Worried installing a wood stove may make the basement too hot

[vesmk]

I have searched this board for several hours and couldn't find anything that discussed the one dilemma that I have so I hope for some advice, certainly this place has a lot of energy and interest!

I live in a ranch house with a finished basement. The finished basement is about 1000 - 1200 sq ft consisting of two rooms with french doors between them that I plan to leave open most of the time. The basement has two fireplaces, one that cannot work as a fireplace anymore and would be perfect with a wood stove or insert. My husband uses one area of the basement as an office and in front of the "problem" fireplace we have a seating area where we hang out in the evening to watch TV. The TV is on a stand next to the fireplace. This is the narrowest section of the finished basement. I hope that some heat will raise to the main floor to help save on the oil heating bill, but mainly we want the stove to heat the basement so that we are comfortable there. My question is as follows:

1. Looking at the efficiency of these stoves, my concern is that the basement will get too hot, that we won't be comfortable, that the TV may get damaged - or that I have to move it (and there isn't really another good place for it) and so on. I have looked at the smaller stoves, but the wood we have wouldn't fit and I need to go for one that can take 21 inch pieces, which takes me to the medium sized stoves with 70000 BTU that can heat up to 2000 Sq ft.
2. My preference was to go for Jotul but the local dealer seems too busy to work with me right now. I have been able to find a different dealer for LOPI that can both provide the stove as well as installation for a LOPI Leyden. This is also a cast iron stove and looks great. But the make is unknown to me. Just wondered whether anyone had any experience with this make.

 

[ROBERT F]

lopi is a solid company, been a player for quite some time. seems that letting the size of the wood dictate what size stove you get, and oversizing the stove for the space, is a little short visioned. Unless of couse you have and endless supply of wood in that one particular size. Any of the stoves can be dampered down to reduce heat output, but always running dampered down or with small fuel loads can lead to creosote build up if the chiminey never gets to a good operating temperature.

 

[meathead]

I agree - I wouldn't let the size of the wood you happen to have right now dictate the stove you get. That being said, I don't think you'll run yourself out of a 1200 sqft space with a medium size stove once you get the hang of operating it. You may not be comfortable with the stove going full bore while you are sitting right next to it watching TV, but you can adjust your burning schedule and your load size to be sure the area is at a comfortable temp when you are going to be down there. If you are hoping to save a little cash on the fuel bill, a larger stove is the way to go as it takes quite a bit of juice to get the basement warm and start passing that heat on to the living space above. A little stove like the jotul F100 or something would be a nice little space heater to have going for a couple hourse while you are watching TV, but it isn't going to cut back on your fuel costs.

A screen kit may also be good for your application. This would let you put a couple logs in and use the stove like an open firplace while watching tv, and then load it up, close it up, and let it rip to keep the heat from having to kick on overnight.

PS Local dealer too busy to help? Walk in and wave some cash around. If a jotul is what you want, and you're willing to pay for it...you should be able to get one somehwere.

 

[yanksforever]

Maybe a soapstone stove that puts out alot of heat but won't blow you out of the room may be what you need.

 

[begreen]

It might work fine, but we need to know a bit more about the setup. How would the heat get upstairs? If the passage is easy to upstairs via an open stairwell, that can relieve a lot of the heat from the room. A floor plan or simple diagram would help as well as pics of the location for the stove or insert. Also, how well insulated is the basement? And one last concern, why is the fireplace where the stove is going not usable?

 

[branchburner]

Lopi makes good stoves, maybe not as good as Jotul, but seems very reliable with warranty issues.
Forget about wood length - it can alway be cut. Make your decision based on whether you really want only just enough to heat the basement to a nice level, or if you really want the potential to crank it up a notch. The Leyden is a downdraft stove like mine and will burn best when loaded for long, hot burns. May be more than you want or need. You can do smaller fires in it, they just won't be most efficient in wood use, but maybe not a big deal. The idea of a cat stove, which can burn lower and slower, makes sense to me. Blaze King and Woodstock rank high around here.

