Air circulation duct for heating

[silentC]

We've got a wood fire in our lounge room and I'm thinking about installing an air circulation duct to try and move a bit of the heat around the rest of the house. Just wondering if anyone has tried this and what the results were.

You can buy a kit which consist of an inline fine, an inlet and outlet grill and some insulated duct. The idea is to install the inlet over the fire and run the duct to the far end of the house. The fan should then draw warm air from over the fire and pump it to the cold part of the house, pushing the cold air towards the fire in the process.

Just interested to know if anyone has tried it because an opinion I've had is that it wont do much if anything at all.

[RETIRED]

In my brothers place with a "coonarra heater" we put shutters above the doors to the ceiling and installed 2 ceiling fans.

They could close off any rooms not in use and it was as warm as toast in winter but the bonus was added ventilation in summer.

[silentC]

OK that's not a bad idea.

I've just been talking to my brother in law, who is a sheetmetal worker. He's got a few bits and pieces I can use and I've got a 3-speed industrial air conditioning fan I can use. Might give it a go anyway but the duct is expensive at $100 for 6 metres.

Only problem with the shutter idea is that the adjoining room is the kid's rumpus room and we've insulated the wall to keep the noise down. But then I guess we'd need to leave the door open for the circulation idea to work, so the shutters might be a good idea anyway.

[Claw Hama]

Silent, transfer ducts work quite well, I have installed a few over the years. I would only use 8" or 10" duct (which keeps the cost down too) at the most, you don't want to move too much air or you will create draughts which make the air feel cool. It realy only has to seep in. (25years in air conditioning)

[silentC]

What we're looking at is two 200mm inlets and three 150mm outlets (three different areas of the house).

I have no idea how much air the fan moves but it is 3 speed, so I guess we can try it on the lowest speed. BIL has got some 200mm egg crates and 150mm diffusers left over from a previous job. He can make up the fan housing and any other bits of sheetmetal we need.

I was originally looking at a kit supplied by Bradflo but they don't do them any more and I wondered if it was because they aren't very effective. Good to hear that they do work. Might be worth giving it a go since I've got a lot of the stuff cheap or free.

[Claw Hama]

Sounds good, just remember the low air flow and it'll be fine.

[Moondog55]

Hi, we just moved into a house with a Coonara in the lounge room, and while it does a great job of heating there are cold pockets in all the corners.

How did the ducting job go? As we are thinking that we could do something similar in our big main room, ceiling fans won't work; I'm too tall and as it is I keep bumping my head on the light fittings.

Our room is 4.5M * 9.5M with an archway in the centre, extension done in the late 80's.

Many thanx in advance
Ted

[silentC]

Haven't done it yet. Still waiting for the BIL to build me a housing for the fan. Will probably be summer by the time he gets around to it

[Moondog55]

Well maybe I'll just have to try it and see what happens.

Anybody have any ideas on minimum and maximum sizes of round ducting and fan size & RPM and number of ducta or where they should be placed.
ATM I'm thinking that a suction duct in one corner as far away from the fire as I can and the return into the passage-way near the door to the lounge room.
That is about 10M of duct, which is ; as far as I can tell; the minimum purchase length