Basement or Living room

[medwid125]

Good morning,

I am just starting to research installing a wood stove or insert into my house. We live in a 1200 sq ft ranch with a semi open concept. We also have a finished basement that is that same size as main floor. My question is should i look at installing a wood stove in the basement under the bedrooms, or install an insert on the first floor in the living room. If I install in the basement I would have to vent out the side of the house and install a stove pipe. As far a the living room goes I am concerned that the living room will become uncomfortably hot and we will be pushed out of the room. We have plans in the near future to open up our house more and eventually turn the current living room into a dining room with in the next two years. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance
Scott

 

[Gearhead660]

Depends where you spend most of your time. Will this be used to heat house or just occasional use? I had a stove in the basement of a 1300 sqft ranch home, would get up to 90 in basement but not very warm upstairs. Ended up installing a vent with a blower in the hall floor(center of house) to get heat upstairs.

 

[medwid125]

I would say nightly use and maybe filling it up before I leave for work at 5 am and then when I get home. Primarily using it to cut back, but not eliminate, on oil. We spend all of our time in the living room so that's why I am nervous about an insert getting the room too hot.

 

[peakbagger]

Ideally the stove goes where the people are. The trade off is stoves are space heaters not whole house heaters. Moving air around is tricky and inevitably parts of the house are cold while the room with the stove is hot. A basement install tends to distribute the heat better unless the first floor floors are insulated but unless the basement walls are insulated a lot of heat goes out the foundation walls.

Inherently burning wood is messy. You will drag in dirt and on occasions ashes will get out. Some folks dont mind the minor mess others just never really get used to it. If you bring in wood and store it in the basement you keep the dirt and ashes in the basement, if its stored outdoors and come in thru the first floor door then the living room may be a better fit. Cost wise you probably can get away with more utilitarian stove in the basement while you would want a more expensive attractive design in the living room, that cost savings on the stove would be more than offset by the extra cost for typical basement install. Keep mind that if at all possible it better to keep the stack in the house versus outside the house. Its going to draft better and may reduce creosote issues. The other thing to remember is you will need to occasionally have the chimney cleaned and that can be messy.

IMHO, if you just want occasion evening burns to supplement you heating system the living room gives you fast local heat, if you want to go with wood as primary the way to go is a wood stove in the basement or woodboiler with storage.

In any case buy wood as soon as possible and get it stacked and split, then think about wood heat next winter or preferably the year after as the likelihood of getting dry wood is slim to none so you need to season it yourself.

 

[Woody Stover]

If you use a small 8" desk fan on the floor, on low, moving cool, dense air into the stove room doorway, thus displacing warm air out of the room, it will be comfortable at seating level.

 

[EbS-P]

How much time do you spend in the basement? Would you want to spend more time down there after the renovations? An insert would be an easier install. Is it a masonry fireplace? What size is the flue? How will hot air move up from the basement? Are you want to heat 100% with wood, regularly supplement, or special occasions and emergency heat? Are you ok with getting wood downstairs? How much wood can you store? Where are you getting firewood.

I was contemplating adding a second stove downstairs(1100 sq ft) but decided mainly to to cost and time it takes to run two stoves just to use the heat pump (The whole house is in a single thermostat 2000 sq ft upstairs) and see if I like like it and can keep the basement warm enough.
Just my thoughts and a lots of things to think about.

Evan

 

[Renovationman]

Do not install it under bedrooms. I had a wood/electric furnace and it was under our bedrooms. It got way to warm upstairs to sleep. I quit burning and eventually sold the unit when I upgraded furnaces.


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[xman23]

I'd be interested to hear how basement burners deal with the issue we bring up. The first issue is in the standard basement cooking at 90 degrees, it's to get the heat out of. Yes you can but it requires building an air circulation system. My biggest issue is, depending on the burn stage, the stove needs an occasion look. Then loading and tweaking the air control through the burn. For me that's why it needs to be in the main living space. I wouldn't climb up and down stairs to do that.

 

[bholler]

I have always heated from the basement and really have no desire to do it any other way.

 

[Diabel]

OP has to ask himself a basic question. What is the purpose for this stove? Ambiance, full time heating, to save on electricity or NG....

 

[Nigel459]

I have heated full-time from a “typical” basement as well as from the main level.

Wayyy prefer main level. you can enjoy the radiant heat, see the fire, and as mentioned you have far more direct control over the temps in the living areas.

A “low and slow” controllable stove, i.e. don’t overkill it, in the living room and sleeping areas a few degrees cooler is the ideal setup in my opinion.

I have a pellet stove in my basement and do use it to quicklywarm it up ifanyone will bespending time there. Works great. We even have a tv den down there so quite a bit of time is spent.

I have also observed that to make any appreciable difference upstairs the basement has to be very warm for a very long time and eve then it’s not much and nowhere near as nice without seeing the fire and enjoying radiant heat. Every house will vary of course but we do not have insulation in the floors and it’s a wide open floor plan with stairway right in the middle, so should be ideal for bottom-up heating.

