Harman P68 Pellet Stove Finished Basement Question

[Patriots]

Hello all,

I'm looking for an opinion more than an answer I guess.... I am looking to purchase a Harman P68 Pellet Stove to heat my home. I have a ranch style home that is 1800 square feet on the main level and a finished basement that is an additional 1000 square feet. I am looking to heat the main level however I would perfer to install the stove in the finished basement. I was told by a Harman dealer that this stove would heat the main level of the house if I were to install two floor grates. One in either end of the main level. He told me that one end would act as a cold air exchange while the other grate would bring the heat up from the basement causing a loop type circulation. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether or not this would work?

Thanks for the help!

 

[MCPO]

I have a similar setup that worked well with the 2 floor openings but only with the wood stove .
It just not as good with the pellet stove .
However the wood stove was simply too hot down there (78-82+) for anyone to stay too long .
My pellet stove now keeps the basement very comfortable since it is quite adjustable but I don`t think much heat gets upstairs as a result. I always burn it at low #1-#3 tops. If I turned it up more heat would go up I suppose , but it would also blast me out of the basement again so FWIW you just aint gonna have your cake and eat it with a space heater.

 

[imacman]

As Gio correctly states, pellet stoves are primarily space heaters. They are made to be put where you want the heat, in this case, the main floor.

Will some heat come up from the basement w/ the floor grates? Yes, but not much. As Gio mentions, to get the main floor warm, the basement will have to be VERY warm. Even open stairwells from basement to upper floors don't work well.

Put the stove where you want the heat, if at all possible.

Oh, and BTW, welcome to the forum Patriots

 

[rona]

I tried to do what you are thinking of and finally gave up and put a stove on the main floor where it needs to be.
I had two stairways and the theory was cold air down one and hot air up the other. It worked OK with a wood stove as it would produce much more heat but the basement was very hot and uncomfortable in order to get enough heat upstairs.
I ended up with a stove in the basement and one upstairs. You may not need to run the one downstairs all the time and even if you do if you use a thermostat you really won't use much more fuel with both stoves running then one running wide open.
One other thing is you will be heating the floor with the heat from downstairs which makes things very comfortable.

 

[jtakeman]

Hello all,

I'm looking for an opinion more than an answer I guess.... I am looking to purchase a Harman P68 Pellet Stove to heat my home. I have a ranch style home that is 1800 square feet on the main level and a finished basement that is an additional 1000 square feet. I am looking to heat the main level however I would perfer to install the stove in the finished basement. I was told by a Harman dealer that this stove would heat the main level of the house if I were to install two floor grates. One in either end of the main level. He told me that one end would act as a cold air exchange while the other grate would bring the heat up from the basement causing a loop type circulation. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether or not this would work?

Thanks for the help!

Been there done that(well still doing it actually). If you want the stove in the basement. And you want to heat upstairs. Invest in a Pellet furnace. You might get by on average. But you will struggle to heat the upstairs when the cold sets in. The only true way to get the heat where you want it is with duct work or baseboard install. All you will do with there suggestion is over heat the basement and not get much where you want it.

I have a simular set up and am getting by. 2000+ sqft with about 800 in the basement. My basement is over 80 degrees when it is really cold and we barely get the upstairs in the 70's.

Or you could do the 2 stove route and probably come close to what it will cost for the furnace. Put a small stove in the basement and a good size one on the main floor.

Just trying to give you the straight scoop on this. I was told the same thing. A couple of vents. I now have 6 vents and a louvered door on the basement entry. A metal hood over my stove collecting the heat and ducted to each vent. I also had to add duct fans to move the air(I can't tell you how much I have invested in this). Trust me the only way to truely move the heated air is with duct work attached to a furnace.

jay

 

[THE ROOSTER]

My accentra can only raise the temp of my upstairs by 2 degrees... It will help, and I like the idea of the stove in the basement, if that is where you plan on spending most of your time... If your TV is down there and a frig for the beer you'll never come up except to take a 10-100 and sleep and maybe eat...

 

[jbmaine]

Hi, I just put in a P68 in my basement this year, and like you, wanted it to heat the main floor of my house. My P68 is a replacement for an old wood stove I previously used in the basement. In past years I had installed floor grates and ran duct work with inline fans from the floor grates to close by the stove to get more heat up stairs. Since installing the pellet stove I have been tweaking the duct work placement to get the most heated air from the stove blower direct to the main floor of the house. It looks mickey mouse as all get out but so far has been working well. It hasn't been cold enough to really let the stove rip for any long period of time yet but on my test burns on a few colder mornings I have been able to keep the basement and main floor within two degrees of each other while bringing the main floor from 65 degrees to 70 degrees within three hours from starting the stove. If you are planning to set up your stove as a focal point to sit around and enjoy the fire you probably wouldn't like the idea of dust work in front of it but I thought I'd let you know that at least for me ( so far) it seems to be doable to heat both basement and first floor with a stove in the basement.
JB

 

[Dr_Drum]

. . . install two floor grates. One in either end of the main level. He told me that one end would act as a cold air exchange while the other grate would bring the heat up from the basement causing a loop type circulation. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether or not this would work?
Thanks for the help!

It will work to some degree. Put a fan in the "cold air return" blowing cold air into the warm basement. Close the door to the basement. This will pressurize the basement while creating a vacuum upstairs. The heat will be forced out of the basement, and sucked upstairs. How much depends on the vacuum created by the fan and the difference in temps between floors. You can sort of see this work if you have a bathroom upstairs with a vent fan. Turn it on and time how long it takes to raise the temp 5 degrees. Try it again without the fan and it should take longer unless your house is drafty.
Mike -

 

[summit]

whatever you do, that thing is gonna blow you out.. good choice

 

[Patriots]

Many thanks to you all for your feed back. I think I'm going to put the stove on the main floor and simply heat the finished basement with propane using a programable thermost. Though the lower level (man land) is where the media room and bar is located during the winter months there won't be anybody down there during the day anyway. It's on it's own zone so I figure I'll program a thermost to heat during the evening when the area is likey used. The issue that I may have on the main floor is that I would need to put the stove in a sun room which is off the kitchen and not directly in line with the rest of the house. I do however have a ceiling fan in the sunroom which would help circulate the heat as well as a large eight foot doorway leading out of the sunroom into the rest of the house. I figure maybe a few four inch fans in some doorways may circulate the heat throught the main level even though the stove is tucked in a corner room. I guess there's only one way to know for sure....

 

[rona]

You will be surprised at how much difference a ceiling fan will make in moving the hot air around. I figured I would need a couple small fans but nope the ceiling fans did all the work needed. Try it first before you spend money that you may not need.