I’m trying to circulate air in my house. We have a split level home (lower, middle, upper, in a zig zag sort or arrangement. I hate it, but that’s beside the point) and the lowest level is always too cold and highest level too warm. I want to move air from the lower level to at least the middle level.

I need a fan, preferably small or thin profile that blows 90° from intake. Ideally a box fan that has a horizontal intake but exhausts up or sideways. What I’ve done in previous years is have a rotated fan that pointed up, intake from below, and was raised off the ground.

The closest I’ve found is a carpet dryer drum style. It has round intakes on the side and a rectangular vent on the front. That would totally work (point the intake at the cold room and the exhaust up towards the middle room) but it’s way over powered for my situation. Also, it’s a bit wider than ideal, though slimmer than what I used last year.

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Another term to search for is “centrifugal fan” - these are the type used where air flow restrictions are significant, as they can compress the air some unlike a traditional box fan. For noise, a larger fan at lower speeds is generally less intrusive.

    Where’s the return on your air handler? If there’s more than one (one upstairs, one down), you may be able to cheat the system by blocking one seasonally.

    Also most likely the air handler speed is set too high - installers are kind of lazy (they don’t want callbacks) so they typically set the air handler to max speed. Since most instalsl are also well oversized, this means the system will short cycle and move less air during that short cycle. Lowering the air handler speed may help lengthen the cycle, moving more air in total.

    You could also try just turning the air handler on (fan mode orn"Always On" on thermostat).

    This probably won’t solve your problem entirely, just maybe help.