Adding a Pellet Stove to the Cellar

[Jaymaine34]

Nice choice ! You will be very happy ! Sounds like a fair price .

 

[dylskee]

Nice choice ! You will be very happy ! Sounds like a fair price .

Yes, I went in there and told her it's down to two dealers, her and a Harman dealer. And he gave me a decent price on the stove but I still had to settle on the venting and install, so I told her to give me her best price right out of the gate. She sat down with me and went through everything and gave me a pretty fair price for a great stove, I just finished cleaning the cellar out, well for the most part anyway...... The stove will be delivered and installed on Friday the 13th! I hope it goes well.......

 

[dylskee]

I got a disheartening phone call from the stove dealer, after seeing my pictures I sent them of my basement they can't install my stove. The back side of my basement is fieldstone then 3 coarse of cinder block on top of that. They said I would be lucky to maintain 60 degrees because of the fieldstone, looks like I'm out of luck. They said it would be a waste of time and money trying to heat that space. Good thing my web order didn't go through on those pellets last night!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I got a disheartening phone call from the stove dealer, after seeing my pictures I sent them of my basement they can't install my stove. The back side of my basement is fieldstone then 3 coarse of cinder block on top of that. They said I would be lucky to maintain 60 degrees because of the fieldstone, looks like I'm out of luck. They said it would be a waste of time and money trying to heat that space. Good thing my web order didn't go through on those pellets last night!

Well an honest dealer, he picked up on the third line in my comment here https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/adding-a-pellet-stove-to-the-cellar.112068/page-3#post-1494571 .

You may find that a little finishing of the basement walls (insulation) will do wonders.

 

[Jaymaine34]

Dylskee, sorry to hear it didn't work out ! I was looking into doing the samething . But the cost of doing it keep going up and up ! I know we are not the only ones in this situation . So I wonder if anyone has figured out away to get heat to their basement ? I know heat rises and this goes against everything we learned in school . But there's some pretty smart people on here !
My quad makes enough heat would just like some of it in the basement . My basement is finished and now I have a family member who will be staying with us over the winter ( I need to heat it ) if there's no way to get the heat down there what's the most cost affective way to heat 400 sq feet ( bedroom in basement ) will a space heater break the bank ?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

There are stoves that are certified for installing duct work to installing such a stove ould allow you to get heat into an insulated finished basement.

Other than that you are faced with the major basement issue, namely the massive heat sink of the foundations and that of getting usable heat out of the basement.

Installing a solid fuel stove in a bedroom also raises issues with both code enforcement folks and the stove maker not certifying their stoves for such use.

ETA: As for heat rising not so, hot air rises provided it is allowed to, this means cold air must fall somewhere, in other words you need to have a loop for the air to flow in. Your stoves convection blower can start and maintain this loop provided there aren't any physical obstruction to the air flow. This is a common problem discussed at length on here every couple of weeks.

 

[Jaymaine34]

Smokey,
I hear what your saying ! I'm not looking to do anything unsafe ! Just wondering what others may have come up with ?
To be clear the basement is pretty open except the bedroom/ office space . Just looking at options and ideas .

 

[movemaine]

I would also look at craigslist, and ask around at your local stove shops, as they often have floor models, returns, etc. that you can get cheaper.

 

[jtakeman]

Smokey,
I hear what your saying ! I'm not looking to do anything unsafe ! Just wondering what others may have come up with ?
To be clear the basement is pretty open except the bedroom/ office space . Just looking at options and ideas .

Look for a stove that allows ducting to be connected. Keep the stove out in the basement and duct the heat to the bedroom. Also put the stat in the bedroom

There are only a few stoves that allow ducting to be connected and most are on the big size, But if you only want to heat that room some of the European stoves have duct option and are smaller. Drolet eco65 has a plenum kit that allows 2 ducts. One could go to the upstairs.

 

[dylskee]

I knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain 80 degrees in my basement without it being insulated but I wasn't expecting them to refuse an install. I have about 800 sq.ft. of the cellar I wanted to heat, and I chose a 47,000 BTU stove that will heat 2700 sq.ft. to do the job. I'm not looking to heat anything else but the cellar, I heat my first and second floor with my wood stove that sits in my living room. I heat my cellar with a space heater in the winter when I'm working down there so I would assume a pellet stove could do the same, no?

I will try to get the cellar insulated by next year but that's going to take some work and money. I'll have to frame the entire cellar, then insulate and sheetrock. But I really want a pellet stove down there so.......

 

[Jaymaine34]

Ok so I called my local fire Marshall . I can run a vent or a chase as long as it has a elbow on each end .
I was thinking of a space heater maybe ? ( electric )
I was wondering what others have used ? I'm not looking to put in duct work .
Im just asking to see what others have come up with .
I also called my insurance company and as long as the fire Marshall sings off on it it's all good with them .
The funny thing is where I am ( Maine ) it's ok to run a Furance and a woodstove in the same flu !
I'm not looking to do anything unsafe ! Again I'm just wondering what others have come up with . What has and hasn't worked .
FYI Smoke we live very close I'm only about a town or 2 over .

 

[Jaymaine34]

I knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain 80 degrees in my basement without it being insulated but I wasn't expecting them to refuse an install. I have about 800 sq.ft. of the cellar I wanted to heat, and I chose a 47,000 BTU stove that will heat 2700 sq.ft. to do the job. I'm not looking to heat anything else but the cellar, I heat my first and second floor with my wood stove that sits in my living room. I heat my cellar with a space heater in the winter when I'm working down there so I would assume a pellet stove could do the same, no?

I will try to get the cellar insulated by next year but that's going to take some work and money. I'll have to frame the entire cellar, then insulate and sheetrock. But I really want a pellet stove down there so.......

