Long read ,but well worth it,many good points.
Everybody brings up good points.
The free standing stove is a much more efficient heater than an insert.
The cement basement will act as a giant heat sink, sucking up most of the heat
from the first & sometimes even the second load of wood but once the basement gets up to temp ,it gives off heat like a giant soapstone stove for up to 8 hours.
I feel inclined to offer a third choice to you.
You can put a freestanding stove in front of the fireplace that you were going to stick a less efficient & more expensive insert into.
The free standing stove sets about 12 to 18 inch in front of the fireplace & the stove pipe goes into the fireplace just below the top of the inside of the fireplace. Then you make sure the fireplace damper is open or removed altogether & install a steel plate that totally blocks off the chimney except for the 6 inch dia hole that lets the stove pipe thru ,up into the fireplace chimney.
You put down a fireproof sheet metal hearth pad under the free standing stove so that it sticks out 18 inch in from of the wood loading door.
A MORE ELABERATE SETUP ALONG THE SAME LINES consists of opening & /or removing the fireplace damper & running the stovepipe as described above but you brick over the front of the fireplace & install a chimney clean out door below the stove pipe. The steel chimney blocking plate is eliminated as the whole firebox of the fireplace becomes part of the chimney
& you have easy access for ash removal & chimney brush out clean up's.
You can use a fancy brick that will look awesome & enhance the decor of your room to brick over the face of the fireplace. ----And , a weaker cement mix can be used in case you want to easily disassemble & unbrick the face of the fireplace at a later date to restore it to a fireplace.
For weaker cement use more very fine grain sand & less portland. Now, 3 parts sand to 1 part portland is a standard grade of cement, not considered strong as cements go, but good enough for most applications not requiring exceptional strength.
4 parts sand to 1 part portland would be considerably weaker & at 4.5 parts sand to 1 part portland,I would be afraid that if you bumped the bricks by accident, they might fall out. But please double check this ,to make sure that I remembered rightly.
the install of the free standing stove in front of the bricked over fireplace allows the free standing stove to radiate as well as convect lots of heat all over the house.
A 24 inch box fan can be placed behind the stove & aimed to blow vast volumes of heat anywhere you want.
I use two fans on my basement stove, a 24 in box & a 12 in box, the 24 in box does the sides of the stove & the 12 in box does the top of the stove. A moving wall of blowing heat hits you within 10 ft of the stove, forcing you to move after about 5 minutes as you start to sweat, really bad. (don't want to sweat some much,turn off the fans).
THAT IS HOW YOU HEAT 3000 SQ FT
Any stove radiates & convects heat, but when
you place a stove inside a fireplace, the fire place traps both the radiant heat & prevents enough efficient convection (air flow heat).
The fireplace bricks act as a heat sink
& steal your heat , preventing heat from getting into a room easily.
This is why people say that the free standing stove will out heat the insert as the insert can only convect heat, not radiate
heat, & an insert dont convect as strong as a free standing with a 24 inch box fan behind it on high.
Now that you have the facts,only you know your layout & what you will be comfortable with.
But you have the info to make a good choice.
2 more thoughts:: Do You Like to look at the fire thru the glass??? Can you sit in the basement & enjoy looking at the flames or would this be better done in the upstairs room???
A stove in the basement heats the basement first & then the rest of the house , as long as the heat can go up the stairs & the cold air can come down the stairs , for a good convection flow in the stairway.
THE UPSTAIRS STOVE WONT DO ANYTHING TO HEAT THE BASEMENT. Is a heated basement important to you.? The upstairs stove placement will heat up the rest of the house faster than the basement stove but you loose the soapstone stove like heat give back 6 to 8 hrs
that a hot basement of concrete gives. Hot stone effect.
a lot of nights,I let my stove go out as I'm too tired to lay 1 more fire, & the heat give back sometimes sees me thru until morning & other times,I wake up FreezingMyAO at 4 am.
So,like einstien said, its all relative. Sometimes heat give back carries me thru until 1 pm ,so I get extra sleep.
POINT TO REMEBER: a basement stove keeps the dirty wood & ashes, down in the basement
& not in your living room.
If you have a door at the top or bottom of the basement stairway
& you have a smoke spillage from the stove (lets say you opened the door too fast while reloading & smoke rolled out the top) then closing the door will keep all that smelly smoke in the basement & opening two basement windows for 10 minutes will get rid of the smoke without affecting the rest of the house.
How nice, when you make a smoke mistake, as I do about 3 times a month, even though I am forewarned because I know better, To just close the basement door & open 2 basement windows & the wife never knows it even happened.
All that bitching & yelling about stinky smoke & frigid cold outside air to wash out the smoke & the heat with, that you won't ever have to hear is PRICELESS.
Again, your choice, but now you have the options to consider or discount as you wish.
Best of luck
Lastly, even though I may sound like I know what I am talking about, I'm no expert, but I'm near an expert, the expert lives next door to me.
