Expert: James Ball - 11/24/2010

Question
Seattle, Washington: 1928 heatilator located near center of
house with heated rooms all around, brick chimney with top
caps and f/p surround in good condition. With 100 degree
room temp fire, double course of brick surround cool to
touch indicating metal in good condition. Cool air intakes
only drawing from wall cavities. 4 tube ducting at face and
two vents to rear of house. After exposing cold air vents
and putting a house fan against one heat increased. Thinking
I should hook up fans to cold intakes and add doors to
control the burn rate.

Question? should I also consider a Heat-n-glow type grate
heater, or will that just take heat out of the box that
should stay there? Or should I consider a Hasty-heat type of
fan powered tube grate heater, but run it to the back of the
heatilator plenum chamber to get more heat into the 4 tube
face and sheet metal vent system that comes off the top of
the F/P. Thanks, Terry/TRJ Development  

Answer
Hello Terry, a lot of people install fans in the base vents to increase heated air flow and use the damper to close down and reduce exhaust air/smoke flow, but for real heating you need an insert or wood stove, stop by our local wood stove store and I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep www.csia.org, (there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have they should be able to help.
Hope this helps
James