Move heat from basement installation

bornhunter04 · Nov 14, 2014

Hello all, been reading on here for a few months and am impressed by the amount of knowlege and information on here.

This is my first year burning wood. First house. But I've been around wood stove all my life. We bought a house that had an external masonry chimney with a SS liner and a wonderwood installed in the basement. I sold the wonderwood and installed a Drolet Myriad in it's place.

I've been cutting/splitting wood as fast as i can and speed seasoning the wood in the basement. Been burning compressed bricks from Rural King while i wait for my wood to season. Cedar is already ready, and so are the small oak splits. The wood I've been using has been dead for awhile, just recently split. So everything has been going good.

Now for my question. How do i effectively move the heat from the wood stove in the basement up to the upstairs? We have a brick 1 story ranch about 1500sq. The basement isn't finished and the south side where the wood stove is, partially exposed as there are walkout french doors. I have the corner farthest from the wood stove of the basement blocked off so not to heat that area. It's for storage, so no heat required. The stairwell is open on the side facing the wood stove. It's about 30' from the bottom of the stairs to the wood stove in a straight line with nothing in between. The stairwell opens in the hall but it's only 3' from the stairwell to the common kitchen/living room area on the north side.

The interior basement walls are not exposed concrete. They are a stucco/drywall material. I don't know if there's any insulation behind them. There might be paneled insulation but I'm not sure.

When the temp was in the 40-50's i had no trouble keeping the house @ 70* + with a small/medium fire in the wood stove but now that it's in the 20-30's I'm having trouble keeping the house warm without using the electric furnace. The bedrooms reside over the wood stove and the floor in there is nice and warm and the air is a little warmer than the common area. The central air unit is 15-20' from the wood stove and the ducting that feeds the bedrooms is less than 10' from the top of the wood stove.

Is there anyway i can increase the heat I'm getting from the wood stove to the far (north side) of the house? I've got a couple of small fans circulating air over my wood pile and trying to push the warm air up the stairs and throughout the house?

I was hoping that i could turn the central air fan on and pull some of the hot air up out of the basement but that doesn't seem to be working..... So any suggestions on what i can do? Would a heat shield around the stove help contain/push the heat around to keep it from escaping out the basement doors/windows which are all on the south side.

I would like to put a small wood stove up stairs as well but that's not going to happen until next year at the earliest.

Thanks for any advice/input.

Knots · Nov 14, 2014

From what I've read here, many people have better luck with moving cold air along the floor to the stairs and toward the stove than moving hot air away from the stove.

Sconnie Burner · Nov 14, 2014

As Knots said, put a fan, either box or tower style, at the bottom of the stairs pointed directly at the stove. Run it on whatever speed meets tour air moving requirement. Low or medium should do. This will push cold air to the stove and disperse the hot air out of the area and it will migrate up the stairwell. Use a strip of toilet paper 4-5 squares will do. Hold it at the bottom of the stairs and at the top. You will see the direction of air flow. You are creating a convection loop.

As far as the windows go, put the heat shrink 3M plastic kits over them or install some insulated curtains. You will want to leave at least one open though in case you get some back puffing smoke you need to clear out.

Grisu · Nov 14, 2014

I second the previous suggestions. You can also try a small fan at the top of the stairs blowing cold air down into the basement. The reason for this setup is that cold air is more dense than warm air and therefore easier to move. Warm air will flow along the ceiling into the space where the cold air was displaced.

El Finko · Nov 14, 2014

I did this for two years with some success. Just realize that there's a limit to how warm you'll be able to get things upstairs. Law of diminishing returns. Once temps got below 30 outside it was a struggle.
Trying to move the cold air down and the hot air up using one stairwell doesn't sound effective, though. Think like a Big Mac (keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold). I used cold air returns cut in the floor to get the cold air back down to where the stove was- fusible dampers are necessary here for fire safety. Think one large orifice for rising warm air and multiple smaller holes for cold air to fall.
But honestly, if you're contemplating adding a stove upstairs, that sounds like the way to go. Do your best this year without chopping holes in the floor, get ahead on wood supply, and plan for a stove upstairs.
Now that my stove is upstairs I use a lot less wood. I had to keep it running full crank 24/7 when it was in the basement.

Badger · Nov 14, 2014

Couple thoughts. You say the basement isn't finished. Do you have exposed concrete on the walls? That will suck heat out of the stove and make it harder in general to heat the house.

The convective loop has two parts to it. One is the cooler "return" air that tends hug the floor and flow down the stairs. This can be modestly boosted with fans.

The other part of the loop is the hot air that flows upstairs. I envision this as a stream that flows on the ceiling of my basement and forms an upside down waterfall as the hot air flows from the basement to the stairwell and to the top of the ceiling upstairs.

Look at your basement ceiling is is sheet rocked and flat or in finished with exposed trusses? Do you have a doorway between the basement that is going to impede the flow of the heated air? Next, look at your upstairs ceiling. Are they high or vaulted? If so, hot air is pooling up there and a ceiling fan will make a significant difference.

Try to find your greatest restriction in the convective loop and start there.

Nelson · Nov 15, 2014

Sconnie Burner said:
As Knots said, put a fan, either box or tower style, at the bottom of the stairs pointed directly at the stove. Run it on whatever speed meets tour air moving requirement. Low or medium should do. This will push cold air to the stove and disperse the hot air out of the area and it will migrate up the stairwell. Use a strip of toilet paper 4-5 squares will do. Hold it at the bottom of the stairs and at the top. You will see the direction of air flow. You are creating a convection loop.

As far as the windows go, put the heat shrink 3M plastic kits over them or install some insulated curtains. You will want to leave at least one open though in case you get some back puffing smoke you need to clear out.

I have a simliar setup. Put a fan at the bottom of the stairs (basement level) and point it directly at the stove and put it on the lowest setting it has. Tape a few pieces of toilet paper to the wall section above the lower level entrance for the stairs. You will quickly see the warmer air moving "up" the stairwell.

bornhunter04 · Nov 16, 2014

Badger said:
Couple thoughts. You say the basement isn't finished. Do you have exposed concrete on the walls? That will suck heat out of the stove and make it harder in general to heat the house.

The convective loop has two parts to it. One is the cooler "return" air that tends hug the floor and flow down the stairs. This can be modestly boosted with fans.

The other part of the loop is the hot air that flows upstairs. I envision this as a stream that flows on the ceiling of my basement and forms an upside down waterfall as the hot air flows from the basement to the stairwell and to the top of the ceiling upstairs.

Look at your basement ceiling is is sheet rocked and flat or in finished with exposed trusses? Do you have a doorway between the basement that is going to impede the flow of the heated air? Next, look at your upstairs ceiling. Are they high or vaulted? If so, hot air is pooling up there and a ceiling fan will make a significant difference.

Try to find your greatest restriction in the convective loop and start there.

Unfinished basement with exposed trusses. It's not exposed concrete. I haven't figured out if a previous owner just put plaster or if they did drywall and plaster over the walls. The floor is exposed but that's it. Everything else is covered. Ceiling on main floor is 9' so not overly high. There's nothing between the stove and the stairway to impede airlfow other than maybe the directions they face? The stairs run east/west with the bottom being on the west side of the house and the stove is on the southeast wall facing west. Would this make a difference?

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Move heat from basement installation

bornhunter04

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Knots

Minister of Fire

Sconnie Burner

Feeling the Heat

Grisu

Minister of Fire

El Finko

Member

Badger

Burning Hunk

Nelson

Feeling the Heat

bornhunter04

Member

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