Ceiling Fans Blowing Up or Down In Room With Wood Stove?

[dodge man]

I think the logic of fan blowing up during the winter is the hot air up high gets forced down at the edges of the room and washes down the walls to get down lower in the room. Or so I’ve read.

 

[Wagtail]

Down during the cold months and off during the warm/hot months.

This is due to a very high 'cathedral' ceiling.

 

[Milo]

Almost never works as folks imagine it should. The trouble is that most houses have insulated ductwork running thru unconditioned space, with an air handler also in a cooler basement or attic, and it's sucking in air that's only maybe 80 - 85F from the ceiling above the stove.

The losses going thru the cold ductwork are enough that the air blowing out the other end is too cool.

If you happen to design your own house and place all ductwork and air handler inside the insulated envelope, then of course it can work, and I know at least two people who did exactly this. But in any house you didn't design specifically for this purpose, it's usually a losing battle.

This can no doubt be true in some cases WinterDeere, but even if the 85* air near a return drops 15* before being distributed to the cooler rooms it's still removing warm air from where it's too hot, and moving it to rooms that are cold so win win. And the 15* that is "lost" is warming a basement, unheated wall cavity, etc. Of course if warming a vented attic it's wasted.

In my case all ductwork within the house walls, floors, and crawl space is encapsulated in foam so it really works well for me. This shows some of the ductwork in the crawl where the air handler is.