Basement Englander install

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I have a American Harvest free standing stove in the basement that is mostlly unfinished. My basement is 78 to 80 deg. I have a box fan at the bottom of the stairs moving air upstairs. The upstairs gets up to 75 during the day and is about 70 in the morning when I get up. I most of the time run the stove on 1 setting and that is about a bag a day.

I have found that the stove in the basement needs to run all the time to keep everthing warm other wise it takes too long to get the house warmed up. It takes a couple of days to be real effective. So the stove only gets shut down during cleanings. This is still much cheaper than my propane prices.

This is my first year with this stove and the temp are getting down to about 30 deg at night. Am really interested in what it will do when we hit 0 to 10 deg. I have seen down to 16 one night and it was 69 in the house before I descoverd the fan at the bottom of the stairs.
 
Harvick29 said:
Just my 2 cents. Wouldnt it be less hassle at least to install the unit on the first floor? If your basement is unfinished, your wasting a lot of heat down there even if it is insulated. I have mine on the first floor and just installed a digital thermostat on it. I set the thermostat at 70 and my house stays very warm including the floor. If your worrying about saving money I would suggest moving it upstairs and don't worry about the second stove. You'll be burning twice as much. Either that or sell your current stove and buy a stove that will hook into your duct work. Cutting more vents in your floor just seems a little much. I dunno though good luck!!! :cheese:

Hi, I just received my thermostat in the mail. I thought I would also get the wires that come with it, but none in the box. Did you hook up the one that Englandstoveworks suggests? If so, where did you get the connectors that go between the stove and the thermostat? http://www.englanderstoves.com/store/25-PDVC_Parts.html#74
 
sydney1963 said:
Harvick29 said:
Just my 2 cents. Wouldnt it be less hassle at least to install the unit on the first floor? If your basement is unfinished, your wasting a lot of heat down there even if it is insulated. I have mine on the first floor and just installed a digital thermostat on it. I set the thermostat at 70 and my house stays very warm including the floor. If your worrying about saving money I would suggest moving it upstairs and don't worry about the second stove. You'll be burning twice as much. Either that or sell your current stove and buy a stove that will hook into your duct work. Cutting more vents in your floor just seems a little much. I dunno though good luck!!! :cheese:

Hi, I just received my thermostat in the mail. I thought I would also get the wires that come with it, but none in the box. Did you hook up the one that Englandstoveworks suggests? If so, where did you get the connectors that go between the stove and the thermostat? http://www.englanderstoves.com/store/25-PDVC_Parts.html#74

I used a honeywell from Lowes. Its very similar to that one but it was 39 bucks. It only has a set temperature and is not programmable from day to day.
Here is the link to the one I used: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=163284-74493-RTH5100B1009&lpage=none
All you have to do is go to a home improvement store and ask them for thermostat wire. You only need 2 wire thermostat wire but i had to get 4 wire because that was all they had. Mine only runs the auger frequency/ exhaust blower and does not adjust the heat blower or on and off because my stove is an old school manual start job. I set mine at 70 and my house stays warm. I can tell I am using less pellets too because once it reaches 70, the flame stays far down in the burn pot and when it drops below the set temp. it seems to p!ss off the stove and the flame grows "violent" ;-P
 
Stihl said:
I have a basement install with an Englander 25PDV. I'm having great luck heating my 1800 sf raised ranch. Downstairs(finished) temp is around 78-80, upstairs 72-74 in living space, 68 in the bedrooms. I also cut a couple holes in the floor and installed two booster fans that really seem to move the heat around. http://www.atrendyhome.com/durebofan.html I turn the stove down to 1 or 2 during the day when everyone's at work and school, then turn it up for a couple hours to get the chill off. Going through about 1 bag of pellets a day doing this. I'm saving so much money and soooo much warmer then I was with the electric baseboard heat.

What`s the sense? Heating the basement to 78-80 degrees renders it unuseable and all this just to get a little heat upstairs?
And you trying to convince us that you are heating the basement to 80 plus the upstairs to 72-74 ( 1800) sq ft on one bag a day?
Pardon me for being blunt but I just don`t believe it.
You need to fill in the blanks .
 
