Floor Registers....Yes or No?

I am going to watch this thread, as I just installed an Englander 30 , and was thinking I might do the same thing...Our stove is in the basement also.

I have cut (2) holes, each 6" x 12" thru the floor a 12" by 12" thru a half wall. It helps but I think you need a big hole say 12" by 24" minimum or a forced air system. I look at my current setup being equal to radiant heat. The floor is nice and warm but the air is all that hot.

My next install will be in the room / area of the home that I am actually trying to heat.

Bought a rental home years ago that had the furnace in the basement with just one floor register in the middle of the house that was maybe 3' x 4" and that was all the heat for the entire house. No returns for the cold air.
I assume it worked. I can't imagine it wouldn't work. However, it was a small house - perhaps 900 sq.ft.

I have a register in the living room leading up to the bedroom and it really does work. As the hot air rise through the register the cold air is being pushed back down the stairs to the stove. You can actually feel the air moving through the house. Without a circle for the heat to flow, I think I would have a hard time getting the heat up stairs

9-160FLW
Fusible Link two way register
Damper will shut at 165 Deg F.
Steel Const. White finish

I have a finished basement with an open stairway and I get plenty of heat upstairs with no floor registers.

I have a 12x12 register above my 1st floor stove that takes heat into the second floor hallway. I have a tin box installed in between the floor joists and halfway between the grill and floor register I have a spring loaded fire damper. It was a pain to put in but so worth the peace of mind

My house had a medium sized squirrelcage fan recessed into the finished basement ceiling, and blows air up and through our upper main hallway. Kept good consistent heat, maybe 5-8degrees different between stove room and most rest of the house.
That fan fried last year, and propping up a window fan over the vent to pull the air up works to about the same effect.

The nice thing about the forced rapid circulation is that you can smell smokey problems long before the detectors kick on.

I've also seen some old farm houses that had very large central grates (maybe 3 foot square) to allow heat up, but I'm not sure how viable that is as a modern solution.

I am putting one or possibly two in next month. I will post results.

I have used floor vents in our old home and in our current home with basement stoves in both homes. I even tried using fans from old computers in the vents to move the air. My best results were in our current home where I placed a cold air return in a second level bedroom. Rather than simply using a floor vent, I enclosed a box that ran from the vent along the basement wall to about a foot above the basement floor. Since the vent was near the floor, cold air from the bedroom fell through the vent allowing warm air from the stairway to enter the bedroom. I tried the same with vents from the kitchen and living room in the opposite end of the house into the unheated part of our basement but never got enough heat into those rooms to stay warm. Placing a wood stove in the living room and opening part of the wall between the living room and the kitchen solved the that problem. If you decide to use vents, I would recommend a cold air return.

Is there a doorway to the basement in the house? Before cutting holes in the floors, you may want to consider just leaving the basement door open. Works in my house. You can use fans to move the air around.

I am debating two routes for the floor registers. One is just an over sized register say 12x12 or 16x16. The other is something like this. Anyone have an opinion on either.

where do I find those?

wazzu said:

I am debating two routes for the floor registers. One is just an over sized register say 12x12 or 16x16. The other is something like this. Anyone have an opinion on either.

Click to expand...

ere

smarthome.com

remkel said:

Is there a doorway to the basement in the house? Before cutting holes in the floors, you may want to consider just leaving the basement door open. Works in my house. You can use fans to move the air around.

Click to expand...

Yea, no bigger vent than a stairwell!