Keeping Furnace fan "ON" to keep air circulating

[mikeydiker]

Some friends keep their furnace fan on all the time. I believe my house to be "buttoned up", so there is not alot of air circulating. The house was built in 1988. We keep the house cool in winter to save natural gas costs. I believe the humidity levels to be fairly low, in the 20-30% area. we still end up with frost on the inside of our newer windows. will keeping the fan running get a fresh circulation of air going? It is a 2400 sq ft house, and it heats up very fast, except for the upstairs. Any ideas on keeping the fan on for air circulation in a tightly wrapped house?

thanks
Mike

[Rewired]

quote:Originally posted by mikeydiker

Some friends keep their furnace fan on all the time. I believe my house to be "buttoned up", so there is not alot of air circulating. The house was built in 1988. We keep the house cool in winter to save natural gas costs. I believe the humidity levels to be fairly low, in the 20-30% area. we still end up with frost on the inside of our newer windows. will keeping the fan running get a fresh circulation of air going? It is a 2400 sq ft house, and it heats up very fast, except for the upstairs. Any ideas on keeping the fan on for air circulation in a tightly wrapped house?

thanks
Mike

Hey Mike!
I am not an expert by any means with HVAC but I did stumble on your post.
If you have some kind of fresh air inlet connected from your furnace return side to the outside, it may help draw in a bit of fresh outside air, but I am not sure if it will help much.
Our fan runs 24/7 and it does help air quality quite a bit, I find the house seems to have a more "even" temperature, and because there is an electronic air cleaner connected to the furnace, it is constantly pulling out dust and cigarette smoke and whatever crud is floating around. We still get condensation and sometimes frost on our windows regardless of having the fan running all the time..
You could try running the fan all the time for a week or two and see how well it works in your case.. It may well be worth the extra $ it will cost in power to do that.

A.D