I have a 1730 square foot ranch built into a hillside. The "first" floor is finished, the "basement" is not. The basement is a walkout, we are currently finishing off part of it for living space. As you walk into the basement, the finished area will consist of an entryway / mud room area with large walk-in coat closet, a family room, and a rec room / guest bed area. All of these areas will be connected together with an open floor plan (no doors), except the coat closet.
The finished area for the rec room and family room is only about 600 square feet, divided roughly in half by a staircase upstairs. The entry way / mud room is probably another 100 square feet, coat closet 200 but there is a door there that will restrict airflow. Pocket doors separate this finished area from the rest of the unfinished basement.
Its a 2003 build, exterior walls in finished area of basement are spray foamed as are all of the 'pockets' in the basement between cinder blocks and house. The house is pretty well insulated.
We currently heat the upstairs with a Quadrafire that came with the house. It provides plenty of heat up there, and I want to continue to burn fires upstairs where we will spend the majority of our time. There was already a woodstove downstairs when we moved in, the baffles were junk and the stove was a big clunker so we yanked it out. I want to install a new woodburner downstairs that will heat the finished area, but don't want to push so many btus upstairs that we can't have fires up there too. Another concern is having heat on demand downstairs. In other words, if we want to wander downstairs, I don't want to have to plan ahead (for example, to fire up a non-cat soapstone and wait 40 minutes before the chill is gone). I'd like to run a small fire downstairs consistently, so it's warm whenever we choose to use that level.
From my research, it seems like a cat stove with long, low burns might be the answer. However, having no experience with cat stoves, I don't know how low I can burn. I'm thinking BK Ashford 20, or Woodstock Fireview, burning long and low in the basement might be the answer. But realistically, are these stoves flexible enough that I can run them on a low enough burn that I'm not heating myself out of the upstairs? The Quadrafire puts out A LOT of heat (probably oversized for the upstairs already). I can picture myself waking up, starting a fire upstairs to get us warm, starting a fire downstairs, then 2 hours later be popping open windows. I'm also not used to running anything low, I always burn hot to keep the chimney clean.
Alternately, I could get a small cast iron non-cat for the basement that will fire up quick on demand (a Jotul F100 for example). That was my original plan, until I researched the cat stoves. In the long run, I think the answer is the a cat stove downstairs and replace the Quadrafire upstairs with a smaller non-cat just to supplement. But I can only buy one stove this year. Advice would be appreciated. I included a pdf attachment with detailed floor plans of the basement level.
Thanks.
The finished area for the rec room and family room is only about 600 square feet, divided roughly in half by a staircase upstairs. The entry way / mud room is probably another 100 square feet, coat closet 200 but there is a door there that will restrict airflow. Pocket doors separate this finished area from the rest of the unfinished basement.
Its a 2003 build, exterior walls in finished area of basement are spray foamed as are all of the 'pockets' in the basement between cinder blocks and house. The house is pretty well insulated.
We currently heat the upstairs with a Quadrafire that came with the house. It provides plenty of heat up there, and I want to continue to burn fires upstairs where we will spend the majority of our time. There was already a woodstove downstairs when we moved in, the baffles were junk and the stove was a big clunker so we yanked it out. I want to install a new woodburner downstairs that will heat the finished area, but don't want to push so many btus upstairs that we can't have fires up there too. Another concern is having heat on demand downstairs. In other words, if we want to wander downstairs, I don't want to have to plan ahead (for example, to fire up a non-cat soapstone and wait 40 minutes before the chill is gone). I'd like to run a small fire downstairs consistently, so it's warm whenever we choose to use that level.
From my research, it seems like a cat stove with long, low burns might be the answer. However, having no experience with cat stoves, I don't know how low I can burn. I'm thinking BK Ashford 20, or Woodstock Fireview, burning long and low in the basement might be the answer. But realistically, are these stoves flexible enough that I can run them on a low enough burn that I'm not heating myself out of the upstairs? The Quadrafire puts out A LOT of heat (probably oversized for the upstairs already). I can picture myself waking up, starting a fire upstairs to get us warm, starting a fire downstairs, then 2 hours later be popping open windows. I'm also not used to running anything low, I always burn hot to keep the chimney clean.
Alternately, I could get a small cast iron non-cat for the basement that will fire up quick on demand (a Jotul F100 for example). That was my original plan, until I researched the cat stoves. In the long run, I think the answer is the a cat stove downstairs and replace the Quadrafire upstairs with a smaller non-cat just to supplement. But I can only buy one stove this year. Advice would be appreciated. I included a pdf attachment with detailed floor plans of the basement level.
Thanks.
