Disappointed!

[Ziprich]

I have been burning my stove a little bit here and there when its cold enough and i feel like the heat is much less than people lead me to believe. It is comfortable in the house, but its not really that cold yet. I have the stove in my concrete basement so i expected some loss of efficiency, but i also bought a stove twice the size my house needed. My thermometer i have on the top of my stove is constantly close to the over burn zone(Should i go by that?). The air in my house feels thick to me now. I might be crazy not sure. And on top of that I'm half afraid to leave the house with the stove running. I guess i will get used to the air in the house, my wife thinks its fine so that's good. I hope its not unrealistic to heat my whole house (1500ish sq feet) with a harman tl300. Sorry for rambling guys, let me know what you think. Thanks.

 

[greythorn3]

what kinda wood you burning? are you loading the stove all the way up?

 

[BrowningBAR]

I have been burning my stove a little bit here and there when its cold enough and i feel like the heat is much less than people lead me to believe. It is comfortable in the house, but its not really that cold yet. I have the stove in my concrete basement so i expected some loss of efficiency, but i also bought a stove twice the size my house needed. My thermometer i have on the top of my stove is constantly close to the over burn zone(Should i go by that?). The air in my house feels thick to me now. I might be crazy not sure. And on top of that I'm half afraid to leave the house with the stove running. I guess i will get used to the air in the house, my wife thinks its fine so that's good. I hope its not unrealistic to heat my whole house (1500ish sq feet) with a harman tl300. Sorry for rambling guys, let me know what you think. Thanks.

Basement installs are hit or miss. Some succeed and some do not. Some here post that you can lose 30% of your heat from the concrete in your basement.

What is the temperature of your basement with the stove running?

 

[madrone]

Ignore the zones on your thermometer if it's mounted on the stove. Those temps are for single-wall pipe. I don't see a recommendation in the Harman manual, but I'd bet it'll safely go into the "overfire" range of a Rutland thermometer. I think my Lopi's allowed to go close to 800, if memory serves. Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd think you could go into the 600-700 range safely.

How's the wood? Truly dry?

 

[begreen]

I suspect the zones are meaningless. What are the actual temperature readings you are seeing on the stove top?

 

[Ziprich]

well to answer your questions, I'm using mostly oak, that isn't as dry as i would like, but it burns well. Not sure of the basement temp, but i will check it today when its rolling good. According to my gadge its in the over burn zone when i reach 550ish. I have floor vents cut all through the house so the air should rise right up. I do fill the stove up pretty full when i burn it. I might still be in the learning phase and need to chill out, not sure.

 

[webbie]

The single wall top of the stove - or front - can easily reach 750 degrees plus! That is a LOT hotter than 500 or 550.

As the temps fall, you will find the stove burns hotter...I know that sounds strange, but it happens!

Giver it a few more weeks! Forget about the overheat - again, those are for single wall pipe above the stove!

 

[Dune]

How is your attic insulation? Windows/doors? General weatherstripping/air tightness?

If all of the above is good, then I suggset insulating the concrete wall in the basement.

Also, when the heated air rises, how does the cold air it is supposed to displace return to the basement?
You may want to incorperate a powered return duct from the furthest, coldest room.

Can you hook up an OAK to your stove? If so, you could use the OAK to draw cold air from the furthest rooms, creating enough negative pressure to draw the warm basement air into those rooms.

In spite of all of the above, poorly seasoned/wet wood will not provide good heat.

 

[ansehnlich1]

ziprich, I don't own a harman, but I checked it out on their website. My bet is you ain't cranked that puppy up yet.

With that 3 cu. ft. firebox you should be fine, if you're not, then somethings wrong with the wood, or the setup.

That bad boy should run your basement up to a hundred without a problem.

 

[Pagey]

Too see just how many BTUs you may be losing, take a moment to read this pdf: http://www.woodstove.com/pages/guidepdfs/BasementInstall.pdf

 

[thewoodlands]

well to answer your questions, I'm using mostly oak, that isn't as dry as i would like, but it burns well. Not sure of the basement temp, but i will check it today when its rolling good. According to my gadge its in the over burn zone when i reach 550ish. I have floor vents cut all through the house so the air should rise right up. I do fill the stove up pretty full when i burn it. I might still be in the learning phase and need to chill out, not sure.

