are also in northern Scotland, so have a longer heating season and cooler ambient temperatures.)
  • SuzeQStanSuzeQStan Forumite
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    Mstty said: What's the power rating of the fans and how long would you use them for. Always good to know the cost and if there's a different cheaper solution available.
    They are those tiny USB fans - I’ve got some extension cords with USB ports so was gonna use them to power.  

    I’m probably well underpowered I know but wanted to try the cheapest option 1st as I already had these fans from the summer for use at work.

    gonna experiment tonite - will update
    NW UK
    PV 5.04kWp South/West inst March 2023
     6.5KWh Battery & 3.6K hybrid inverter.
    12 x 420w panels 

    Mortgage freedom February 2024 🤞🏻

  • diystarter7diystarter7 Forumite
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    Hi OP

    We are a bit like you but with CH

    We have a part open plan house, ie massive lounge, fllor to ceiling windowns south facing, and a sperate kitchen but the lound open on to the bick area before the staris - the half of the hall is then seprated from this to the from door an area of about 10 x10 feet and have a rad on their to balance heat loow setting

    We have rad on full, almost full blast ground floor by the stairs, hot near where we sit, lower setting others and as heat rises, we had the landing heats full but rooms and bathroom low and it works for us, ie heat moves upwards.

    Thans
  • QyburnQyburn Forumite
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    I don't know your house structure but wonder if you could have a direct path between sitting room and the bedroom directly above. A high level register in the sitting room, and low level in the bedroom with passive convection passing warm air.
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