Using attic heat for the house

Daox · 09-14-10, 07:34 AM

A couple of days ago, I stuck a thermometer up in my attic. Nothing fancy, just a wired unit that shows temperature. As its getting cooler, I'm finding the house cooling off slowly. I'd love to be able to get a bit more heat without having to turn on the furnace. So, last night I came home to find my attic at 92F (33C) at around 5pm and decided I was going to use some of that heat. I stuck a box fan into the attic access door and blew it down. Here is the very simple and quick setup.

Now, I'm not sure how much heat I really got out of it. The immediate area was definitely warm, but the room you see in the picture has a thermometer in the far corner and that didn't register any heat gain. However, when I went to sleep roughly 3.5 hours later the attic was still pretty warm as shown below.

So, it looks like the heat definitely has to be better distributed. I need a way to get it down to the first floor first. My first idea is to use the cutoff chimney in the attic! Its currently uncapped and probably making me loose a fair amount of heat in winter. I just haven't gotten around to putting some insulation around it yet.

To get it down to the first floor, I was thinking of using this vent hole that I had previously plugged up with foam. Its in my kitchen which is normally the coldest room in my house. Having some extra heat in there would be great.

So, I'm just kind of throwing out the idea to see what people think and get some suggestions. To get much heat I'd probably need a fair size blower/fan I'd imagine. I'm also not sure how long this will be useful? Will it be completely useless in winter? I guess we'll just have to see.

I also did a quick search on builditsolar and found this:
Attic based solar heting
attic temp logged data

These show that its not an original idea by far, and the temperature log of the attic I guess suggests that winter use really doesn't seem very viable. However, different climates and different types of construction will alter temperatures. So, I guess I'll wait and see.

09-14-10, 07:34 AM	#1
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Using attic heat for the house A couple of days ago, I stuck a thermometer up in my attic. Nothing fancy, just a wired unit that shows temperature. As its getting cooler, I'm finding the house cooling off slowly. I'd love to be able to get a bit more heat without having to turn on the furnace. So, last night I came home to find my attic at 92F (33C) at around 5pm and decided I was going to use some of that heat. I stuck a box fan into the attic access door and blew it down. Here is the very simple and quick setup. Now, I'm not sure how much heat I really got out of it. The immediate area was definitely warm, but the room you see in the picture has a thermometer in the far corner and that didn't register any heat gain. However, when I went to sleep roughly 3.5 hours later the attic was still pretty warm as shown below. So, it looks like the heat definitely has to be better distributed. I need a way to get it down to the first floor first. My first idea is to use the cutoff chimney in the attic! Its currently uncapped and probably making me loose a fair amount of heat in winter. I just haven't gotten around to putting some insulation around it yet. To get it down to the first floor, I was thinking of using this vent hole that I had previously plugged up with foam. Its in my kitchen which is normally the coldest room in my house. Having some extra heat in there would be great. So, I'm just kind of throwing out the idea to see what people think and get some suggestions. To get much heat I'd probably need a fair size blower/fan I'd imagine. I'm also not sure how long this will be useful? Will it be completely useless in winter? I guess we'll just have to see. I also did a quick search on builditsolar and found this: Attic based solar heting attic temp logged data These show that its not an original idea by far, and the temperature log of the attic I guess suggests that winter use really doesn't seem very viable. However, different climates and different types of construction will alter temperatures. So, I guess I'll wait and see. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Last edited by Daox; 09-14-10 at 07:44 AM..