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Forced Hot Air? or Radiant Heat?

15 years ago

I see a number of postings concerning blowers on stoves/fireplaces. Do we use them or not?

A baseboard heat system is radiant heat. It warms the items in the room. Floor, walls, furniture, etc. Forced hot air systems heat the air in the room. And when the forced air is turned off, the air cools.

Same with a stove. I had a blower on my first insert. We used it ONLY to heat the room until the stove was up and running and radiant heat kicked in. Then we turned it off. We found we were actually warmer WITHOUT the fan. As the stove cooled, so did the air the fan was moving. Our curent stove has no blower. But we did install mini fans in the hallway just to move the air, not heat the air.

Just an FYI

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Comment (1)

SeattlePioneer
15 years ago
Baseboards are convection heaters that are designed to heat the air and provide negligible radiant heat.

Most wood stoves and gas stoves provide both, with radiant heat from the front and glass, but most of the heating is of the air through convection.
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