"N" wrote in message m...
Serendipity wrote in message ...
N wrote:

(Don) wrote in message . com...

I have a 1700 square foot house on a crawl space foundation with the
bedrooms on one end of the house and a living room/dining room/kitchen
on the other. I have propane water and heat.

To make a long story short the living room/dining room/kitchen area
stays colder than the rest of the house. I have had the system looked
at and it is working fine.


Sounds like my place! That big living area is hotter in summer and
harder to air condition too.

We have an open concept house. One thing that hasn't been mentioned on
this thread is installing and using a ceiling fan. These are very
economical winter or summer and more so for open concept or large spaces.

I've always been a little suspicious of the idea that ceiling
fans were helpful in winter. It seems to me that the warm
air from my heating system would mix with the cooler air
anyway and that a fan wouldn't help much, if at all.

If you measure it, you'll find there is a considerable vertical
temperature differential in most winter heating situatons.

Corse there is also another effect too. If the air temp is kept on
the low side, like say 60F, the draft at that temp isnt very pleasant,
particularly if you are basking in front of radiant heat sources.

I basically bask in full sun on sunny winter
days and the air temp isnt all that high at all.

When its not sunny, I basically have a fan heater blowing hot
air on me. That works because I dont move around much.

A ceiling fan is the last thing I need in winter.

Dont need one in summer either because I use a massive
'swamp' cooler on the roof that blows a hell of a gale thru the
most important parts of the house, all the air movement I need.

I've always suspected the idea that a ceiling fan is useful in
winter is a ploy to sell more ceiling fans, but I could be wrong.

Yes, you are. They do have their place, particularly if you attempt
to keep the entire room comfortably warm and dont have any fans
in the heating method used, say just have fanless oil filled heaters
or wood stoves without internal fans etc.

However, ceiling fans in hot weather can be great! I used to live
w/o AC (couldn't afford it) and the ceiling fan over my bed was
so effective that on hot summer nights with the fan running, I'd
sometimes wake up after a few hours because I was so cold.

Yeah, I hardly ever leave the swamp cooler on when I go to bed,
because of that effect, I have to get up to turn it off because its
too cold. I do like it warmer than most tho, many wouldnt consider
the initial temp with it off cool enough for sleeping.