BeGreen,
Your right about how basements and basement walls suck up alot of the heat. Wood Stock has a page on that.
http://www.woodstove.com/pages/guidepdfs/BasementInstall.pdf
My stove is in the basement but I seem to do ok. I was thinking about my situation and a couple thoughts.
A while back I was looking into the Heat Reflective paints. They have ceramic resins in them that make them reflective to heat radiation.
I saw some info claiming 60% of the heat loss in a house comes from heat radiation.
I also read that just having white paint is highly reflective to heat radiation. Same reason people in desert regions wear white clothing.
Well in my situation I have white paint on the basement block walls and I used a paint that was very high grade for outdoor use.
I used the outdoor high dollar paint on my basement walls before I knew about the heat radiation reflective type paints.
Well it turns out that the paint I used claims to be highly durable and long warranty as its has a high level of ceramic resins in it to make it durable.
So I wonder if my white walls in the basement and the paint I used make my walls highly reflective to heat radiation which is said that heat radiation is 60% of heat loss in homes. Plus most the heat from my stove is the heat radiation type.
So some of you guys with basement installs something to think about.