Heating my house.

[Mlacasse]

I have a small old cape, I put new insulation all around but it is still drafty here and there. I've heated for 2 years solely with my woodstove, an all nighter big moe from the ground floor. Tt heats the house nicely especially the living room and the upstairs. It doesn't however heat my kitchen and dining room (the rooms on the ground floor furthest from the stove) and of course my floors are always cold on my ground floor. I have a furnace in the basement and today I put some fuel in it, I plugged all my vents except for one in the kitchen and dining room, and opened up some holes in my ductwork in the basement. I'm doing this not only because the floors are cold, but because when it gets cold (10 degrees or less) stuff starts to freeze up in my basement, i.e., the washer, sometimes parts of my domestic water. I ran a second thermostat and mounted it eye level in the basement. I'm hoping that I can set it on 45 or 50, keep it a little warmer in there, and subsidize my woodstove in the kitchen and dining room. Anybody ever done anything like this? does it sound like it makes sense or maybe just a waste of money?

 

[Slow1]

IF you are getting freezing in the basement and it works then it is totally worth it. What sort of heating system do you have? Perhaps if you have a boiler you can run a loop through the basement on its own thermostat?

I have added vents in my 1st floor forced air that runs through the basement. Doesn't do any good unless I"m heating the first floor which doesn't happen when stove is running...

My basement crossed below 50* today so I'm giving some consideration to putting some heat down there. Not sure how yet - may do some electric as that would be least expensive to install - I have one of those oil filled ones with a thermostat that I could set to 50 or something perhaps.