Gio said:
Stihl said:
I have a basement install with an Englander 25PDV. I'm having great luck heating my 1800 sf raised ranch. Downstairs(finished) temp is around 78-80, upstairs 72-74 in living space, 68 in the bedrooms. I also cut a couple holes in the floor and installed two booster fans that really seem to move the heat around. http://www.atrendyhome.com/durebofan.html I turn the stove down to 1 or 2 during the day when everyone's at work and school, then turn it up for a couple hours to get the chill off. Going through about 1 bag of pellets a day doing this. I'm saving so much money and soooo much warmer then I was with the electric baseboard heat.

What`s the sense? Heating the basement to 78-80 degrees renders it unuseable and all this just to get a little heat upstairs?
And you trying to convince us that you are heating the basement to 80 plus the upstairs to 72-74 ( 1800) sq ft on one bag a day?
Pardon me for being blunt but I just don`t believe it.
You need to fill in the blanks .

You were responding to Stihl, but I'll answer. For me, the sense would be to achieve a heat level greater than 59 degrees, which is what my cheap self has my oil furnace set to. That temp is regulated solely by the temperature in my downstairs living room - the rest of the house is always much colder than 59. If the basement heats to 78 degrees, that means my floors on the 1st level will be nice and toasty. Getting the 1st floor to even 68 would be a huge difference. If that moves the upstairs temp to 60 . . . well, that's a big improvement on the current temps of 50. If I'm paying less for pellets than for oil, current oil prices notwithstanding, it makes sense.
 
coldinnh said:
Gio said:
Stihl said:
I have a basement install with an Englander 25PDV. I'm having great luck heating my 1800 sf raised ranch. Downstairs(finished) temp is around 78-80, upstairs 72-74 in living space, 68 in the bedrooms. I also cut a couple holes in the floor and installed two booster fans that really seem to move the heat around. http://www.atrendyhome.com/durebofan.html I turn the stove down to 1 or 2 during the day when everyone's at work and school, then turn it up for a couple hours to get the chill off. Going through about 1 bag of pellets a day doing this. I'm saving so much money and soooo much warmer then I was with the electric baseboard heat.

What`s the sense? Heating the basement to 78-80 degrees renders it unuseable and all this just to get a little heat upstairs?
And you trying to convince us that you are heating the basement to 80 plus the upstairs to 72-74 ( 1800) sq ft on one bag a day?
Pardon me for being blunt but I just don`t believe it.
You need to fill in the blanks .

You were responding to Stihl, but I'll answer. For me, the sense would be to achieve a heat level greater than 59 degrees, which is what my cheap self has my oil furnace set to. That temp is regulated solely by the temperature in my downstairs living room - the rest of the house is always much colder than 59. If the basement heats to 78 degrees, that means my floors on the 1st level will be nice and toasty. Getting the 1st floor to even 68 would be a huge difference. If that moves the upstairs temp to 60 . . . well, that's a big improvement on the current temps of 50. If I'm paying less for pellets than for oil, current oil prices notwithstanding, it makes sense.


OK but why not just install the unit on the first floor instead of the basement? Your floors will still be warm.
 
For it to make sense on our 1st floor, it would have to be installed in the living room - and I really don't like to air to be too hot. I know that is weird, but I grew up with a woodstove in the basement & temps of 75 degrees on my 1st floor would be uncomfortable for me. The layout also isn't great for that.

