I have a small 2 floor with a basement 1100 sq ft house, would it be worth it to install a pellet stove in the basement? would the head radiate through the house well???
should i install in basement?
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dougand3
Minister of Fire
Welcome, fxnib
Lotsa variables here. Is basement insulated? Generally, it's tough to move heat out of a basement. And if uninsulated - most of the heat goes into earth. Does house have 550sf basement and 550sf main floor? If you have floor drawings or pics of house - you'll get more info.
Lotsa variables here. Is basement insulated? Generally, it's tough to move heat out of a basement. And if uninsulated - most of the heat goes into earth. Does house have 550sf basement and 550sf main floor? If you have floor drawings or pics of house - you'll get more info.
We have 1100 square feet house. Our Jotul Castine is in the basement. It's a fully insulated basement. Downstairs 70-80 degrees.....upstairs 55-65. Important, we spend ALL OUR TIME downstairs. It is our family and dining room.
76ER
New Member
fxnib,
I had a PE Vista installed in my basement. The house is 800 sq ft and unisulated (except the attic). The stove is suppose to be able to heat up to 15oo sq ft. I could not get very much if any heat up stairs. I eventually moved the stove from the basement to my kitchen. The results were better than expected. I heat the whole floor very comfortably now. I did up grade the stove this season to a much bigger stove. Good Luck!
Ian
I had a PE Vista installed in my basement. The house is 800 sq ft and unisulated (except the attic). The stove is suppose to be able to heat up to 15oo sq ft. I could not get very much if any heat up stairs. I eventually moved the stove from the basement to my kitchen. The results were better than expected. I heat the whole floor very comfortably now. I did up grade the stove this season to a much bigger stove. Good Luck!
Ian
No my basement is not currently insulated, but I was thinking if I placed the stove near the cold air return ducts for my forced air nat gas furnace and ran the circulating fan , would the heat radiate through that and heat my house? or is there a way to hook it up to my forced air system?
Don't install it down there. With uninsulated wall at least 25% of the heat is going to be soaked up to the outdoors. That will add a 25% premium to the cost of the pellets. This is an area heater, put it in the area that needs to be heated.
fxnib said:
No. As you've mentioned above, the basement isn't insulated and a poor choice for the stove location.
Put the stove in the area you want to heat, if at all possible.
SmokeyTheBear
Minister of Fire
Unless it is an actual hot air pellet furnace that can be directly attached to your duct work don't attempt it, you will be extremely disappointed.
With an uninsulated basement wall any of which is above grade it is likely most if not all of the heat produced by a pellet stove would be lost.
We have a basement install, we also have an insulated basement and an open stairwell to the second (first) floor. I have no trouble heating the 1344 square feet on the second (first) floor and heaven knows my 560 square foot den is nice and toasty. We don't use the pellet stove to heat the garage which occupies the remaining 784 square feet of the basement (first) floor.
What counts is the heat loss of your house and the existence of a decent natural air flow. A number of houses are too cut up or have walls in the wrong places.
With an uninsulated basement wall any of which is above grade it is likely most if not all of the heat produced by a pellet stove would be lost.
We have a basement install, we also have an insulated basement and an open stairwell to the second (first) floor. I have no trouble heating the 1344 square feet on the second (first) floor and heaven knows my 560 square foot den is nice and toasty. We don't use the pellet stove to heat the garage which occupies the remaining 784 square feet of the basement (first) floor.
What counts is the heat loss of your house and the existence of a decent natural air flow. A number of houses are too cut up or have walls in the wrong places.
pweeden
New Member
Against everybody's advice, I installed my Kozi KSH-120 in my unfinished basement before last season. I have about 1150 sq. ft. upstairs with an open stairwell on one end of the house. No matter how many fans I used, there was no getting any appreciable amount of heat upstairs, including ducting the heat into the cold return of my gas furnace and running the circulating fan. (My basement was nice and toasty for the first time ever though.)
What I ended up doing was ducting the heat into the warm air ducting of the house, which fortunately passed right above the stove. The fan on the Kozi provides just enough CFM's to get heat into every room and keep the house comfortable (65-68°) if the outside temp stays above about 15 degrees. Below that, it can't keep up. In those cases, I have a high-temp duct fan that I put in the ducting (8" round) to move a little more air, or else just run a supplemental electric heater upstairs.
I acknowledge that I am losing a lot of energy just by heating the ductwork with a low volume air movement. At some point, we'll upgrade the stove and put it upstairs where we want the heat to be, but for now, this system works fairly well. We leave the stove run on a medium setting at all times.
What I ended up doing was ducting the heat into the warm air ducting of the house, which fortunately passed right above the stove. The fan on the Kozi provides just enough CFM's to get heat into every room and keep the house comfortable (65-68°) if the outside temp stays above about 15 degrees. Below that, it can't keep up. In those cases, I have a high-temp duct fan that I put in the ducting (8" round) to move a little more air, or else just run a supplemental electric heater upstairs.
I acknowledge that I am losing a lot of energy just by heating the ductwork with a low volume air movement. At some point, we'll upgrade the stove and put it upstairs where we want the heat to be, but for now, this system works fairly well. We leave the stove run on a medium setting at all times.
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