Thoughts on installing new wood stove in basement for heating a ranch home.

[Shorty5920]

Hello!

We are considering buying a wood stove to heat our home. We are completely new to this way of heating and are researching lots! We currently have an LP boiler with baseboard heat. Propane is expensive, and we would like to greatly reduce the use of it. Our home is a 3200 sq ft ranch. We were thinking of maybe putting the stove in the finished basement (walkout). I'm wondering if anyone has this set up, and how much of that heat will radiate through the floors? We have ceiling tiles in the basement, and wood floors on the main floor.
Thank you!

 

[begreen]

Is the basement insulated? How will the heat get upstairs? Where are you located?

 

[Shorty5920]

Is the basement insulated? How will the heat get upstairs? Where are you located?

Yes. The basement is insulated. That is my question, will heat radiate through the floors to the upstairs? Might seem like a dumb question, but we have never heated our home this way. Our current boiler heats the main living area from the basement.

 

[begreen]

A very limited amount of heat will radiate/convect through the floors. In order to heat the main floor the hot air needs a convection path. If the stairwell is somewhat centrally located and the stove is near the open stairwell then hot air will use that as a convection path.

 

[Shorty5920]

A very limited amount of heat will radiate/convect through the floors. In order to heat the main floor the hot air needs a convection path. If the stairwell is somewhat centrally located and the stove is near the open stairwell then hot air will use that as a convection path.

Thank you. Kind of what I figured, unfortunately! Our layout is making placement tricky!

 

[begreen]

Sometimes it works and other times it is better to zone off the basement with a separate thermostat and put the stove on the main floor. If you can post a sketch of the basement and main floors that shows the stairwell location too we can see if there might be a solution.

 

[EbS-P]

I think a lot depends on your heating needs. I can’t tell your location from your profile. 3200 sq ft by a single wood stove in a cold climate is asking a lot. In the south we have 2000 sq upstairs and 1100 down.
In could heat it all ok with a big insert in the basement but we don’t have a ceiling down there now and we have an open staircase

 

[Bobbob]

I have a 1500 sq ft ranch with basement and have been heating with a wood insert located in the basement for about 15 years. Prior to that, we heated with an insert upstairs. My chimney is centrally located. Attic is well insulated, house is brick with plaster walls that are not. No ceilings in basment and all floors are wood. My inset has 2.7 sq ft firebox and no surround, but a block off plate. It heats our house with no help(thermostats upstairs set at 68) from our furnace until the temp outside reaches 20 degrees. However, we do have forced air and use the furnace fan to help move the warm air from basment to upstairs. I have 2 cold air returns downstairs and a good draft on the chimney that allows me this option. Unfortunately every application is different and you really don't know until you try. We prefer the stove downstairs because when it was upstairs the living room was to warm for comfort

 

[stoveliker]

Given that you need air movement (heat transfer through the floor is negligible), and that it is already tough to heat a large ranch with a space heater (stove) when it is on the main floor, I suggest that doing this from the basement is not likely to be satisfactory - unless possibly you have multiple cold air drops in the far laying rooms.

 

[bholler]

I really don't understand why so many here are against heating from the basement. It's pretty much the standard here and having done it both ways I will always heat from the basement. Especially now that our basement is also living space. But I would do it regardless.

 

[stoveliker]

I do heat from the basement. It's a ranch, 1200 sqft with a half 500 sqft in a second story, so 1700 sqft total (the basement itself is another 825 ish).

Having a 3200 sqft ranch means a LOT of horizontal travel for the warm air. And horizontal movement of warm air is hard.

 

[bholler]

I do heat from the basement. It's a ranch, 1200 sqft with a half 500 sqft in a second story, so 1700 sqft total (the basement itself is another 825 ish).

Having a 3200 sqft ranch means a LOT of horizontal travel for the warm air. And horizontal movement of warm air is hard.

Yes horizontal heat movement is hard I find it easier to move heat horizontally if also moving vertically at the same time which is why my preference is heating from the basement. I am aslo only heating a ranch that is just over 1000 SQ ft per level

 

[Todd]

I’ve done it in two different ranch homes with success but the sq ft was not as big as yours. In both cases the stairwell was centrally located and near the stove. All the warm air went up the stairwell and I had return cold air vents naturally letting the cold air down into the basement. You’ll never even the temps on both floors expect a 5-15 degree difference.

