Simple and Effective

Some inventions are just ridiculously effective for how simple they are.  Take, for example, this handy gadget.

courtesy of www.plowhearth.com

A teeny corner fan, attached in a door frame, to move warm air from one part of the house to the next.  I picked it up in the middle of summer one year, when it was on clearance at the local farmer department store for under $10.  I do love useful bargains, don't you?

In my little house, converted from an small barn, the walls are very thick and the doorways are very narrow.  Heat doesn't easily travel from the wood stove by the back door to the kitchen, and the kitchen can get very cold.  When the winter gets very bitter, I have been known to turn on the one lonely electric heat strip in the room, but I'd really rather not have it on all the time.  It is a huge energy suck, that heat strip.  By using a little low wattage fan instead, I can move the warm air into the chilly kitchen and help the house stay pleasantly warm.  And when you are starting from an ambient temperature of 56 degrees as I did this evening, it's awfully nice to get the rooms warm in an efficient manner.

I have a second little corner fan still in it's box, and I'm debating installing it in the door frame that leads to the crafty/guest room...and eventually, from there, into the bathroom.  My only dilemma is that directly off that door frame is the stairs leading up to the loft.  I don't want all the heat to flow up there, simply because I'm not up there much so it seems silly to heat it, and also because I prefer to sleep in the cool.  Enough heat from the wood stove seems to make it up there to keep it from being too cold when I sleep at night.  The big part of the heating issue is the bathroom--it gets really really cold in there.  I do have a supplemental oil-filled radiator plugged in which helps keep the room warm on a low setting, but it would be nice to not have to rely on that.  Well, I suppose I need to do some more pondering on the merits of the second corner fan.  For now, the one in the corner leading to the kitchen is really helpful and works great, just as advertised.