Main level for wood stove for me all the way.

 

[Sawset]

I have always heated from the basement and really have no desire to do it any other way.

Could you explain that a little. Do you like spending time in that area. Is your house suited to move heat. Is it more for pure utility, or is it a focal point and living area.
Here, mostly the latter. Stove upstairs, living area upstairs, it is a focal point, congregation area, people and pets are drawn to the pronounced radiant heat. Heat moves freely to distant rooms. The basement here is for workout room and shop, and is not a heating priority. It becomes easy to regulate heat output, so "being cooked out of the place" becomes non existent. Move in close for some radiant heat, move out a few feet for some cool convection, size the stove, the fuel load, and loading frequency to suit your style.
Also keep in mind, if heating a certain level, heat will rise. Coming up with a method to move heat from the stove down to a lower level usually results in frustration and failure.

 

[bholler]

Could you explain that a little. Do you like spending time in that area. Is your house suited to move heat. Is it more for pure utility, or is it a focal point and living area.

In this house it is living space but in the last house it was unfinished. But honestly during the heating season the area where the stove is is not used as much. If I was heating from the living room that space would be uncomfortably hot and my kids bedrooms downstairs would be almost completely unheated. In this area heating from the basement is far more common that otherwise.

 

[KrisP]

my insert is in the basement , i spend more time down there when its cold because it does virtually nothing for upstairs. I can get the basement close to 90 degrees, so wherever you would rather the heat be

 

[kennyp2339]

Im a basement heater myself, under normal conditions the upstairs stays in the low 70's and the basement is a beautiful 85 - 90, nothing is better than waking up and walking on that warm kitchen floor to the coffee pot. When it gets really cold (sub zero) I'll turn on the bedrooms hotwater baseboard zone to 60 or 65, that helps a lot, the upstairs living areas then stay near 70, which when it -5deg f I have no complaints.
I use to have a stove upstairs in my living room, it was way to much, would bake us out every time.

 

[Sawset]

My daughter has a 3 story place, walkout basement, main floor, and third is very open to the main floor. She doesn't heat with wood, but, all of the floors had a very pronounced temp difference, cool, warm, hot as the floors went up. If a stove were up high, that area would roast. Here, the floors are seperated with stairwell and doors that can be regulated. There is just enough cool air coming down from upstairs to even everything out. One thing I notice, is that each floor has its own warm ceiling cool floor thing going on. The upstairs could have 70 at head ht, cooler air pooling and heading downstairs. But the main floor has it's own seperate thing going on, 72 at head level, cooler air down low, all of which is heading toward the stove to be reheated. Lots of convection looping going on with regulated temperature differences. If any of that was interrupted, hot and cold zones would develope. The stove could very easily overheat an area if it couldn't circulate like it does.

 

[firefighterjake]

Living room.

 

[weatherguy]

I heat from my basement, its finished and I basically live in it, I work from home in an office in the finished basement. My new stove really warms the basement but also keeps the upstairs 70 or so. The first stove did a good job in the basement but didnt warm the second floor as well.

 

[Mech e]

I have always heated from the family/living room. Of course, living in norcal, I really had no choice (-8.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

A lot depends on the size and type of stove you get. I could never heat from the second floor with my harmon TL-300 unless the house was a huge open concept. For the members that state you will have a 90 degree basement with a basement installation . How you will not also have a 90 degree living room with an upstairs installation. A basement install will allow you to warm the floors of your whole upstairs(unless thebasement ceiling is insulated). But a second floor install will do nothing to warm the basement.

 

[medwid125]

Thanks everyone for the advise...does anyone use other things to circulate the air around the house other than the blower from the stove?

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Thanks everyone for the advise...does anyone use other things to circulate the air around the house other than the blower from the stove?

Absolutely , if you want to get that heat upstairs you will need some vents and fans. Or if your house has a hot air system to begin with you can use that fan and circulation system. No vents in the basement ceiling would be a problem. Normally your not going to get much warm air upstairs just from the stairs and basement door. Warming the floors will help though.

 

[bholler]

Thanks everyone for the advise...does anyone use other things to circulate the air around the house other than the blower from the stove?

In this house I don't use any other fans. In the old house I had to

 

[KrisP]

In my experience so far using fans , trying to use the hvac system, and the vents in the floor nothing works. Not saying it won’t work for you or anyone else but just be prepared for the possibility that it might not heat upstairs like you want it to

 

[medwid125]

looks like I am leaning towards putting an insert in my living room fireplace. I have a brick fireplace in my living room which is a room that is 11x17. As shown is my layout picture the kitchen and living room have a window opening in the dividing wall that is about 5x4. my fireplace measurements are as follows

17 deep at the top
21 deep at the bottom
35 wide in the front
24 wide in the back
27 tall overall

I have been looking at the regency inserts.. if i was to go this route would anyone recommend to get the small or the medium? We may have plans to open up the floor plans in the future.