Placement is key...

[dylanmcintosh]

Alright, I'm still in the middle of making a decision to go pellet or wood burning. Next thing i need to figure out is where the best placement for my stove is going to be. I have a two level home, (basement is underground) and stairwell in the middle of the house. My origanal idea was to my stove in the basment and through the use of fans and a few holes in the floor upstairs with slow rotating fans, distribute the heat. My other option is to pump the hot air through the duct system that is already in my house.

I am curious to see what people have and how they heat the whole house, not just a small area.

Thanks, Dylan.

 

[brianbeech]

I recently put my stove in my basement (because that's where it fit) and I'm not seeing the heat gains needed to heat the whole house. My basement is largely uninsulated and a walk-out. I've been advised that putting a wood stove in an uninsulated basement will keep you from seeing the gains desired and I have to say that this knowledge appears to be true. I'm now of the opinion that if you really want the upstairs to be warm, put the stove upstairs (if you're doing some install with your duct system, this may be moot).

I'm beginning to insulate my basement and I hope to see a large increase in the stove's heating capability, but I literally do not get the desired output necessary for heating the entire house. I'm in a 1650sq ft ranch with a walkout. Basement, unfinished is about another 1200sq ft.

 

[shawneyboy]

I recently put my stove in my basement (because that's where it fit) and I'm not seeing the heat gains needed to heat the whole house. My basement is largely uninsulated and a walk-out. I've been advised that putting a wood stove in an uninsulated basement will keep you from seeing the gains desired and I have to say that this knowledge appears to be true. I'm now of the opinion that if you really want the upstairs to be warm, put the stove upstairs (if you're doing some install with your duct system, this may be moot).

I'm beginning to insulate my basement and I hope to see a large increase in the stove's heating capability, but I literally do not get the desired output necessary for heating the entire house. I'm in a 1650sq ft ranch with a walkout. Basement, unfinished is about another 1200sq ft.

Brian if you insulate the basement you will see a gigantic gain. See the article below....

(broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/pages/basement_install.html)

 

[pgmr]

If you have an unfinished basement and don't spend much time down there, then I'd recommend either putting the stove upstairs or installing a wood burning furnace in the basement. Furnaces can be added onto your existing system so you'd not lose the functionality of that system.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dylan, most folks do not have very good luck with stoves in the basement and even poorer results trying to use the existing duct system. And for sure if the basement is not insulated, it is really not going to work to put either a wood or pellet stove down there.

Also bear in mind that it is easier to move cool air than warm air. For example, we have a long hallway and our bedroom and a bath is at the end. If we want to warm it up more back there, we set a small fan (not a pedestal fan) on the floor in the hallway, set the speed on low....and aim it towards the stove room. It is amazing the difference in moving the air this way vs. trying to blow the heat back there. You can and will get some of the same effect with trying to get heat out of the basement.

Also the rotating fans do not seem to do as good as a fixed fan. And on ceiling fans, it is better to have them blowing up rather than down as this works WITH nature rather than trying to reverse the process. Coolest air is on outside walls, so cool air goes down along walls and then up in the center of the room. So, we just try to go with the flow and it works much better.

ON wood stoves in the basement, I would not like to have to go up and down stairs to tend the stove. You no doubt have an outside entry to the basement so that should not be a problem but those folks who have to carry wood in and then down the stairs....that has to get old fast!

 

[murphyslaw1978]

My HE fireplace is located in the middle of our main level and does an ok job heating the first floor. But when I pit the forced air blower on to heat the basement, it struggles to heat the whole house. If I run full throttle for over an hour, I can get the house up to 68F this way. Truth is, most wood stoves are poor whole house heaters. Maybe the large ones do better.

 

[wkpoor]

ON wood stoves in the basement, I would not like to have to go up and down stairs to tend the stove. You no doubt have an outside entry to the basement so that should not be a problem but those folks who have to carry wood in and then down the stairs….that has to get old fast!

When you have a walkout its exactly the opposite. I would hate to have to carry wood upstairs. In fact if I didn't have a walkout basement (I wouldn't own a home that didn't have a walkout, or it would be no basement at all) I would most likely not be heating with wood. I suspect many are in my shoes because of the convenience a walkout gives to the whole process plus the safety of your stove being on and surrounded by concrete ironically the stuff that is sucking the heat out.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

If it goes in the basement, you will miss out on the pure joy of just being around it. Heat flowing up through registers or steps is just not the same as being able to get as close as you dare when you come in cold.

