Heating basement from above room.

[JA600L]

Hi guys,
I have a rancher with about 1300sqft on the main level. Currently I have an Ideal Steel in the basement and Quadra fire 4300 act on the brick hearth in the living room right above the Ideal Steel. Two fantastic stoves. I have always used the basement stove as the main heat source and the living room stove for ambiance.

I'm starting to find that the upstairs stove does much better at keeping the house consistently warm. I knew that was an obvious fact but I also noticed that it keeps the basement sort of warm too. It uses a lot less wood since I don't have to push it hard heating the basement first. The basement ceiling is unfinished between the two with no drop ceiling or drywall. I think that helps send some heat down.

I'm thinking about running the upstairs stove primarily this winter. Anybody have thoughts on that?

 

[dh1989]

You will get some heat downstairs but not much. I have a raised ranch with a finished basement. The stove is in the center of the house upstairs, at the top of the stairwell. If I heat upstairs to the mid 70s downstairs will hover around 50 throughout the winter. I experimented with fans to blow air down the stairwell and found that I could raise downstairs about another 10 degrees into the low 60s by running an industrial 3000 cfm fan on full blast. I decided the electric cost of the fan, along with the noise, wasn't worth the hassle and I couldn't raise the temperature enough to make it work well. I ended up just letting the oil boiler maintain downstairs at 55. I just dial it up when I want to go down there.

 

[NativeCT]

You could install a small stove down there and just fire it when you want to do something down there.

 

[JA600L]

There is already a stove down there. So I could just run that on the really frigid nights. I'm not concerned about keeping it at a consistent temperature downstairs. I just want to keep the pipes warm.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm thinking about running the upstairs stove primarily this winter. Anybody have thoughts on that?

Sounds good. Making the heat on the same level where you spend most of your time is always gonna be more efficient.
BTW, EPA numbers indicate that Quad will throw massive heat on high burn..58500 BTU/hr.

 

[dh1989]

There is already a stove down there. So I could just run that on the really frigid nights. I'm not concerned about keeping it at a consistent temperature downstairs. I just want to keep the pipes warm.

Shut the heat off down there on a cold day and periodically check the pipes with an IR thermometer, especially any that run along the sills or near the foundation edges. Most of my pipes are along the back side of the house (below grade) and stay in the mid 40s with the heat off.

 

[ratsrepus]

There is already a stove down there. So I could just run that on the really frigid nights. I'm not concerned about keeping it at a consistent temperature downstairs. I just want to keep the pipes warm.

That sounds like a good idea, use the upper stove as main heat and part time in the basement

 

[moresnow]

Would using the IS upstairs for your primary heat and burn times be a advantage? I have not had heat in my basement for several years. Never close to freezing pipes. Even in negative temps. Don't recall the temps ever falling below 50? Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[vwmike]

It’s impossible to move any amount of meaningful heat from upstairs to down for so many reasons, I’ve tried !!

 

[ratsrepus]

I always said you cant pump heat downhill.

 

[Hogwildz]

Basement should stay above freezing naturally. Insert on main floor here, no heat running in basement, never had anything freeze. Lowest it ever got was 50 degrees.

A couple regular light bulbs on, or even a small space heater should do the trick if you must have some heat down there.

 

[heavy hammer]

As Hogwildz said it would take some extreme cold for a period of time to freeze. Your basement should stay well above freezing just keeping your house warm. Any little heat source down there will help.

 

[begreen]

It depends on the basement design and sealing. Some basements are partially above ground with uninsulated block or stone walls. Some have leaky sills built on irregular stone walls. Freeze ups in these type of basement were not uncommon back in our CT neighborhood during extended cold snaps, especially in old houses. We usually have a few reports per year from folks that went to exclusively heating with wood and forgot their cold basement had no heat. Like Hog said, in most cases this is avoidable with a space heater, or cycling the central heat a couple times a day.