Warming up the kitchen
 

This weekend I took some time to check out my kitchen. It has 10 foot ceiling, and I was curious about how warm the air at the top was. So, I setup a simple test rig. I just used two of those outside temperature monitors. I put one temperature probe roughly 1.5 feet from the ceiling on top of the cabinets (red arrow). I put another temp monitor on the counter.

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I monitored it for a while and it generally stayed around these temperatures. The red arrow shows the counter temperature, and the lower monitor is the ceiling temp. Yep, that says 69.3 and the counter temp is 65.5. Almost a 4 degree difference!

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So, how do we get the warm air down? Well, I found a nice remote control squirrel cage fan at the local store. I put it above the cabinet and had it blow over the edge.

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Now, I didn't expect earth shattering results, and I definitly didn't get any. After about two hours of blowing the ceiling temperature went down about 1 degree, and the counter temp went up .5 degree. I tried reaiming the fan downward a bit and that didn't help. So, plan one has failed. But, there is still a buncha heat up there, and I'm gonna get it one way or another! :)

My next idea is placing the fan in another part of the room so it blows almost directly up. I think that'll mix more warm/cool air together instead of having the fan blowing more horizontally. If that doens't work I'll be looking at ceiling fans. Any other suggestions are welcome!

ceilings fans do aim the air UP when you use it during the winter, so definitely try that.

Go figure, this is partly my issue with my kitchen. The overhang i keep complaining about has probably a 10-11ft ceiling while the normal part of the kitchen is only 8-9'.

Keep us up to date Daox, cause if this works out for you, you can bet I'll be doing the same thing in my house.

So...you're my guinea pig. :D

I also forgot to mention, but the only heat register is one of those small ones and its in the ceiling to boot!

Anyway, I did some more testing tonight with the fan. This time I put it on the opposite side of the room between two chairs. It was aimed to blow the air upwards.

http://ecorenovator.org/pictures/house288.jpg



The results were pretty darn good. The temp is now within about a half of a degree! :) Now I just gotta figure out how to make this a little more permanent.

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ceiling fan= permanent solution :)

Yeah, thats pretty much what I'm leaning towards.

Well, after discovering that the vent to the kitchen was mostly closed, its been a little warmer. I think I'm going to do some additional testing now that it seems to be getting more heat in there. I still think a fan would be a great addition and will probably go ahead with it at some point. Just another project on the list. :)

don't you love it when that project list grows, and grows... this site has made me want to try and do so many things..