Anyone burn a stove AND a fireplace?

[emt1581]

I've got a fireplace down my basement, where we're pretty much living until the upstairs is refurbished. We had our first fire last night. It was awesome!! But most of the heat went up the chimney instead of into the home. Now this fireplace has heatilators and made the room VERY toasty...but upstairs, it wasn't nearly as warm.

Now since I joined here the toss up has been whether to put the wood stove upstairs in the living room or down the basement. I do have two flues so I can put one in both rooms if I want. However, based on the kind of heat the fireplace threw last night, I'm guessing a stove would make this room unbearable to sit in with a stove burning.

So I'm curious, does anyone have a wood stove AND a fireplace....and uses both? I'm guessing, the fireplace would be only used sometimes...but still I'm curious.

Now what I'm debating is whether to buy a cheap used stove for a few hundred bucks to put down the basement or just leave it as a fireplace.

Thanks!

-Emt1581

 

[begreen]

It sounds like the intent is to eventually get a stove for either upstairs or down. If so, I'd get a nice stove while the tax rebate is available. Once the refurbishing is done, you can decide whether to keep it downstairs or move it upstairs. My choice would be to have it where the family hangs out the most.

Have you tried placing a table fan at the top of the stairs, blowing cold air down the stairs towards the fireplace room? That might be a helpful nudge to improve heat circulation from the fireplace room.

 

[emt1581]

It sounds like the intent is to eventually get a stove for either upstairs or down. If so, I'd get a nice stove while the tax rebate is available. Once the refurbishing is done, you can decide whether to keep it downstairs or move it upstairs. My choice would be to have it where the family hangs out the most.

Have you tried placing a table fan at the top of the stairs, blowing cold air down the stairs towards the fireplace room? That might be a helpful nudge to improve heat circulation from the fireplace room.

If I can find a small/cheap enough stove, I'd put it downstairs and still get a nice/large one for upstairs. So it's no necessarily an either or thing. And getting the rebate is something I'd planned on...until I was given a $3000 bill for my water heater (I have to have a new breaker panel put in and I'm going with an 80gal. heat pump heater). So now I'm only able to spend $1500 and still take full advantage of the rebate and stay under the $1500 credit limit from Uncle Sam.

That's why I'm thinking of buying a cheap little stove for downstairs that'll only cost a few hundred. Plus this is where we'll be living for at least half the winter, so there's no doubt we'd get our money's worth out of it. I'm just worried it'll roast us out and we'll have to have the (walkout) door open just to keep us from suffering heat exhaustion.

Thanks!

-Emt1581

 

[begreen]

Try the fan trick. Blow cool air towards the warmth.

 

[emt1581]

Try the fan trick. Blow cool air towards the warmth.

I will try that the next time I burn. So what are your thoughts on whether, even a little stove, would burn us out?

Thanks!

-Emt1581

 

[Dieselbreath]

I have a fireplace in my finished basement and an insert on the 1st floor. We only occasionally use the fireplace but we too find it provides plenty of heat and I would suspect a stove would heat us out! It really depends on how much you will be using the basement but I doubt a basement stove would do much good for the upstairs. I would try it like it is and get a stove for upstairs.

 

[SteveKG]

We have a heat stove at one end of the house, a cookstove at the other end. On cold days, they are both going. We also have a fireplace. It is for atmosphere when we want that. It is also a Rumsford and very efficient as far as fireplaces go. It throws out a lot of heat. However, our main home heating is with the stoves. When we burn the fireplace, we let the wood stoves gradually go out or nearly so or we'd be cooked. And while I've never tried to experiment to come up with data, I can tell you that, even with the Rumsford efficiency, the stoves are still a more efficient use of fuel. But we like the open fire and have no plans to do away with it.

Kinda depends on why you would want a fireplace. If it's for fun, keep it. If it's for a main heat source for the entire house, get another wood stove.

 

[Battenkiller]

Fireplace upstairs in the living room, great stove in the basement doing what it's supposed to do. ;-)

 

[HardWoodW]

I have a lopi insert in my basement rec room, and upstairs I have a two sided fireplace. When we moved in, the upstairs fireplace as completely open- my toddler could crawl through the fireplace to the other side! We put doors on both sides and a cozy grate hearth heater/blower. Now that we have the insert we spend most of the winter in the basement and that's what I use the most. I'll still use the double fireplace sometimes like on christmas eve or when we're watching a football game or something- but I can't leave it unattended even for a second. With the blower it makes the room nice and warm but compared with the insert it uses a boatload of wood!

 

[spirilis]

For downstairs perhaps a convection-style stove (e.g. steel stove with heat shields built in or hybrid cast iron/steel stove like Pacific Energy's Alderlea series; I think PE's steel stoves fit the bill too) would be ideal as it'll give off a gentler form of radiant heat (since the outer material won't be as hot as a pure radiant stove) while pumping out loads of hot air that might make it upstairs easier. I have a similar dilemma in my basement, the house came with a moderate sized radiant-style stove (Jotul 8, cast iron) that really roasts the downstairs room and does make some heat upstairs but it's not as much as it could be IMO.

Although if you use a fireplace insert, my understand is those are mostly convection heaters by necessity/design.

 

[emt1581]

For downstairs perhaps a convection-style stove (e.g. steel stove with heat shields built in or hybrid cast iron/steel stove like Pacific Energy's Alderlea series; I think PE's steel stoves fit the bill too) would be ideal as it'll give off a gentler form of radiant heat (since the outer material won't be as hot as a pure radiant stove) while pumping out loads of hot air that might make it upstairs easier. I have a similar dilemma in my basement, the house came with a moderate sized radiant-style stove (Jotul 8, cast iron) that really roasts the downstairs room and does make some heat upstairs but it's not as much as it could be IMO.

Although if you use a fireplace insert, my understand is those are mostly convection heaters by necessity/design.

My current problem, as pointed out in another thread, is that my opening is only 25" H x 34" W....and no stove I've seen will work with that low of an opening.

Thanks!

-Emt1581

 

[Deron]

Bought our house last year and we have a double. We put in a Napoleon wood burner in the basement and bought a Monessen vent free propane
unit for upstairs. Had to put in a SS liner for the basement application so we ran out of funds for the propane unti upstairs.

Getting it plumbed for gas this week and hope to have it going in the next couple of weeks. So far we've haven't even been close to needing either one.

 

[pen]

If I understand correctly there is one fireplace in the basement and no fireplace upstairs but an access to a chimney? If that is correct, then I'd say leave the fireplace downstairs and put the wood stove up stairs. Then, use the fireplace to heat that room alone and for ambiance, and use the wood stove upstairs as your home heater.

Of course, all this depends on your lifestyle, your desire to burn wood, and the design of your home.

pen