We moved into our house 2 years ago and inherited a nice harman stove with it. However, the stove is located in the basement and is used to heat the first floor (basement door is a half door to allow heat to come up stairwell) which has worked quite well but there is insulation below the subfloor which I'm wondering if I should remove or not. Will it make much of a difference in heating the floor above or am I better off just leaving it?
Basement stove for 1st floor heat - remove insulation?
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glenc0322
Minister of Fire
you can cut in a floor vent and install this will help pull the hot air from the basement and circulate the heat.
Sorry forgot to mention to check your local fire codes.
http://www.amazon.com/Suncourt-HC50...qid=1378590375&sr=8-2&keywords=floor+vent+fan
Sorry forgot to mention to check your local fire codes.
http://www.amazon.com/Suncourt-HC50...qid=1378590375&sr=8-2&keywords=floor+vent+fan
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Seasoned Oak
Minister of Fire
Insulation in the basement ceiling has but one purpose,to PREVENT heat flow thru the floor. in your case you WANT heat flow thru the floor. I also have a basement stove and it also happens to be a harman. But my basement is mostly finished so the primary way the heat get into the upper floors is through a floor vent In your case if your floor joists are exposed and there were no insulation your upstairs floors would stay nice and warm with a fire going in th e harman. The room directly above my stove has exposed floor joists and the floor stays about 90 Deg.
jtakeman
Minister of Fire
I removed the insulation and sheet rock from my basement when we installed the wood stove. To be honest it only warmed the floors a bit more. We wound up using floor vents and ducts fans. Careful the code in your area may not allow floor vents. Fire stops or vents that close when high heat is present might pass code though.
Interesting thought about the fans...we have 2 registers in the floor above the stove but both seem to serve as cold air returns rather than circulating the hot air. Maybe I can try removing the insulation and installing 1 fan to help distribute the heat
Seasoned Oak
Minister of Fire
I use floor vents and fans to distribute the heat up 3 floors in a 3000 total SQ Ft house.(1000sq fT perfloor) With the fans my basement is 85 second floor 75 third floor 68-70. WIthout the fans the heat difference would be intolerable, perhaps 90+ basement 68- 70 second floor and 60 third floor (just a guess) 2 small floor vents above the stove and 1 larger floor vent in the the opposite end of the house.
stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
better check local code first!
floors are firebreaks, cutting vents in them allows fire to transit between floors much faster.
personally i wouldn't do it. i'd rather look for a spot on the ground floor where i could locate the Harman to heat the living space. or look for another unit to install up in the living space.
quite simply, heat where ya live.
Yep. Why not put the stove where the heat is needed?
There is plenty of pipe if its downstairs. So move upstairs and be happy as a pig in a blanket
Seasoned Oak
Minister of Fire
If yur basement is finished,it IS your living space. Plus it gets too hot that close to the stove. Stove room is 95.
Seasoned Oak
Minister of Fire
Problem with the stove on the second floor is, then theres no heat in the finished basement.If you think its hard to get heat to go up, try getting it to go down!!
The basement is unfinished where the stove is located but we do have a rec room adjacent to it which we block off the doorway to when we arent using it. Thought about moving the stove upstairs but as others mentioned, the stove room would end up being our living room and i dont want it 80+ degrees in there, nevermind the added noise
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