I'm with you on this ! It's what I want just shocked by the install cost !
I love the heat and the looks of it ! I'm looking into another cb1200 ( if I own 4 do I win ? )

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain 80 degrees in my basement without it being insulated but I wasn't expecting them to refuse an install. I have about 800 sq.ft. of the cellar I wanted to heat, and I chose a 47,000 BTU stove that will heat 2700 sq.ft. to do the job. I'm not looking to heat anything else but the cellar, I heat my first and second floor with my wood stove that sits in my living room. I heat my cellar with a space heater in the winter when I'm working down there so I would assume a pellet stove could do the same, no?

I will try to get the cellar insulated by next year but that's going to take some work and money. I'll have to frame the entire cellar, then insulate and sheetrock. But I really want a pellet stove down there so.......

It will heat the basement as far as it can given the heat loss of the basement itself. Listen to jtakeman the guy is speaking from experience (learned by not following the basics in dealing with heat loss, etc...) both on heating from a basement and making certain that the stove can provide the horsepower to take care of the heat loss.

A number of stove shops will tell you that what you want to do is not likely to work and they refuse to install because they don't want you calling every day complaining that my x btu stove can't heat 400 square feet while it says it can heat up to 2500 square feet.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Ok so I called my local fire Marshall . I can run a vent or a chase as long as it has a elbow on each end .
I was thinking of a space heater maybe ? ( electric )
I was wondering what others have used ? I'm not looking to put in duct work .
Im just asking to see what others have come up with .
I also called my insurance company and as long as the fire Marshall sings off on it it's all good with them .
The funny thing is where I am ( Maine ) it's ok to run a Furance and a woodstove in the same flu !
I'm not looking to do anything unsafe ! Again I'm just wondering what others have come up with . What has and hasn't worked .
FYI Smoke we live very close I'm only about a town or 2 over .

BTW: In Maine the running of two or more heating units into the same flue has a lot of restrictions on it. The first one is that the use of multiple devices in that common flue be a prior use and that this use has not been allowed to lapse, in other words you must be replacing a portion of a used active heating system.

ETA: Be certain that the code enforcement officer approves as well sometimes what the fire folks say is fine isn't always code.

 

[dylskee]

I'm with you on this ! It's what I want just shocked by the install cost !
I love the heat and the looks of it ! I'm looking into another cb1200 ( if I own 4 do I win ? )

If you own 4 they should give you one for free!!

 

[dylskee]

It will heat the basement as far as it can given the heat loss of the basement itself. Listen to jtakeman the guy is speaking from experience (learned by not following the basics in dealing with heat loss, etc...) both on heating from a basement and making certain that the stove can provide the horsepower to take care of the heat loss.

A number of stove shops will tell you that what you want to do is not likely to work and they refuse to install because they don't want you calling every day complaining that my x btu stove can't heat 400 square feet while it says it can heat up to 2500 square feet.

Yeah, I understand that Smokey and that's exactly what he said to me. He said I would not be happy with the stove If the space isn't insulated. Believe me, I'm not mad at the dealer for refusing to install just disappointed I can't get the stove I really wanted. The dealer was very nice to me and extremely helpful, I visited 5 dealers and they were hands down the best by far. I will definitely return to them for a stove when the time should present itself.

 

[Jaymaine34]

BTW: In Maine the running of two or more heating units into the same flue has a lot of restrictions on it. The first one is that the use of multiple devices in that common flue be a prior use and that this use has not been allowed to lapse, in other words you must be replacing a portion of a used active heating system.

ETA: Be certain that the code enforcement officer approves as well sometimes what the fire folks say is fine isn't always code.

Smokey ,
To be clear I'm not thinking of doing any of those things ! There will be another pellet stove on its own flu . If not this year then next . Just trying to figure out what I might do for this winter . Do you think a space heater could pull this off and not break the bank ?

 

[dylskee]

My two sons use space heaters on a part time basis throughout the winter when they're home and it destroys my electric bill! It added $200. a month to my bill, my electric bill is high anyway for the most part.

I'm trying to login to my electric bill online to get my past usage and I'll give you some numbers if I can remember the password!

 

[Jaymaine34]

My two sons use space heaters on a part time basis throughout the winter when they're home and it destroys my electric bill! It added $200. a month to my bill, my electric bill is high anyway for the most part.

I'm trying to login to my electric bill online to get my past usage and I'll give you some numbers if I can remember the password!

Wow ! I guess scratch that idea ! I have 4 children ( all of them think lights only turn on !)
We average about 200-225 electric ( this summer with a/c and the pool and shop fridge ) was close to 400 for the past 2 bills .
I almost dropped when I saw them .
I installed motion activated light switches in all of their rooms . Great kids just can't remember to turn anything off !!

 

[BrotherBart]

Three years ago I put an Englander 25PDVC on the flue in the 1,000 sq. ft. un-insulated basement replacing the wood stove I used when I had my office down there. I just fire it an hour before I need to work down there on occasion and the place is comfy anytime in the winter. And nothing has broken, busted or got disgusted in three years. Gotta clean it this year I guess. I run it overnight sometimes in the Fall and Spring to keep the chill off of the 2,500 sq. ft. sitting on top of that basement when I don't want to fire the wood eater.

I wouldn't spend three grand to heat a basement on a bet. Yeah there is tremendous heat loss through the walls to the the dirt.

 

[dylskee]

So if the vent pipe is 3" diameter and I cut a 3-1/4" diameter hole through the block what do you seal the gaps with? I can go out the other wall and go up a few feet and then vent, I don't have to go out the other wall and go 12' up so the install should be a little easier. I just need to research a little more on the venting and I should be good to go. Thanks in advance for any tips......

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

High temperature silicone sealant is used to seal around the vent penetrations in stone work. Use at least 500 clear stuff.