I have had a wood stove in my basement for 20 plus years. It is located at the opposite end from the stairs. While I use an electric fan pointed in the direction of the stairs, I have always wondered if there is a better way to move the heat upstairs. I've thought of installing several vents in the basement ceiling to the first floor walls (I don't want the 1st floor vents in the floor). Does anybody else have any experience with this situation?
Getting heat from the basement to the 1st floor
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That can be a hard setup with the stairwell and stove on opposite ends. Are the basement walls fully insulated? What room or area is above the stove location?
The basement walls are not insulated. The kitchen with cabinetry is directly above the woodstove. My thought was to install 2 vents with appropriate fire protection, one in the wall of the kitchen away from the cabinetry (about 15 feet from the stove) and another in the wall of the den about 10 feet from the stove. I would then run ducting in the basement from above the stove to the vents. I say I but would probably hire an HVAC person. Just wondering if anyone has done something similar.
A single large vent (or a couple at that end of the house) in the floor would work best. That will help establish a good convective flow with the hot air rising into that end of the house with minimum restriction. The warm air would travel through the house and then descend down the stairs to return back to the stove area.
I don't know the code for the in-the-wall vents, I'm assuming they should also have fusible-link dampers, but they will be much more restrictive due to the narrow width of the wall.
Uninsulated basement walls are a giant heat sink. About 1/3d of the heat is leaving the basement through the walls. That means a lot more wood being burned and less heat for the house.
I don't know the code for the in-the-wall vents, I'm assuming they should also have fusible-link dampers, but they will be much more restrictive due to the narrow width of the wall.
Uninsulated basement walls are a giant heat sink. About 1/3d of the heat is leaving the basement through the walls. That means a lot more wood being burned and less heat for the house.
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Uninsulated concrete is also a major source of basement humidity. It's been a while since I last looked up the research in the area, but some years ago the Canadian government had a website that addressed this as well as other building design issues. At the time they recommended XPS / extruded polystyrene foam panels (e.g., Owens Corning Foamular or similar) glued to the concrete. It's semi-permeable, so moisture does not build up between it and the concrete, but it slows water movement and reduces basement humidity. It's R-5 per inch. Two 1-inch thicknesses with seams overlapped, sealed and taped makes a noticeable difference in a basement, particularly if the concrete floor slab gets the same treatment (with plywood or other flooring over it to provide a stronger surface). The insulation value and lack of air space between the XPS and the concrete helps prevent the warm indoor air from condensing on the colder concrete, reducing basement mold.
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My stove is in the basement,.far away from the stairs.
My basement is insulated (except for the floor, unfortunately).
I made a vent in my living room floor above the basement, ran a metal duct between the floor joists to the side wall of the basement, elbow down, fusible link safety, then flexible duct down. At the bottom a 6" inline fan, mounted not on the studs, but in the concrete slab floor of the basement. Then another register.
The fan sucks (!) the coldest air from the living room floor an deposits it on the basement floor. Doing so it pushes the hot air to the ceiling, and up the stairs to the main living floor.
Moving cold air is more efficient than moving warm air. The fan is silent because vibrations are minimal (bolted to the concrete floor, and flexible duct before the joists). I sometimes joke that I heat my home with 26 Watt. This also means that it's easy to keep heating the home in a power outage as my small (2.4 kW I believe) generator can easily do fridge, some lights, and a 26 W fan.
My basement is insulated (except for the floor, unfortunately).
I made a vent in my living room floor above the basement, ran a metal duct between the floor joists to the side wall of the basement, elbow down, fusible link safety, then flexible duct down. At the bottom a 6" inline fan, mounted not on the studs, but in the concrete slab floor of the basement. Then another register.
The fan sucks (!) the coldest air from the living room floor an deposits it on the basement floor. Doing so it pushes the hot air to the ceiling, and up the stairs to the main living floor.
Moving cold air is more efficient than moving warm air. The fan is silent because vibrations are minimal (bolted to the concrete floor, and flexible duct before the joists). I sometimes joke that I heat my home with 26 Watt. This also means that it's easy to keep heating the home in a power outage as my small (2.4 kW I believe) generator can easily do fridge, some lights, and a 26 W fan.
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