BASEMENT?

Sounds like you probably spend your time upstairs. If that's the case, then upstairs is where a wood-burning appliance should ideally be installed. They're space heaters. If you put it in the basement, you're gonna spend a lot of time down there with it, and you're gonna spend a lot of time & money & energy trying to figure out how to effectively get the heat up to where the people are, and that ain't an easy thing to do. Rick

I had a regency 3100I insert installed the fireplace of my unfinished basement this summer - installation on the main floor of my ranch house was not possible. I am hopeful that I will be able to get the heat upstairs through a combination of radiant heating thru the uninsulated floor and convection to the upper level by use of the blower on the insert.
There have been people who posted here that have been successful heating from the basement

While I appreciate feedback please do not let this thread digress to bickering over code related to cutting return vents to the basement - or other off topic comments.


If there is anyone else out there who is heating with an insert from the basement please share your story.

I have about the same size house, but it only gets down to single digits for a few weeks a year (if at all). I don't use an insert, but an older Earth stove. I used it for several years, before I put a stove on the main level. If I worked at it, I could get the basement up to 80 degrees or better.

A stove on the main level is much less work for more heat. Starting out, the basement stove felt safe (all concrete around it) but I was up and down the stairs to monitor and load it.

After a couple of years of running both stoves, I insulated the easy stuff in the basement, which included sealing off the flue pipe of the basement stove. So I haven't used the basement stove for a couple of years.

The basement is now 10 degrees colder than the main level (at least). But it is a lot less effort to use a small space heater when I need to be in the basement, and dress warmly.

Now I have the urge to put a better stove in the basement, and finish/insulate the walls. Also I would take the flue pipe straight up, so it did not have to go through the side of the house. It should also be easier to light, which is important with a stove that doesn't burn continuously. My 10 year old is getting big enough to carry tubs of wood down the steps, which would help.

I think the bottom line is that an unfinished basement will suck up way too much heat through concrete walls and floor. You need to remember that the dirt outside is a constant 50 degrees (or less), and heat will go through the basement walls as quickly as it goes up. If the basement is well insulated, and you spend time down there, you will enjoy burning wood there. For me it was just a stepping stone to the upstairs stove.

The pic is of my basement stove, with the insulated panel around the flue pipe. To put it back in working order, the insulated panel comes off and all the junk gets moved away.

Do a search using the word "basement" and you can read to your heart's content on this subject. The answer is "it depends."

I heated from a basement for many years, and it worked out great for me. I had some things working in my favor- a level walk-out, a central staircase, and a completely open floor plan in the basement. The open floor meant the basement heated evenly. The central stairs put a lot of heat right in the middle of my first floor. The level walk-out made it simple to get wood to my stove and to take the ashes out. The mess was also kept out of the main living area, which was nice, and I didn't lose an inch of space in my upstairs. So in my case it worked out beautifully.

But if you have a split basement (which it sounds like you do), steps to get downstairs, and a stairway on the side of house rather than the middle- it is likely to not work very well.

About 5 years ago we lived in a 1500 sq ft ranch that had a nice woodstove in the basement. The basement was unfinished and open, but the stairs were on the opposite side of the basement. We hoped to get a radiant floor effect with the heat since the stove was under the side of the house where the bedrooms were. Didn't work out very well. Even with the basement at 80+ degrees, we did not see much warmth coming up to the main floor. Of course, we did not have vents in the floors which may have helped move some heat. It was a lot of effort for very little return. I would suggest putting the stove up where you are living the most.

What about a new fireplace with gravity vents and remote blowers? More money but might work out great. Check out RSF, Kozy Heat, BIS.