We just bought our first house and I am currently converting the existing fireplace to my Jotul F400 on the first floor. We have a 1700sq ft ranch with a full basement. The F400 will be in the 1sst floor addition to the house which is about 700sq ft. This area of the house only has a crawl space under it, not a basement. This room is on the far end of the house as well farthest away from the bedrooms. The 3 bedrooms/kitchen/bath are located over the 1,000sq ft unfinished basement. My plan was to install a much larger stove like an F600 to heat the basement and the living areas above it. I will eventually be finishing the basement later on this year or possibly during the winter. The access to my basement is via bilco doors which are located right next to one of my wood sheds. Most of the threads I have read say there is much easier ways of heating a single story home without the use of a basement stove. Am I better off just upgrading to a larger stove upstairs? My worry with that is I will cook myself out of the living room where the wood stove will be. The reason for a large stove like the F600 is also for the burn time. Im looking to get at least 8-10 hours out of a burn so that the stove can make it through the night. Any input is greatly appreciated.
Another Basement Stove Question
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Unfinished basement walls are going to suck up heat like a sponge and send it outdoors. Figure on using about a third more wood than you would if the walls were insulated. The F600 is a pretty fancy stove to do basement heating. You could do the same job with a stove costing $1000.
For your first winter it might be better just to supplement the heating. What is the primary heating system? How much fully seasoned wood do you have on hand.
Ranch heating usually leaves the end bedrooms cooler. For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far end of the hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running. Another alternative would be to use an inline duct fan in an insulated duct run between the far bedrooms and the addition. Suck cool air out of the bedrooms and blow it into the addition.
For your first winter it might be better just to supplement the heating. What is the primary heating system? How much fully seasoned wood do you have on hand.
Ranch heating usually leaves the end bedrooms cooler. For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far end of the hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running. Another alternative would be to use an inline duct fan in an insulated duct run between the far bedrooms and the addition. Suck cool air out of the bedrooms and blow it into the addition.
I guess youre right it is a fancy stove, they just go decently priced on the used market around me, not sure why.
Ive been heating with wood for quite some time, just never had a basement until this home. Right now, I have about 15 full cords of wood going on just about a year of seasoning. Im always preparing one year in advance. Between heating my house, mother in laws house and hunting camp, I keep a lot of wood around
Ive been heating with wood for quite some time, just never had a basement until this home. Right now, I have about 15 full cords of wood going on just about a year of seasoning. Im always preparing one year in advance. Between heating my house, mother in laws house and hunting camp, I keep a lot of wood around
Other than heat rising up the basement staircase, it does not penetrate well through the floor and any additional coverings that maybe on the sub-floor. Plus if you are finishing the basement that likely means some sort of ceiling treatment which adds to the limiting factor of heat rise through the floor. Insurance companies really frown on the old method of a register cut between levels to allow heat rise with wood fired stoves. So that points you in the direction of a wood furnace with forced air or hydronics depend what you may have at present.
currently the house is run off of baseboard heat and a wood boiler. I would greatly prefer to use an outdoor wood boiler, but the good ole state of NJ is very finicky with them. Being that I plan to finish the basement during the winter months and install a bar/football room down there I figured I would need a heating source down there since there currently isn't any heat in the basement and was hoping to also get some of that heat to transfer up into the bedrooms
Is the wood boiler indoors? In your previous house or in the new one?
If you insulate the basement the heat requirements will go down considerably. You will need to plan the location of the stove so that it is most effective and with good convection to upstairs. Otherwise the man cave could turn into a sauna just to keep upstairs comfortable.
If you insulate the basement the heat requirements will go down considerably. You will need to plan the location of the stove so that it is most effective and with good convection to upstairs. Otherwise the man cave could turn into a sauna just to keep upstairs comfortable.
The wood boiler was on a previous home years ago. We had an outdoor Central Boiler. The rules in NJ are very weird with OWBs and in my area not really worth the headache
Modern high efficiency boilers should pass NJ regs. If you want to explore that option there is an excellent group of users that can help you in the Boiler Room forums on this site.
You are correct, with a EPA rating I should be allowed to have one. However, it then goes further down the change to local ordinances. I know my town does not allow anything to emit smoke for longer than 30 minutes within 2 hours. Although a new EPA certified boiler should have no problem with that burning clean seasoned wood, towns can and do have the right to ban them due to a few lawsuits. I know we almost purchased a 56 acre farm in southern NY and the town strictly forbids them. A lot of people near me just install them and do not notify anyone, sort of like the "don't ask don't tell" rule in hopes they will not get denied. Regardless I would not be happy spending the money on one, only to have it removed soon therafter
Unfortunately there are a lot of yahoos out there burning unseasoned wood, even trash in OWBs with silly small stacks and smoking up large areas during temperature inversions. That's just being a bad neighbor, but some think it's their privilege. They spoil it for the rest that try to burn cleanly. Fortunately there are finally standards going into place to regulate offensive burners, but your point is taken.
Couldn't agree with you more and because of those yahoo lots of areas I inquired with before we moved wanted nothing to do with OWBs. My town doesn't specifically mention OWB only the smoke limit. I ion people have ways around the rules but all it takes is one aggravated neighbor
mass_burner
Minister of Fire
Yes that will help and it will keep feet a lot warmer too. It's remarkable what a 1/2" layer of foam will do to improve comfort and contain warmth.
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mass_burner
Minister of Fire
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