 

[vesmk]

thank you so much for all your advice! Really appreciated. I have included a sketch of the basement. The space in front of the fireplace is about 10 ft. The house is 50 years old - the basement is insulated, but I don't know how well (we only moved in a few months ago)
The problem with the fireplace is that it "smokes", the chimney is possibly not wide enough for a fireplace. Since we would have to install a liner for a wood stove, this should resolve that problem, so we've been told, and get more efficient heat

 

[meathead]

Does smoke roll out of that fireplace even after it is up to speed or is it just when you are getting a fire going? Because you are all the way in the basement, you have a longer run of flu with more cold air pressing down into the firebox and it can take more time to heat up and get drafting well. It looks like an interior chimney that runs up through the middle of the house from your floorplan pic, which should minimize the issue. You may sill get a little smoke rol out from the stove on startup, but with the proper liner it should be minimal and once everything is hot you shouldn't see it continue.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum!

We had a stove that would take 21" logs but 2 years ago decided to finally get that soapstone stove we wanted. It takes 16" logs. We have managed to get in some 18" and maybe a 19" but 16" fits nicely. So, we simply cut some ends off the longer logs. No problem and we can also burn the ends which work nicely during daytime and in Spring or Autumn.

With the soapstone, you would not be blasted with the harsh heat. Also, with the Fireview like we have, it is a cat stove so it will burn super clean and give lots of heat with little fuel. For example, we burn 50% of the fuel we used to burn with our old stove (we heat 100% with wood). So half the fuel and we stay much, much warmer. We also put up a new SS chimney 2 years ago and it has not been cleaned yet! That would not happen with our old stove.

The big caution as with all stoves is to make sure you have good dry wood. That does not mean ordering a "seasoned" load of wood from a wood seller. 99% of them do not know what seasoned wood is. They will cut it and split it when you order and it is not seasoned. You need to get next year's wood on hand now and this year you should burn what you cut or bought last year.

Good luck.

 

[begreen]

A liner should help, but it would also be good to see what else is competing for air in the basement. If there is a furnace, gas or oil hw heater, dryer, bath fan, etc. down there, they will be drawing on the air supply and may make for negative draft. If this is the case, an outside air supply may alleviate the problem.

It sounds like a convective stove would work here. Soapstone stoves and castiron clad stoves do this job fairly well.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

cut holes in the floor over the basement and put in register grates.

the heat will pour up through those into the house.

 

[branchburner]

cut holes in the floor over the basement and put in register grates.

the heat will pour up through those into the house.

Lots of folks do it. It works, but not recommended for fire safety reasons.

 

[meathead]

cut holes in the floor over the basement and put in register grates.

the heat will pour up through those into the house.

Lots of folks do it. It works, but not recommended for fire safety reasons.

Unless you get registers with sensors that automatically shut them in the event of a fire

 

[northwinds]

I have a somewhat similar layout and don't have any problems with draft or getting the fire started. The smoke will
swirl around in the box for less than a minute and then up the stack it goes. And that's when the temp is in the 50's.
An interior chimney makes a big difference.

I can't tell from your sketch whether the stairway is open. That also makes a difference. We have a ceiling fan at the
top of the stairs in the vaulted living room which draws the heat up.

Now, as for your question, I'm not going to lie to you. It gets very warm in the family room where the stove is located,
especially when the stove is cranking and the stovetop is pushing 700 degrees.

It's actually quite comfortable in shorts and a tshirt in January, but probably 10 degrees warmer than the bedrooms
which are furthest away from the stove. Stoves are area heaters, and the distribution of heat throughout the house
is not even.

 

[bjorn773]

I have been running my stove in the basement for about 6 years now. Yes, it does get warmer than the upstairs, but if you can get some of the heat upstairs I think you will find it works fine. I put an air intake with a blower blowing into the ductwork a few feet from the stove. I run this blower 24/7 and it distributes the heat pretty well. My home is 1100 sq. ft. ranch as well. I went with a stove rated for 2000 sq. ft. because I wanted to be able to heat the whole house. Like I said, it works well for me. I do have to supplement with my furnace to keep the bedrooms furthest from the stove warm in bitterly cold weather.

 

[vesmk]

Thank you all for your advice. I decided to take the "plunge" and ordered a cast iron Lopi today and I look forward to sitting in shorts and T-shirt in January watching TV... The rest I will tweak as I go. I learned from your advice that the wood I ordered is no good until next year but now I can fix that! So two steps in the right direction and then I should be ready for winter!