 

[Riverbanks]

I have a wood stove in my basement, I love it there, no mess upstairs. I have no door on the stairwell to the basement and 4 floor vents cut into the basement ceiling,"first floor floor" at the corners of my house, all is well

 

[begreen]

I really don't understand why so many here are against heating from the basement. It's pretty much the standard here and having done it both ways I will always heat from the basement. Especially now that our basement is also living space. But I would do it regardless.

It depends on the house. If the basement has outside access and is insulated, then yes it can be practical as long as a good convective flow path is possible for supply and return, and code is honored if holes are cut through the ceiling.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

We used to heat a 2,500 square foot raised ranch in Virginia from our walkout basement with a 2.2 cubic foot insert. It worked, but we did run the natural gas furnace in the in the coldest weather. We also used fans to help the convection loop and had some vents cut between the basement and the main floor.

When we bought the insert we had no plans to heat the whole house. Our plan was for it simply to act as a space heater for the basement which was too cool to be enjoyable in winter. We wanted to burn wood instead of using an electric space heater. The wood worked so well, however, that we moved to whole house heating after a couple of seasons. (We did sometimes overheat the basement, however, when we pushed the stove in cold.)

We found that our basement became everybody‘s favorite place to hang out in winter. Because it was mostly finished and a good chunk of our square footage, having a stove down there made a lot of sense for us. It didn’t heat the upstairs perfectly, but it worked to solve our cold basement problem, and it added lots of BTU’s to our envelope.

3,200 square feet is a lot for any stove. It sounds like the basement may be a good choice for you since it’s finished space (presuming that you want to make it warmer), and there’s access to the outside. You’d have to have realistic expectations, though, that the basement will be warmer than the upstairs, and perhaps at times too warm if you’re really pushing the stove for heat.

Our heat did convect up our open stairwell, but it also did radiate through our floors. The wood floor in the dining room and the kitchen floor were always nice and toasty. It doesn’t work that way for us in our current house in Texas, though. The tile in the floor above the stove areas remains cold in winter. That was a disappointment to us, but we still love our stove here. (Our house in Virginia was better air sealed than the one here. I think there may be some air infiltration between floors from our attic space here, and there’s also more space between floors here to run larger ducts, I think.)

 

[bholler]

I’ve done it in two different ranch homes with success but the sq ft was not as big as yours. In both cases the stairwell was centrally located and near the stove. All the warm air went up the stairwell and I had return cold air vents naturally letting the cold air down into the basement. You’ll never even the temps on both floors expect a 5-15 degree difference.

I moved my stairs so they were central and open for that reason

 

[brenndatomu]

I tried heating from the basement when I first started heating with wood...its was a colossal failure! And this was with a central staircase cape, 1200 sq ft basement and main floor...650 sq ft upstairs was kept closed off. For us the central forced air wood furnace has been a much better option.

 

[stoveliker]

I want to stress to talk to your local fire dept or bldg code folks if you are planning on making cold air returns in the floor.

Air moves nicely in such a loop (staircase up, cold air returns down), but floors are fire barriers, and making a hole in a fire barriers needs careful consideration of fire spreading hazards.

 

[begreen]

Agreed. Strategically placed and properly sized floor openings can help establish convection paths, but many jurisdictions require fusible-link dampers in them.

 

[Riverbanks]

I just priced the fusable link dampers, 55$ each for 4" by 10", they are on my list before heating season, Thanks for the advice

 

[EbS-P]

I just priced the fusable link dampers, 55$ each for 4" by 10", they are on my list before heating season, Thanks for the advice

A bit cheaper no idea about shipping.

10x4 Type A Fire Damper No Sleeve

Type A horizontal <a href="https://www.jedcosupply.com/mx/fire-dampers/" target="_blank">fire damper</a>. Roll formed galvanized steel frame and blades. Stainless steel closure spring. Actual size 1/4" less than size ordered. UL-listed 165 degree F fusible link. Meets UL 555 & NFPA requirements...

www.jedcosupply.com

 

[begreen]

I just priced the fusable link dampers, 55$ each for 4" by 10", they are on my list before heating season, Thanks for the advice

Was this at Atlanta Supply?
4x10 is small for a convective system. It's the size of a tiny bathroom vent. That will not pass a lot of air. Consider going larger. An 8x12 is $41.

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[Riverbanks]

It was Zoro, I saw Dayton as the manufacturer, a name I know. Two of them I can definitely go larger on

 

[stoveliker]

You can use an inline fan (with a thermostat if you wish) with a small duct. But it's best to not mount the fan on the floor joists due to the humming noise.