Hi friends. I have a woodmaster 4400 with a heat exchanger connected to the plenum of my forced air furnace. My question relates to warming the basement of my house. There are no ducts in the basement The concrete walls are approx 12" thick. I'd like to provide heat in the basement ( to warm the floors and provide some radiant heat ) and am wondering if it is logical to put in either fin or older cast iron radiators that pull btus from the water either on its supply run or the return run to the furnace. By the way I also have a heat exchanger to assist with my electric hot water heater. It is on the return run. Do you recommend one run over the other and short of insulating the walls do you think this will help to warm the basement?
Brick and concrete house
- Thread starter jkbemdavis
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
Bad LP
Minister of Fire
I can't imagine that there is enough BTU's in the returns that will have any value.
If you don't insulate your walls first every single thing you do trying to heat the space is a waste of time and money.
If you don't insulate your walls first every single thing you do trying to heat the space is a waste of time and money.
maple1
Minister of Fire
+1 for insulating.
But you could also likely get quite a bit of heat out of some cast iron rads. They shouldn't be plumbed in series though or they will be making heat all the time. Better setup would be on their own secondary loop maybe hooked into the primary loop with closely spaced Ts & their own circulator controlled by a separate thermostat. Does your boiler have return temp protection? You don't want the return water entering the boiler too cool, good to keep it above 140.
Can you just cut in a couple of ducts to your basement instead?
But you could also likely get quite a bit of heat out of some cast iron rads. They shouldn't be plumbed in series though or they will be making heat all the time. Better setup would be on their own secondary loop maybe hooked into the primary loop with closely spaced Ts & their own circulator controlled by a separate thermostat. Does your boiler have return temp protection? You don't want the return water entering the boiler too cool, good to keep it above 140.
Can you just cut in a couple of ducts to your basement instead?
- Status
Similar threads