This is a learn-as-you-go scenario, so I am open to moving it up to the 1st floor if the basement doesn't work, but I do think the basement works for my family. We'll see and I will report back so others can learn from my successes or failures, lol.
 
sydney1963 said:
Harvick29 said:
Just my 2 cents. Wouldnt it be less hassle at least to install the unit on the first floor? If your basement is unfinished, your wasting a lot of heat down there even if it is insulated. I have mine on the first floor and just installed a digital thermostat on it. I set the thermostat at 70 and my house stays very warm including the floor. If your worrying about saving money I would suggest moving it upstairs and don't worry about the second stove. You'll be burning twice as much. Either that or sell your current stove and buy a stove that will hook into your duct work. Cutting more vents in your floor just seems a little much. I dunno though good luck!!! :cheese:

Hi, I just received my thermostat in the mail. I thought I would also get the wires that come with it, but none in the box. Did you hook up the one that Englandstoveworks suggests? If so, where did you get the connectors that go between the stove and the thermostat? http://www.englanderstoves.com/store/25-PDVC_Parts.html#74

you would use basic 2 wire thermostat wire to run your thermostat , we do not include the wire as there is no telling how much the average homeowner would use. and it doesnt lend itself well to splicing. curently im using one of those same thermostats i wanted to see how it did compared to the old "mercury switch" we replaced with the current digital , works quite well with my pdvc temps mainatin an even 72 degrees except when it got unseasonably warm 2 days ago and the stove while banked by the stat still pushed temps in the house to 76 degrees during the day. i took advantage of the "surplus heat and did a detailed cleaning of the stove and flue , back up and running now back at 72 , will be comfy tonite with a nice clean system.
 
stoveguy2esw said:
sydney1963 said:
Harvick29 said:
Just my 2 cents. Wouldnt it be less hassle at least to install the unit on the first floor? If your basement is unfinished, your wasting a lot of heat down there even if it is insulated. I have mine on the first floor and just installed a digital thermostat on it. I set the thermostat at 70 and my house stays very warm including the floor. If your worrying about saving money I would suggest moving it upstairs and don't worry about the second stove. You'll be burning twice as much. Either that or sell your current stove and buy a stove that will hook into your duct work. Cutting more vents in your floor just seems a little much. I dunno though good luck!!! :cheese:

Hi, I just received my thermostat in the mail. I thought I would also get the wires that come with it, but none in the box. Did you hook up the one that Englandstoveworks suggests? If so, where did you get the connectors that go between the stove and the thermostat? http://www.englanderstoves.com/store/25-PDVC_Parts.html#74

you would use basic 2 wire thermostat wire to run your thermostat , we do not include the wire as there is no telling how much the average homeowner would use. and it doesnt lend itself well to splicing. curently im using one of those same thermostats i wanted to see how it did compared to the old "mercury switch" we replaced with the current digital , works quite well with my pdvc temps mainatin an even 72 degrees except when it got unseasonably warm 2 days ago and the stove while banked by the stat still pushed temps in the house to 76 degrees during the day. i took advantage of the "surplus heat and did a detailed cleaning of the stove and flue , back up and running now back at 72 , will be comfy tonite with a nice clean system.


Thats exactly how mine works even with the analog panel. if its too warm out I either have to manually turn back the heat blower or turn it off because the stove is just maintaining its fire at the chosen temp setting. Mine actually burned out when I first hooked it up due to lack of pellets, but I turned up the pellet feed through the little hole with a flat toothpick and it runs great now. I just wanna say everyone at Englands is so nice when I call for a part or question even on a stove from 1997. Their website is great as well.

Sounds like you like your house a little on the cool side so your basment install may work good for your needs. It would be nice to having to lug those pellet bags up the stairs actually ;-)
 
So, we finally got it installed. It's working great - probably better so if we weren't using last season's Pennington's. Regardless, after firing at high for a couple of days to heat the entire house and then maintain, we ar every toasty. The entire airspace is warmer - no more cocooning myself in blankets just to survive at 59 degrees. The entire airspace is warmer and aside from a stove shutdowwn today due to Pennington pellets being too damn long, we've been doing great. So much warmer now. I'm happy with my basement install - it did every thing I wanted it to do, but then again, the warmth bar wasn't high. The oil man will disappointed - usually he would have filled my tank - he has 1/2 tank to go before filling. We have reduced our oil intake by a lot and the floors and air are much warmer.
 
Do you not realize it will cost you MORE MONEY heating the basement & first floor with pellets (plus some oil) than it will to just heat the first floor with oil?
 
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