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Arborist34

New Member
Jun 29, 2016
6
Southern IL
So hopefully you die hard wood folks don't get tired of these newbie questions - I could really use your help.
We are building and putting a stove in the finished basement family room. I will have all the oak, hickory, locust, and other hardwood I can use here near St. Louis. Would like to use splits on the bigger side.
I'd like to be able to reduce our LP furnace usage and gain some house heating from the unit, but still be able to comfortably enjoy being in that room. What should my considerations be for choosing the right stove?
Total house sq ft? Longer shoulder seasons in my zone 6 area? Stove material?
Here are a few numbers: Finished basement 1200 sq ft, first floor 2000, second 838. Total about 4100.
I'm Ok with loading twice a day, and would like to enjoy the fire show.
Is it either one or the other -big stove with good heat throughout the house or smaller stove you can be in the same room with?
Thanks - already spent hours reading lots of great content from really helpful people here.
 
Blaze king or Woodstock stoves for the most even heat, kuma for the best natural convection or you regular air tube stove that chases a heat curve.
 
Are you buying your wood? If not, do you have anything seasoned yet?
 
Basement installs favor a convective design, due to an abundance of masonry heat sink, so a vote for Blaze King over Woodstock. Get your basement insulated to the hilt, as otherwise most of the radiant heat your stove generates will go into the earth around your home, via the concrete walls and floor.


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There are lots of options in non-cat and a few in cat stoves. What is your budget?

Basement heating for the whole house is usually a mixed bag. It often takes getting the basement up to a high temp to have it warm the first floor up to 70F. Is that ok or would you prefer a more moderate basement temp and not worry too much about heating the upstairs? How will the heat get upstairs in the current setup?
 
Take a look at Woodstock Soapstone Stoves. I have the Progress Hybrid which is great and totally heats 2,400 sq. ft. even on the coldest nights.
 
The tricks will really be airflow and how well insulated the basement is. You'll need to move cold air from upstairs to down pretty effectively to make this work well. Stove placement relative to the stairs could also play a factor here. As for insulation, it's gotta be good, otherwise you'll be working on decreasing your frost line around the foundation. Basements being what they are and can take a lot of effort to insulate well, I say think of the basement being larger than it is.

That said, I'm also working on putting a fireplace insert in my finished basement since I work from home and is where my office is, so your question was important to me. I ended up getting one that could potentially heat the majority of my total square footage that I planned on but could also just heat the basement with smaller fires.

If I were you, I'd plan for the basement + whatever of the 1st level is relatively open to your basement stairwell, but have the ability to heat just the basement. I'd forget the 2nd floor. That said, you'll have to experiment with how you can get heat upstairs once you get it in. Success varies and is hard to predict.
 
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I think either Woodstock progress hybrid or blaze king. They are on top of my list if I end up putting a free standing stove I my rec room downstairs.
 
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begreen said:
There are lots of options in non-cat and a few in cat stoves. What is your budget?

Basement heating for the whole house is usually a mixed bag. It often takes getting the basement up to a high temp to have it warm the first floor up to 70F. Is that ok or would you prefer a more moderate basement temp and not worry too much about heating the upstairs? How will the heat get upstairs in the current setup?
Click to expand...
I appreciate your time. The basement room is open to a good sized U shaped staircase that is pretty open all the way to second floor thought center of house. We are at the framing stage of construction, so builder can add vents and cold air returns where we want them. We have looked at Lopi Cape Cod, Rockport, Liberty and Quad adventure II. Going to see Jotul and PE stoves today. Easy loading and not having an ash disposal system we'd hate are considerations. We're not excited about removing a piece to scrape ashes like on some of the Quads. Been looking online at Woodstock options. I don't I completely understand the convective comments. Does that mean a blower? Thanks.
 
