buildingmaint
Feeling the Heat
j-takeman said:BBennet, I got your PM. But I'll post here just in case someone down the road tries this.
Your in for an up hill climb with the basement install and no insulation. I take it you just want to warm the basement but transfer most of the heat upstairs. Short of connecting duct work to the stove. I have seen some stoves ducted into the furnace plenum and work pretty well. Using the hood is the next best. But you lose lots of heat. I am using the hood to collect my heat, But I don't have a furnace so. I do plan on increasing my blower on the Omega and ducting right to the stove. I need to increase the blower to reduce the heat from the stove as it is too hot to duct upstairs. I am going to double the blower and run it faster to cool the air on the convection of the stove to about 100ºF. Any hotter and it might burn the toes on the floor vents.
You will need to add some insulation to the basement walls. I used the foam boards on the cement. I stuffed fiberglass in the eves and the knee walls with the most I could. It helped much with heat loss.
How big an area is the basement? Just to get a feel for the install.
Now for the stove>
The bigE was dubbed a furnace when I bought it and was told I could hook duct to it. But after a year and a half of struggling in the cold I upgrade to the beast I have now. The bigE isn't big on BTU output and the highest setting is only allowed to be used for a few hours and or you will over heat it. So you may need to increase the blower CFM so you can run it maxed out if need be. I'll pass along info if you need it.
The 2nd issue is the high/low feature on the bigE is useless but it could be handy. But becuase you need to adjust the damper for each setting. It needs a lower draft setting on low and when you go to high. You have to be there to increase the draft setting. Well there is a fix I am working on! It will require a new control board to make it work. The board will also make it so you only need to set the damper once and as you chance speeds the Combustion blower will adjust to each heat setting. This will give you high/low access which helps in the cold and saves the igniter. The board is a plug in but I am not finish tweaking yet. So well have to put it on hold.
I know there expensive but what we both really need is a furnace to connect duct work to or sister to the furnace. By the time I am done playing I probably could have bought mine and not had to insulate the basement.
I use the High/Low setting on my Big E and I don't have to adjust the damper when it goes from High to Low or vice versa. Five years of running it that way.
ting on m
I use the High /Low set