We have a basement install; our basement walls are insulated, the basement ceiling is only insulated about two feet in from the outside plate, our basement ceiling is not finished off, we never cut any vents in the flooring so heat could rise.

With the Lopi Liberty plus the blower attachment we can heat the whole house from the basement, do you leave the cellar door open?

The oil company stopped delivering in January 2009.

zap

 

[ScotO]

well to answer your questions, I'm using mostly oak, that isn't as dry as i would like, but it burns well. Not sure of the basement temp, but i will check it today when its rolling good. According to my gadge its in the over burn zone when i reach 550ish. I have floor vents cut all through the house so the air should rise right up. I do fill the stove up pretty full when i burn it. I might still be in the learning phase and need to chill out, not sure.

I highlighted the part I want to talk about......we were just talking about this the other day on a couple other posts...if that wood is wet (sizzling when your burning it) you are definately not getting the most out of that stove, esp. with that oak...oak sometimes holds moisture for quite a while, make sure you have good dry wood, that has been SPLIT AND SEASONED, not stacked-and-then-split.....if that wood is left in rounds, even it cut several years ago, it will not dry out...you have to make sure it is split and then stacked semi-covered in some manner to dry....that stove should be plenty for your house..and like the one poster said, how is the insulation, esp. the attic?....newer or old windows?...drafty doors, windows, etc....all can lead to poor heating.....even with a big woodstove.....just a couple of things to ponder...but one thing is for sure, I have been burning for quite a few years not and I am NOT going back if I can ever avoid it.....you will get the bugs out, just keep looking on here for ideas...these guys on Hearth.com are fantastic, you will learn alot on this community of people...

 

[madrone]

I'm with Scotty. Your Oak is just a little damp still, so you're not getting the full benefit. You're using some of that heat to boil off the moisture.

Additionally, some heat is lost to the basement install.

Lastly, you can run hotter than you are now, if the wood will let you. Ignore the "overfire zone", it's not for your stove top.

You'll get there.

 

[Wood Duck]

You mention that you're running the stove 'here and there.' I find it takes a while for my stove in the basement to start making a difference upstairs. If the basement is cool when I light the stove the first several hours are spent warming the basement, and my basement is mostly pretty well insulated. If you have a cool basement with cold concrete walls it could take all day to warm them up, and even then they'll be cool. If you're not burning 24 hrs a day it may be hard to get much heat upstairs.

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

I run mine up to about 650-700 before I close off most of the air for a cruise. Once the cold weather sets in, I leave it burning while I'm at work every day. It's the oil furnace that makes me nervous.

 

[Dune]

You mention that you're running the stove 'here and there.' I find it takes a while for my stove in the basement to start making a difference upstairs. If the basement is cool when I light the stove the first several hours are spent warming the basement, and my basement is mostly pretty well insulated. If you have a cool basement with cold concrete walls it could take all day to warm them up, and even then they'll be cool. If you're not burning 24 hrs a day it may be hard to get much heat upstairs.

Actualy, it could take a couple days just to warm up the uninsulated walls.

 

[Ziprich]

Thank you very much! As usual you guys make me feel a lot better. I already have wood split and stacked for next year, not much i can do about this year(i tried), but next year should be better. Just like i read on here many times i thought that when fall comes its time to get wood for the winter. Wrong! never again, I plan to get years ahead on wood. also i planned on finishing my basement at some point. Now i might start that one much sooner. I do have ducts running throughout the house so getting that cold air to the basement should be possible. I thought about getting an OAK system, but they said on-line that if i have good draft then i shouldn't get one. I'm going to run the stove a little hotter now, we will see how much that helps. one last question, how long of a burn time can i expect to get with this stove? I haven't been able to go to work or bed without the stove pretty much going out.

