New to wood stove - questions about radiant, basement

[hotwired]

Hi All
I just had a quadrafire 3100 installed in my 1800 sf colonial. we had it installed in the southern half of the house where it's open (dining room, middle area, kitchen, den) and we knew the heat would migrate throughout the downstairs but NOT force us out of the room we wanted to be in. So far, the entire downstairs is 73 degrees (thermostat set at 70) so the furnace is not working to heat the main floor. In the 24 hours I've owned it, though, what I wasn't prepared for was:

1. The house has radiant heat in the kitchen floor. The thermostat is close enough to the wood stove that it is reading 80 degrees so the radiant flooring is basically "shut down" whenever the wood stove is on. Not a huge deal because probably when the stove dies down over night the floor will kick back on for the morning.

2. I have a big basement with a finished office down there as well and of course, because the furnace doesn't come on as often, the basement gets colder.

Hindsight is 20/20 but I think the wood stove will still save us oil, but I'd love to hear some possible solutions if anything comes up for you, especially issue #2 (basement and office).

We do have a propane tank for our stove, so maybe a cheap gas heater in basement with thermostat?? OR add another zone for the basement alone so that I can "force" the furnace to kick on just to heat the basement?? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot though and save money on oil with the wood stove only to spend some of the savings heating the basement.

 

[quinn]

Moving heat from a wood stove down is a challenge. The cheapest option might be to move your furnace thermostat into one of the rooms that are cold that you want to be warm. If you do this, you will also have to block the heat registers into the rooms that are heated by the wood stove. I helped a friend do this exact thing and it works beautifully for her. Her wood stove is upstairs and her basement stays cold. Moving the furnace thermostat downstairs and blocking the heat registers (and cold air returns too) upstairs in essence isolated the furnace to the basement.

 

[begreen]

Welcome hotwired. This is a hot-water boiler system, correct? Separating the basement into it's own zone is a good plan. It sounds like you won't be using the furnace very much for heating the upstairs.

If forced air, blocking registers is often not a good plan. It can cause the fan to race by unbalancing the system and lead to premature burnout. However, a ducted system can be zoned as well.

 

[hotwired]

Hi
Yes, it is HWBB. The finished room in the basement actualy has baseboard IN it but it's attached to the main floor zone so I think adding that zone in the basement MIGHT be the way I go. Simply becasue, the cellar loses heat quicker than the upstairs, so as a result, once the upstairs is at 70 degrees, the upstairs zone shuts off anyway (and my office is on that zone) and ends up staying at around 58 or so. So by having one more zone (I have 4 now - top story, main story, radiant floor kitchen, and the super store water tank / heater is on it's own zone as well) but the furnace man just told me on his last visit that he could indeed add one more!

Thanks very much! Since writing this post I've discovered that this Quadra fire 3100 heats my ENTIRE house (except basement). It's 76 in the room it's in, the rest of the house, even upstairs, is 70. I had to let the fire go out for a couple hours or my wife was going to divorce me!! I am definitely psyched.

 

[Todd]

One real important thing I found out about wood stove heating from a basement is most basements have a negative pressure problem and if you hook up outside combustion air to your stove it will help.

 

[Ken45]

I understand your problem, I'm sitting here in my basement computer room with a little electric heater running constantly And I'm just on the other side of the wall from the wood furnace!

You might consider a small LP wall plaque heater for your room, or a very small pellet stove. I may go the LP heater route before next winter.

Ken

 

[jpl1nh]

I suspect many people here, like you and I, have that problem. Another suggestion is to insulate your basement (if it isn't already) http://www.woodstove.com/pages/basement_install.html While that link refers to using a wood stove in your bsement, It's true no matter your heat source. I don't know what size your basement is but amazingly, we are able to bring the finished room in our basement up to temp with just an electric heater quite quickly, but the room is only about 400 sq ft. As much as I'd like to find a dedicated way to heat that area, solutions such as a pellet stove, etc, cost enough that a few extra kw of electricity a season are a much more cost effective solution.

 

[precaud]

I experienced the same unforseen consequence. The 1250 sq ft basement (where I work) became cold because the central steam boiler which heated it hardly comes on any more, only a few nights in Dec and Jan. So I insulated the basement walls and installed a woodstove down there and it's now toasty again AND the upstairs is warmer as a result. Basement temp is 60 right now (with no heat down there for 36 hours) and never got colder than 55 in the deep of winter. It will add about 3/4 cord to my annual wood use. Oh, and it's nice to have a warm floor upstairs once again

 

[stoncold]

I have the same problem here....I'm thinking of installing a used pellet stove in the basement, and keeping it low to conserve fuel. I would think the heat radiating up would help too.

 

[precaud]

Unless the basement walls and floor are massively insulated, and that space is occupied 24/7, I wouldn't put a constant heat source down there. It wouldn't be cost-effective to keep it warm all the time - you'd be dumping alot of heat into the earth mass around the house. Do a site search for "stove in basement" and you'll get the gist from others who have done it.

 

[stoncold]

I plan on insulating all of the walls down here (currently there is none) and making a family room and office out of the space.

 

[begreen]

Good to hear you are going for the insulation. Also pay close attention to the sill seam and caulk it well.

A pellet stove can be a nice space heater. The come up to temp quickly and have built in convection blowers to move the heat.