Pellet stove in a small room, pull the forced air return through it?

[MartyH]

I know this is just another variation on putting a stove in the basement, but a little different. Has anybody tried building a small pellet stove room in the basement next to an existing forced air furnace, and then drawing the furnace cold air return through the small room to distribute the heat through the house? That way, you don't have to try to heat the whole basement to get the heat upstairs.

Functionally, I suppose it's just a homebrew add on pellet furnace, but it sounds a lot cheaper than an actual pellet furnace add-on. I suppose getting a pellet stove big enough to heat a 2000 sq. ft. house through the ducts might be a problem.

Marty (new here, please go easy on me )

 

[maple1]

I think I'd just put the stove in the room that gets lived in the most. Maybe a couple fans down low blowing cool air toward the stove to move the heat other places. I think you'd have to get that 'pellet room' awful hot to get any heat from it to your duct exits - just think how hot it is where the furnace usually draws heat from.

 

[heaterman]

Depending on how exactly this is done it could be a very bad idea. Maybe even fatal.
The issue in play here is that any possibility of the stove/furnace/boiler/whatever being in an area that is subject to a "pressure" less than the rest of the structure wil do two things.
1. Very possibly screw up draft and combustion.
2. This is the fatal part........create circumstances that are favorable for Carbon Monoxide and other flue gases to be drawn into the house.

Under no circumstances should any heating appliance be operated when there is a possibility of the air pressure surrounding it can become less than the rest of the structure or home.

One of my cardinal rules is to keep customers alive so they can pay their bills...

 

[Fred61]

One of my cardinal rules is to keep customers alive so they can pay their bills...

You can bill the estate!

 

[DexterDay]

If your plan is to put a 30,000 BTU unit in a Room, to have the stove heat the room (loss), to enter return (loss), and go through furnace inards (loss), and then throughout the ducts (loss), and then enter the room. It would probably be like you having a 15,000 BTU furnace.

Then add the safety aspect and code violations....

Welcome to the Forums. The furnace aspect is nice. And one can be had for cheap on CL, Dealer floor models, and sale models. i know where you could get the same furnace as me for less than $2,000 right now. Good deal, IMO. Or a new unit for just over $3,000. Compare that to a new Pellet stove (Freestanding). Many stoves at the $3,000 mark and a few above that.