Heating with a single stove from the basement is most often a compromise design. The stove is an area heater and is best located where one primarily wants heat. This is usually the main floor where folks spend the most time. Yes, there can be workarounds that improve heat circulation but most often one still ends up with the basement being hot in order to have the main living area at around 70-72F. If the idea is to put return (cool air) vents are placed around the basement ceiling perimeter may improve circulation a bit, but make sure they pass fire code first. In many areas these return air vents will need to have fusible link dampers if permitted.

An alternative for more even heating is to put in a modern EPA furnace or to have two stoves, one in the basement and one on the main floor. With the two stove idea one can run one stove alone during milder weather and both during very cold spells. Another option would be to install a large ZC fireplace in the basement that has an option for ducting heat to the upstairs.
 
Arborist34 said:
I appreciate your time. The basement room is open to a good sized U shaped staircase that is pretty open all the way to second floor thought center of house. We are at the framing stage of construction, so builder can add vents and cold air returns where we want them. We have looked at Lopi Cape Cod, Rockport, Liberty and Quad adventure II. Going to see Jotul and PE stoves today. Easy loading and not having an ash disposal system we'd hate are considerations. We're not excited about removing a piece to scrape ashes like on some of the Quads. Been looking online at Woodstock options. I don't I completely understand the convective comments. Does that mean a blower? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Simply put, all stoves are radiant heaters. The metal box radiates energy into the room, which is mostly absorbed by high-density objects that have a line of sight path to the stove. In a framed house, this works very well, as those objects (your walls) retain that energy and radiate it back to the low-density object (the air), thus maintaining a comfortable temperature. Unfortunately, in a basement or a masonry house, the high-density objects are stone or concrete walls and floor, that are heat-sunk to the outside without adequate insulation. Thus, most radiated energy is wasted.

Some stoves feature a double-wall construction, sometimes referred to as a convective jacket, which limits radiation. These stoves must move most of their energy by moving air thru the gap between the jacket and firebox, and heating the air. This feature is highly desired in basement or other masonry construction applications, as much less energy is lost to the outside.
 
It can be a problem having a stove in the living area if the room is not large enough. My 20 x20 basement stove room gets in the 90s on a regular basis.Having the stove in the basement allows the floors above to enjoy more livable temps. Also keeps the floors warm. My kitchen 18 x14 is directly above the stove room and stays about 75. Also all the concrete and other mass in the basement even out the temps over time. My basement walls are not insulated but it gets too hot there anyway so i dont feel the need.
 
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Arborist34 said:
Don't have to buy wood. We own a tree service and commercial splitter.
Click to expand...
yes but do you have any cut split and covered now so it will be ready to burn? Many here do not like heating from the basement but I personally prefer that. Yes it means your basement is going to be pretty hot but it makes for more even heat in the rest of the house. And yes make sure the basement is insulated well
 
Even heating in the house depends on the stove, the stove location and the floorplan. The more radiant F400 definitely made our living room feel and measure notably hotter relative to other rooms. It was replaced with the larger Alderlea. Now we heat quite evenly in throughout the house since we switched to the more convective T6. The mass of the cast iron jacket acts as buffer and heat storage. Floorplan is open which also helps.

Note that less area heated can mean less fuel used, if that is important.
 
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bholler said:
yes but do you have any cut split and covered now so it will be ready to burn? Many here do not like heating from the basement but I personally prefer that. Yes it means your basement is going to be pretty hot but it makes for more even heat in the rest of the house. And yes make sure the basement is insulated well
Click to expand...
We have 6 cords seasoned since last summer to start.
 
Seasoned since last summer. A year old.
For the old stoves of the eighties that would be good to go.
These new stoves demand really dry wood, it will have to season for another year, at least.
Get a moisture meter and test moisture content.
 
drz1050 said:
Depends on a lot of factors.. size of split, sun/ wind exposure, rainfall, average temperature, humidity, etc.. it's absolutely possible.
Click to expand...
Yeah I split pretty small stack single rows top cover right away ect.
 
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