I find these conversation around wood heaters very interesting. I also have a free standing wood heater and also have a house with high ceilings and a friend suggested some time ago that I install a ceiling fan to help distribute the heat.
I had never thought about this concept so I did some temperature checks and found that I had 21 deg on the lower level and 27 deg on the upper level. I installed the fan which has 6 speeds and have found it to be a real asset as it certainly pulls the heat down and distributes it better to the lower floors to make it more even.
I have currently 24 deg on the upper level and 23 deg on the lower level, plus the adjoining rooms to the lower level are now 21 deg where before they were around 18 deg. before.
