We did a basement install to replace our wood stove, have only had it one year but we have been happy with it. It is in the unfinished part of our basement. Our house is a split level, so we have 4 levels, from the garage you go into the family room, above that are bedrooms. Down a 1/2 flight of steps to the lowest level (unfinished), above it are the kitchen, living room, dining room. We installed our pellet stove (Harman P68) in the lowest level to replace a wood stove that was already there. The unfinished basement is about 600 square feet, since it is a split level each of the 4 levels are about 600 square feet, totaling about 2400 square feet, we are heating it with the P68. So it is a smaller unfinished space than say if you had a ranch style home, that helps.
When I first started using it this winter I was a bit disappointed in the heat circulation. The family room was great, but the kitchen, living room and dining room areas were cool. There were 2 4x12 vents in the floor in the dining room, with the wood stove under there the heat was so intense it drove the heat up those vents on it's own, not so with the pellet stove.
I bought 2 of these Tjerland RB12 fans(
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FNL0SS/?tag=hearthamazon-20) register booster fans for the 4x12 registers. Wow what a difference, it certainly balanced everything out and now I am very happy with the set-up. The upstairs and family room are now consistent. The bedroom area is cool, but I like it that way.
I do realize I am burning pellets to heat an unfinished area (600 sq ft), we have the washer dryer down there, but there are some nice advantages of having it down there:
- Our floors upstairs are nice and warm, with much of the heat rising from the floors the rooms feel very cozy.
- I can store 4 tons of pellets down there. It takes my wife and I around 1/2 hour to carry a ton down there, then we are done with them other than dumping them in the stove. I have been starting to stock pile for next year at the cheaper prices. Just put 2 ton of Hamer's down there at 192/ton. They are out of the way, the basement stays nice and dry.
- I don't have to fret about cleaning the stove and the dust. While I am getting better at not spreading dust, since it is an unfinished space, not really that big an issue.
- I makes a nice warm space to go read if you want to shake off the winter chill.
So as some people mentioned there are basement installs that work. I think for us the split level helps, the booster fans made a huge difference, and well the P68 can really crank out the heat when I need to warm-up the house. Our basement while unfinished and uninsulated, isn't that bad, it is a well sealed, not drafty, block wall basement. Decisions like this depend on the set-up and what you want out of the stove. We wanted nice warm floors, and to heat the entire house. So far I am now very happy with our set-up.
