Maximizing wood stove output

[Adkjake]

Newbie to the forum here and to really using a woodstove for heat. I have a Fisher Woodstove that is located on the main floor of the house, 2nd floor has 2 bedrooms, bottom floor is a finished walkout basement, which includes the utility room where the oil burner is located. The house is set up with zone heating, separate thermostat on each floor. The woodstove does a great job of heating the main floor and 2nd story. It is 9* up here in the Adirondacks at present and it is 72* inside.

My problem is that while the woodstove keeps the main and 2nd floors toasty, the furnace kicks on regularly to keep the basement zone at temp, thermostat is set at 62*. Right now I'm trying leaving the basement door open to see if that will help, although laws of physics work against that.

Any advice on how to keep the oil burner firing to a minimum?

 

[fredarm]

Turn the basement thermostat down to 55. It's tough to make hot air go down. You could try to put a fan at the top of the basement stairs blowing down.

 

[LLigetfa]

Draw cold air with a duct blower from the basement floor up to the stove. Warmer air will fill the void. Make sure the intake is far enough away from the furnace and water heater to not reverse their flues. Wire an interlock that shuts off the blower when the furnace comes on. Maintain CO detectors.

 

[Adkjake]

Thanks for the tip. The oil fired central heat is baseboard hot water so there isn't any duct work. Would you just then run a separate
new duct and blower to accomplish this? If so what size duct would I need? Not a huge house, the walkout finished basement and main floor
are about 800 SF each, 2nd story is maybe 325 SF

 

[sandie]

you do not want frozen pipes so you want to have some water flowing through those pipes I would think. So shutting the furnace to being not cutting on at all might not be great.

 

[Adkjake]

Yes, that's one of the reasons I keep the basement zone at 60 - 62*, plus we use that space fairly often. Laundary room is down there, as well as home office and work/ski waxing shop. Plus I thought by keeping it fairly warm, it would keep the living space floors warmer, and I'd have less cold air infiltrating the other living space, There is insulation in the basement ceiling

 

[begreen]

How is the insulation in the basement walls? That's the best thing to make sure is as good as possible. Also be sure that the sill plate is tightly sealed all the way around the house perimeter.

 

[BucksCounty]

How is the insulation in the basement walls? That's the best thing to make sure is as good as possible. Also be sure that the sill plate is tightly sealed all the way around the house perimeter.

Similar set up here. Just redid laundry room. Took down cinder block wall to garage, studded out, put in a door, and lots of new insulation, and sealed many drafty spaces along the sill of the outside wall. It is 20* outside, stove has been running, furnace has not kicked on in hours and it is ok down there. It will kick on a couple times in early morning to throw some heat out there. Little running of the stove last year, and you could see your breath down there on cold nights....knew I needed to fix that right away!