Wood burning insert as a free standing stove

[ash bucket]

I have a wood burning insert upstairs in my living room that makes the living room really hot but the heat does not disperse through the rest of the house all that well because of the way it's laid out. I was wondering if I could or would it be worth it to take the insert out and put it in my unfinished basement under a vent in the floor toward the rear of the house and the heat rise and keep that end of the house warm. If I do this, I want to put a vent free gas fireplace in the living room upstairs where the insert was. I guess my question really is, how does a wood burning insert perform as a free standing stove? Would there be a problem in doing this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CarbonNeutral]

There are plenty of post about putting any heating source in your basement - search for "basement install". It works for some people, but generally it doesn't because the heat exits through the foundation walls and doesn't travel upstairs well.

It is also my understanding that gas fireplaces are great for heating a room, but not the whole house.

You need to look at how to get air out of your living room - what do you have in terms of ceiling fans, other fans, doorways?

 

[mellow]

Depending on the insert you can get legs from the manufacture to turn them into free standing stoves. Alot of free standing stoves have blowers put on them and made an insert, so it is entirely doable.

Post up what insert you have.

 

[ash bucket]

Well, I have ceiling fans throughout the house and a one doorway out of the living room along with an opening in the wall. The heat goes out into the kitchen pretty well but not into the back bedrooms. Hence the idea of putting the insert downstairs closer to the bedroom end of the house. And as far as the gas one upstairs goes, it would just be for the living room and kitchen heat and looks.

Has anyone ever used an insert as a free standing unit? Do they radiate about the same amount of heat?

 

[ash bucket]

Im thinking it's a Fisher brand wood insert. It was there when I moved in the house last year and I'm sure it is not a very expensive one. Although it does a great job a getting the living room to 85 degrees when it's cold out, which is too hot, especially considering the back bedrooms are 65 degrees. The insert keeps the furnace from kicking on (which is the whole idea) but as I've said, the bedrooms are cold.

 

[Pagey]

Many people will recommend that you use fans low to the ground and blow air from the cool rooms toward the room with the stove, thus setting up a convection loop that will circulate warm air. If your basement is finished and insulated, you might have some success, but otherwise you'll lose so many BTUs it ain't even funny.

 

[Todd]

If you put it in the basement it will get even colder in those bedrooms. If your trying to get more heat in those bedrooms try putting a small box fan on the floor near bedrooms pointed towards the stove room, it will push the denser cold air towards the stove and the warm air will fill in up and over. This method may seem odd but it works, cold air is easier to move around than warm air.

 

[mellow]

A fisher insert can me be made a free standing with a pedestal, question would be would you want to go through all the work and $$ running a new chimney.

If you can do a basic layout of your house in paint or something to give us an idea of what your tying to do that would help.

Also one other thought might be to look into blowing the cold air from the other rooms into the same room as the insert.

Also fisher inserts are what we call "smoke dragons", they eat alot of wood and do not burn anywhere near as clean as newer EPA stoves, you might give that a thought as well with the 30% tax credit going on.

 

[ash bucket]

My grandparents have a set up pretty much the same as mine. The only difference being their house is bigger. They have an unfinished basement with a stove they have used for years right under a cut out in the hallway floor upstairs. There is a small fan under the vent cover in the hall floor that pulls the heat up and it keeps the whole house warm and keeps the furnace from running. This is where I got the idea.

Sorry I failed to mention but I already have a chimney downstairs. Other than the one on the living room side of the house that the insert is currently on. I was thinking that if I put the insert on that chimney in the middle of the basement, it would be right beside the furnace. I thought about building some sort of "hood" over the insert and routing that into the cold air return from the basement so that the heat would rise striaight up into my hallway, in the middle of the bedrooms.

Mellow,
So you suggest I should just buy a new stove? With my set up and what I have in mind would it be worht it? I thought about just trying out the insert for now since I already have it and see if it would justify buying a good stove for next year. Trying to keep cost down of course especially not knowing if it would make a difference.

 

[mellow]

I understand about keeping costs down, we are all in that same boat. You are more than welcome to try the fisher downstairs, it will burn wood and give off heat, no doubt about that. Lemme ask this, how much wood did you go through last year?

 

[mellow]

Just so we are on the same page, your insert looks like this right:

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

The basement install like your family has is quite common in our part of the world, and works quite well in most instances. If I read your post correctly, you have a chimney near your existig furnace. Sounds like a great place for an add-on wood furnace. If you went that route you could leave the insert as is for backup when the power is out also.

 

[mnowaczyk]

Boy, I'd hate to think about dragging my insert down basement steps. If yours is anywhere as heavy as the ones I've used, once it's down there, it's never coming out (like almost everythign that goes down a basement, right?)

I've considered putting a small wood stove in my basement (in another house). Thanks for the tips on NOT putting one in an unfinished basement.

 

[ash bucket]

My insert is pretty close to that only it has glass doors.

I've thought seriously about the add on furnaces but after researching the way they hook up to the existing ductwork, I don't think I have enough clearance above the furnace where it's supposed to hook up because the a/c unit is setting on top the furnace. Then there is only like 6 inches above that before the ductwork "T's" out and goes to the house.

And as far as getting the insert downstairs, I have the luxury of an outside ramp that I could just wheel it down on a dolly.

What do you guys think about the natural rise of the heat from the stove if I make some sort of make shift hood above the stove and direct it into the return on the furnace which will rise straight into my hallway?

 

[CarbonNeutral]

My insert is pretty close to that only it has glass doors.

I've thought seriously about the add on furnaces but after researching the way they hook up to the existing ductwork, I don't think I have enough clearance above the furnace where it's supposed to hook up because the a/c unit is setting on top the furnace. Then there is only like 6 inches above that before the ductwork "T's" out and goes to the house.

And as far as getting the insert downstairs, I have the luxury of an outside ramp that I could just wheel it down on a dolly.

What do you guys think about the natural rise of the heat from the stove if I make some sort of make shift hood above the stove and direct it into the return on the furnace which will rise straight into my hallway?

I have seen install manuals saying specifically not to do that (hood) - you are creating a negative pressure directly above the stove that could become a de-facto chimney, distributing smoke and CO across the house.Even if your insert isn't leaky you could suck air out of the insert intake, pull smoke out when you load it, and make the real chimney draft perform poorly. Sounds like a bad idea to me.

 

[mnowaczyk]

Yep. I've read the same about "hoods". Your chimney is a heat fed stack which needs a temperature differential to suck the air up. Your forced air heating return is a vacuum. A vacuum is going to suck more smoke than a chimney, right?

 

[ash bucket]

Understood, and thanks for the replies. What if I sealed the "hood" off to the top of the insert. The insert has a perfectly flat top that I could attached a hood to and keep out fumes, smoke, etc. And as far as hooking it to the return in the basement, I had in mind that I wouldn't run the furnace fan at all. Just let the heat naturally rise to the upstairs through the return vent in the hallway that is directly above the return in the basement that the "hood" would be hooked up to. So there would really be no difference in the dissipation of heat off the stove. Nothing would be taking heat away from the stove that it wouldn't naturally have.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

If you were not running the furnace then that would be much more acceptable, but you need airflow to get any heat movement. So you would need an airgap. And you would need to make sure it was safe.

 

[ash bucket]

Thanks for all your input! What about these Magic Heat reclaimers? Anyone use them? What if I tied this into the outgoing ductwork?

 

[Wet1]

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