 

[firefighterjake]

I pretty much heat my whole house (1,800 square foot Cape in Maine, 1970s vintage) with my woodstove . . . the key for me however was to figure out my size needs and go one size larger with the stove, use a fan set on the floor blowing towards the stove to move the heat . . . and even then I will readily admit that I still have my oil boiler as back-up for when I go away on vacation, if my wife and I are too sick to load the stove or on those sub-zero days when we really need a bit of extra heat . . . I also have a small electric space heater with a thermostat to keep my water pipes for my 3rd bathroom and oil boiler warm in these rooms as they are located farthest away from the woodstove . . . probably overkill, but better safe than sorry and have frozen pipes.

As others have said . . . with either type -- pellet or wood -- I would suggest putting the stove where you spend the majority of the time.

1) You get the heat directly -- many of these stoves do best with the radiated heat vs. convection heat. In time you will learn to love this warmth that you will want to spend most of your waking and perhaps even sleeping hours in the room with the stove.

2) A stove today is much more than just a heating appliance -- it is a delight for the senses. I cannot tell you how even now after 3 years I still find myself shutting off the TV at night to watch the mesmerzing light show in the woodstove as the secondaries are firing, how much I enjoy the smell of potpourri simmering on the stove top and how I like the snapping and crackling of the wood -- all stuff you would miss if the stove is in the basement.

 

[lukem]

I'll give my take on it since I had the same conundrum exactly one year ago.

I have a ranch house with a full basement under the whole house. Upstairs 1700 sq ft, basement 1700 sq ft. Open stairwell on one end of basement. My basement is partially finished but poorly insulated. I do plan on insulating the walls in the future. Open floor joists (for now). Had a drop ceiling and insulation but ripped it all out to gain some clearance (drop ceiling was 6'8", 7'6" to bottom of joists, I'm 6'4" so I felt like I had to duck all the time).

The basement is 75% open floor plan. There is a laundry/utility room and a bathroom walled off from the rest of the basement.

The basement is "living space". It's the kids' playroom, pool table, man cave, etc. I want it heated. Without heat it stays low 60's...livable but not comfortable. If I put the stove in the main level I would have an impossible task of getting heat into the basement (no forced air ducting in basement) so, against all the advice I read online that's where I put it anyway.

For the first heating season I was able to maintain 68* upstairs near the stairwell, probably 62* opposite the stairs, and about 80* downstairs. Not ideal, but beats the furnace.

This year I added one 4x12" duct with a small fan pushing air up to the main level (extreme East side of house opposite of West stairs). With my leaky basement this isn't giving my negative pressure and I'd prefer to pressurize the upstairs to keep it from drawing in cold air from the outside. Some will advise against this, and rightfully so, because you may have CO or draft issues. Not here.

After the circulation improvements I'm seeing about 68* near stairs, 68* - 70* opposite of stairs, and about 76* - 78* in basement. Overall I'm satisfied...or at least satisfied enough to not be cutting additional holes in my floor.

Now, we all know wood stoves need wood...furthermore the wood must be IN the stove. Depending on basement type (walkout versus buried) that can be difficult. My basement is not a walk-out. Carrying wood down the stairs sucks...especially with my hungry @$$ stove. I lucked out and have access to the basement via an old pool pump room with a hatch that I can drive up to the hatch and drop in wood.

If I had to do it over again, under the same circumstances I would still put it in the basement. If I didn't have to worry about heating my basement full time as living area, I would just get a space heater for the times I am down there and put the stove upstairs. Put the stove where you need the heat the most...for me that happened to be both.

FWIW...I'm considering adding a nicer looking stove upstairs for shoulder season (take the chill off the house without heating the basement) or wicked cold (basement can't get the whole job done) burning.

 

[MarshVegasMA]

Greetings, South Shore, MA here. Just put a Harman P43 free standing pellet stove in finished basesment (poorly insulated, former garage space) and a Lennox wood insert on the other finished side of the basement (insulated). I also put a Harman Accentra Pellet insert in the upstairs living space. Needless to say it is toasty all around except for down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms. We have infants and need the house to be warm in the bedrooms. I know we did overkill with stoves for the size of the house (1800 sq ft), but all this time I have been trying to draw the warm air down the hallway, when I am hearing now that I should pull the cold air towards the heat source. I am using the ceiling fan on reverse and drawing the warm air up into the Cathedral style ceilings so it can cascade back down the walls. Will try and continue using some of my Physics background to get this thing right. Thanks for all the advise as I am brand new to the pellet, wood stove world and new to this site. Cheers.

 

[iceisasolid]

I just put an Englander 24 AC in the basement of a 1770 sq ft home. This is living space, 2nd family room/laundry/bathroom/bedroom/and unfinished but insulated storage area. There is a 30"x14" register in the ceiling to upstairs hall and a large stairwell. Heat upstairs has been nice and toasty. The kids have spent more time downstairs in the 4 days since the install then they have in the past 2 months. It was always too cold down there. I have had no problems as of yet, I am still in the process of figuring out the proper burn of my stove, however.