So I live in a two story house. Mrs Monkey and I have considered adding a wood or pellet stove to supplement our heat for something more cozy in the winter. Installing the wood stove downstairs seems the most practical, but balancing the heat between the levels is a minor concern. She is pre-menopausal and complains about the furnace set to 67 as too high, so I'm not sure why she wants a wood stove LOL
I just had a weird idea to at least partially balance the heat, and wasnt sure if it would work.
Growing up we had a wood stove. The first one was a standard stove with a stove pipe heat exchanger fan to capture some of the heat in the pipe. Something like this:
Later on dad upgraded to a (catalytic?) stove with a double wall and built in blower, eliminating the stack blower.
So my thought was this. What about instead of sending the stove pipe out the wall on the 1st floor as usual, send it up immediately via a double wall pipe through the floor, bust it out through one of these heat exchangers on the 2nd floor (living room) before once again going double wall through the ceiling and roof? The idea being that yes, a lot of the heat will be downstairs, but to be able to at least capture some of the heat on the 2nd floor might be helpful. Our living and family rooms are stacked, so this kinda makes sense.
Am I totally crazy? Does the heat exchanger have to be within a certain distance from the stove?
I literally just had the idea a few minutes ago and assume I'm probably crazy, but wanted the ideas of the INGO collective. Feel free to tell me I'm nuts.
EDIT: We've also considered going old school and adding a 19th century passthrough style grate directly above the stove allowing the heat from the stove top to rise straight up into the 2nd story family room as well.
I just had a weird idea to at least partially balance the heat, and wasnt sure if it would work.
Growing up we had a wood stove. The first one was a standard stove with a stove pipe heat exchanger fan to capture some of the heat in the pipe. Something like this:
Later on dad upgraded to a (catalytic?) stove with a double wall and built in blower, eliminating the stack blower.
So my thought was this. What about instead of sending the stove pipe out the wall on the 1st floor as usual, send it up immediately via a double wall pipe through the floor, bust it out through one of these heat exchangers on the 2nd floor (living room) before once again going double wall through the ceiling and roof? The idea being that yes, a lot of the heat will be downstairs, but to be able to at least capture some of the heat on the 2nd floor might be helpful. Our living and family rooms are stacked, so this kinda makes sense.
Am I totally crazy? Does the heat exchanger have to be within a certain distance from the stove?
I literally just had the idea a few minutes ago and assume I'm probably crazy, but wanted the ideas of the INGO collective. Feel free to tell me I'm nuts.
EDIT: We've also considered going old school and adding a 19th century passthrough style grate directly above the stove allowing the heat from the stove top to rise straight up into the 2nd story family room as well.
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