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

Mtsoxfan · Nov 11, 2025

We have a ranch with walkout basement. Easy access to 3+/- cords stored on patio under deck. Warms the whole house, with a few cool spots. Run heat pumps upstairs just to circulate the warm air throughout. I have a pedestal fan in basement to blow across wood stove for better circulation. People who come over think we have radiant heat in basement, as the wood stove heats the slab quite nicely in a 15' or so radius.

Larry Caldwell · Nov 11, 2025

Mtsoxfan said:
We have a ranch with walkout basement. Easy access to 3+/- cords stored on patio under deck. Warms the whole house, with a few cool spots. Run heat pumps upstairs just to circulate the warm air throughout. I have a pedestal fan in basement to blow across wood stove for better circulation. People who come over think we have radiant heat in basement, as the wood stove heats the slab quite nicely in a 15' or so radius.

Thermal mass is very helpful to stabilize heat in the house. Passive solar got the house to 74 degrees yesterday, and I didn't start a fire until 9 PM. Outdoor temp was about 38 when I started the fire, so I got several hours of free heat. That doesn't work if it's cloudy and cold, and I don't have much more than a couple of tons of tile on cement board floor and brick hearth, but it lets me be lackadaisical about keeping a fire going all night.

Mtsoxfan · Nov 11, 2025

Larry Caldwell said:
Thermal mass is very helpful to stabilize heat in the house. Passive solar got the house to 74 degrees yesterday, and I didn't start a fire until 9 PM. Outdoor temp was about 38 when I started the fire, so I got several hours of free heat. That doesn't work if it's cloudy and cold, and I don't have much more than a couple of tons of tile on cement board floor and brick hearth, but it lets me be lackadaisical about keeping a fire going all night.

We get some nice solar warming as well. 5 large windows facing west. It's nice not having to have a fire going on sunny days. We are also in the wind zone, two valleys head our way for cooling off what the sun warms. NNW and NW winds can be brutal. That thermal mass sound like a great feature, reminds me of the European soapstone wall fireplace built as a thermal mass heat unit. May have been a Jotuul(sp) Beautiful, but even back in the early 2000's when I saw at store, it was mega bucks...