Insert installed upstairs or downstairs?

[mr2autoxr]

I have a splilt level ranch house. What this means is that off to one end the bedrooms are down about 3 steps from the main level and have a crawl space underneath. The same is repeated on the other end of the house which leads to the garage and down to the basement. The garge end does not have a crawl space, just a slab.

My fireplace is right in the center of the house and the chimney goes down to the basement level where there is another fireplace. The upstairs area is roughly 2400 sq ft with an open floor plan, except down the hall to the bedrooms. The basement is also open and only split down the middle to a finished and unfinished side (about 600 sq ft total).

The question I keep pondering is to put the insert upstairs or downstairs. If upstairs it is in the room we watch TV in and I don't want it to be incredibly hot when I plan on putting in a PE Summit or Lopi Freedom as a main source of heat for the house. If it goes downstairs will the heat rise and heat the main upstairs easily and keep it about 65 deg. or so? I worry then that the bedrooms that are over the crawl space would stay cold even though the crawl space has a decent opening to the basement area that would stay open to move heat into there.

Anyone have any experience with something like this? I want to get a big insert because my fireplace is very large and I'm trying to heat as much of the upstairs as possible.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

my initial thought would be that the downstairs is the best option. Its very hard to force heat down to lower rooms with out blasting out the room that the insert is in. The bedrooms likeley will stay cool with the doors closed, warm with them open. This is also assuming your lower fireplace drafts well. Basements are notorious for having draft problems, expecially when they have another fireplace on the main floor on top of it...

 

[johnn]

I`m confused. Does the bedrooms sit over a crawl space or the basement. Can you safely utilize floor registers to allow heat to rise from basement,crawl space area into the rooms? 2400 feet of open floor plan doesn`t sound like you would be smoked out of room with insert centrally located.

 

[mr2autoxr]

One thing that might help the draft is the walk out sliding glass doors and two windows. Almost the entire 20 ft wall is glass.....

Thanks for your thoughts. I know the two chimneys are separate and have different flues all the way to the roof. Don't know much about chimneys so hopefully I stated that correctly.

If I went upstairs with the insert I planned on running a small fan in the hallway by the bedrooms and pushing air up the 3 stairs to the main part of the house and the bedroom doors would stay open.

This last winter this area was a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house so you might be right about having a tough time keeping them within 5 degrees or so of the main section of the house.

Thought some pics might help
(broken link removed to http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8516/basement1.jpg)
(broken link removed to http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8767/basement2k.jpg)

Basement fire place

(broken link removed to http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3861/basement3g.jpg)

 

[Hurricane]

He did not mean cold draft, he meant draft of air into the stove and up the chimney. A bad draft will cause smoke in the house when the doors are open, a hard time getting fires going and insufficient heat output from the stove.

That said I have what is called a raised ranch and have 2400 sq ft first floor with a walk out basement. From the street it looks like a single floor and from the back it is a two story home. I did not have a choice where my insert went as there was only one fireplace in the house then. My stove is a quadrafire 5100 insert and it is on the upper floor center of the house. I opened up the floor plan and I have no problems heating all of it when it is 10 degrees out with the wind howling. My issue is I cannot get the downstairs heated without running the furnace, and the thermostat is on the top floor near the insert. I only have one zone heat so I need to let the stove go out once a week to allow the heat to run and warm the downstairs so nothing freezes.
I am thinking of putting a return duct in the room with the insert or the hallway near it and pumping some heat downstairs with a "in the vent" fan. I am worried that I will create draft issues drawing air from the area of the stove.

Bottom line if you can put it downstairs ( heat rises )

 

[johnn]

Mr.2 That big picture threw the wacky on this thread. My wife would love that floor plan.
Except the cold room...maybe. 5 degrees is nothin in my house from room to room, but we are not cold blooded
and like chilly rooms to sleep. Why can`t a second thermostat be used during winter located in those areas,
other vents closed off and blower motor on lower cfm setting. Im sure its not that easy, units being sized to footage
and return air issue,,,but we have people that could answer those questions?

 

[Todd]

Personally I'd put it downstairs. I have had good luck in three different homes heating with wood stoves installed in basements. Walkout basements are ideal for this since you don't have to haul firewood down stairs and the negative pressure issues aren't as bad since there are windows and doors.

As far as moving that heat up, you have to think of pushing the cooler air from above down into the basement, that will help push the warm air up to replace it. You may have to play with fans or floor grates to figure out the best circulation loop.

 

[mr2autoxr]

Well it does seem like everyone says downstairs would be better. I like that for the ease of loading and carrying wood in, but I sure was looking forward to watching the fire while watching TV.

Now I'm also thinking crazy and look at the Woodstock stove sale and I could get two of the Fireviews for the price of a PE Summit! I wonder it I'm crazy for thinking a smaller stove upstairs and one downstairs instead of one big one somewhere.

Guess I'm sure having a hard time deciding where to put the stove. I think I'm just worried I won't get the heat I want to "feel" when it is downstairs.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Well, there really isnt nothing like the feel of infrared heat off of a wood appliance. Just because the better location might be downstairs doenst mean that it has to go down stairs. I would put it where your most likely to use it. I cold stove downstairs is way worse then a hot stove upstairs....Just put the appropriate size stove upstairs and zone heat and enjoy!

 

[stockdoct]

I love the view.

I love being next to the fire and watching the flames dance

I love watching the cats roll unto their backs in front of the fire stretching their arms

I love sitting next to the fire, wondering if I should throw a log in now or wait 20 minutes as the fire dies down



If I were in your shoes, I would put an insert into your upstairs fireplace this year, learn to use the stove and learn about wood, enjoy your fire knowing it isn't perfect for heating your home ...... and consider other options (like a second stove) next year. You might hating hauling the wood, your wife may hate the mess thats inherent to wood burning. You never know. But I would not put a stove in a place I don't spend my winters.

Downstairs stove efficient? yes. Does it fill your soul? no.

 

[ControlFreak]

Wow, that is an excellent hearth!

I'll vote downstairs as well, except for the issue of having to go downstairs all the time to mess with the thing if you spend most of your time upstairs. Just be aware that if the stove is upstairs, it will provide zero heat for the lower level, and you are right that the room the stove is in will be on the warm side. After you have the stove running downstairs, you may find that everybody migrates to spending time down there in front of it. As far as getting heat upstairs from below, that will depend upon how much of an opening you have between the two. An open stairwell in the vicinity of the stove will do ok.

I heat a 2-story colonial home with a stove on the first floor. The house is well insulated and that stove provides the only heat the upstairs gets (the heating system up there has been broken for about 5 years). The temp upstairs ranges from the 65-74, depending upon the outside temp and how well we keep the stove fired up. Last winter I used about 200 gallons of oil, and that includes heating water for a family of 4.