 

[wkpoor]

I have heated my home from the basement for over 10yrs with a number of different wood stoves. I have a 1800sqft 2 story home with walkout basement. First off since mine is the typical concrete coffin. It takes at least 48hrs of non stop heating before any real benefit is felt up stairs. And to top it off the outside uninsulated wall really sucks the heat out. But we still have managed to heat our house pretty good with temps staying comfortable in all but the coldest weather. However I've always had a big stove. Right now my stove is 5.5cuft and I push it hard all the time. A stove top of 300 degrees won't do anything. I laugh when people talk about these long burn times but the last several hrs are in the 250-300 degree range. That won't cut it in the basement (at least not when it gets cold out). Might do fine on the first floor living area with drywall to bounce heat off of but concrete block soaks up heat like a sponge. So be prepared for pushing your stove when it gets colder.
With all that said there can be some benefits to basement heating. You mentioned safety, well what is safer than a stove sitting on concrete surrounded by concrete. And for me its the ground level floor with no steps so getting wood in and out through a double french door is way easier than it would be hauling wood upstairs. And typically you'll have more room to store several days worth of wood in a basement versus a living room. Everything has trade offs so its what you are most comfortable with when heating from beneath or from first floor. Also I think once you get real in tune with your stove you'll be less uneasy about leaving with it going. If you don't run it 24/7 I don't think the basement is a viable place for a wood stove unless you just want to take the chill off while working down there.

 

[begreen]

There is the option of insulating the basement. If it takes say 6 cords a year to heat the house the benefit could be about 2 cords of wood saved a year. Over a decade that is a substantial savings in time, labor, wood and emissions.

 

[fredarm]

Mix in some pallet wood or wood (Bio, Eco, Geo, etc.) bricks with the oak. That will help with less than ideally dry wood.

 

[RIDGERUNNER30]

you see alot of posts were people are installing wood stoves in a basement, and for the most part it might be the only place they can install one. I think it makes good sense to stud up the walls in a basement and put some insulation in there, I one time helped my father fix up a basement and we studed up the walls and put insulation in there and the home owners were very pleased with how warm the basement was. before i found this forum i was like most folks get a big enough heater and it will make the diffrence, but really no matter how much heat you are able to put out you got to be able to retain it and not lose it threw bad windows and doors and poorly insulated areas of your home. just my two cents on the subject.

 

[wkpoor]

There is the option of insulating the basement. If it takes say 6 cords a year to heat the house the benefit could be about 2 cords of wood saved a year. Over a decade that is a substantial savings in time, labor, wood and emissions.

In my case its planned and has been for yrs. Like everything else its time, money, soccer games, fixing cars and tractors, basically life gets in the way of what we want and need to do. We eventually want to finish the basement but that takes planning and building walls, even the ones against the walls, and then you first have to download all the stuff and on and on and yadda yadda ya. Yes I am guilty of looking for a better way to heat the out doors.

 

[DanCorcoran]

If you're running the stove wide open to get the stove temps up, you may be losing all your heat up the chimney. After the stove gets going, you need to reduce the air intake, per Kathleen's post above.

 

[branchburner]

Zip - bear in mind, the secondary burn occurs (or not!) in the back of the stove with a downdraft model. Temps that will give you a clue to whether you are burning smoke most be taken from the back/side of the burn chamber, not the stove top or flue (also, do you see smoke outside, or are you seeing no smoke?). Temps in the 100-200f range on the back/side mean you do not have secondaries; 400f and above is a sign that you do

You really need a good bed of coals to get that beast cranking. It is a cold-weather friend, not really the best for warm-weather burning. Also, with the heat coming off the back of the stove, you will lose a LOT more to the concrete than you think. Get something reflective back there.

 

[ScotO]

You mention that you're running the stove 'here and there.' I find it takes a while for my stove in the basement to start making a difference upstairs. If the basement is cool when I light the stove the first several hours are spent warming the basement, and my basement is mostly pretty well insulated. If you have a cool basement with cold concrete walls it could take all day to warm them up, and even then they'll be cool. If you're not burning 24 hrs a day it may be hard to get much heat upstairs.

Good point, wood duck......I agree, if you run it 'here and there' you will have a hard time getting your inside ambient temp to stablize.....keep at it, you will get the bugs worked out.....