Is a wood stove right for me?

[Ropelie]

I'm very interested in burning wood for auxiliary heat and am seeking some advice from you knowledgeable people. I life in a 1300 sq foot house with a garage underneath and a new addition that has a basement and living area above it. My plan is to have the basement as the family room with the stove. Would I be able to get enough heat out of a stove located on this floor to warm the upstairs into the 60's? I'm willing to run the furnace fan and pull the cold air out of the furthest area of the house, dump it into the stove room and hopefully the main stairway will let the heat naturally rise to the second floor with the aid of some fans.

Roughly how big of a firebox would I need to pull this off?
Would circulating the air with the furnace fan be productive?
Am I just wasting my time?

I've always loved the idea of having wood heat to cut down on the bills but mainly for the ambiance that a wood stove creates. I'll try to attach a picture of the house soon so you will have a better idea what I'm working with.

 

[Slow1]

Does that 1300 sqft include the addition? How large is the room (basement) that you plan to install into? Do you have a way for air to circulate (without using the furnace fan) in and out of this space (i.e. two doors or large doorway?).

Is the basement finished and well insulated?

Those questions will lead to the firebox size answer.

Circulating air with furnace fan is generally not as helpful as you would expect. IF the ductwork, fan, etc is all within the conditioned space and/or well insulated and not leaking it could work. If, however, your ductwork runs through an attic and isn't well insulated you will warm the attic as much as the rest of the house (same for crawl spaces etc).

Wasting your time? nah - wood burning is wonderful.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I have my stove in the unfinished basement of my 1600 square foot cape. Primarily because the hookup already existed there when I bought the house this summer and I didn't need to do any construction to install the stove on the main floor. My wife an I prefer the house to be cooler so we wear sweatpants and sweatshirts when hanging around. My stove has a 2.2 CF firebox and it heats the first floor to around 64-65 degrees. The second floor stays around 61-62 and the furnace kicks on occasionally for the upstairs. The basement stays mid 70's and I probably burn a bit more wood than I would if the stove was on the first floor but it was easy and the mess stays in the basement. Plus I use the underside of the stairwell as my woodbox and can keep quite a supply in there. I have one fan blowing across the stove to circulate the warm air around and up the stairwell.

 

[begreen]

You would also burn about 25-33% less wood if the basement was insulated. Those walls suck the heat into the earth.

Ropelie, welcome. Slow1 has asked some good questions. Once we have the answers we can respond better.

 

[Ropelie]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies.

The “basement” is full walk-out facing the east with half being garage and half being the “new” part. There is only a 4 foot frost wall on the old part and the new part is about 5 foot, so it’s basically a two story house. Everything is new and insulated in the basement. The only access from the basement to the upstairs in the new part about 10’ in front of where the stove would end up.

I read it is easier to think of moving the cold air out of a room instead of blowing the hot air in. That’s why I was thinking if I pull the cold air from the furthest rooms upstairs through the cold air return and dump it into the ‘basement’ it would be a decent way to circulate.

I have attached a picture of the house before it was done (what a nightmare!) It's the only one I have available at this time. What you are looking at is the ‘basement’ below with the new living up above. The proposed stove location is in the back left corner under out master bed.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[begreen]

Does the 1300 sq ft include the whole house, basement and all?

 

[Ropelie]

It's 1300 upstairs and 1300 downstairs. The upstairs is all living area and the downstairs is basically half garage half walk-out basement, the picture you see is the new part. It's a terrible picture, imagine a 2 1/2 car garage to the right and living area above it.

 

[begreen]

Go large and convective if you go at all. Look at 3 cu ft stoves.

 

[Badger]

I've heard of many having problems moving heat around with their furnace duct work. Instead of using the cold air return to suck heat from the stove room I use it to move the cold air from the farthest rooms and blow it into the stove room. I have a 2200 split entry with the stove in the corner of the house in my basement and I don't need any fans to move air around.

My set up is simple. I never installed cold air returns in my basement when I finished it. All of the cold air returns upstairs work fine and I cut a small hole in the cold air return plenum in my furnace room.

I open up all of the registers in the stove room and go around the house and shut all of the others.

In sub zero weather I can get the stove room up to 85 degrees easy, but as soon as I turn the furnace blower on it drops the temp immediately. On the coldest days all the rooms of my house are with in 7 degrees (guess) of each other. On mild days you can't tell a temp difference at all.

 

[Ropelie]

Your situation is very similar to mine, Badger. There are no cold air returns in the basement, but there are 3 discharges.
Is your basement well insulated? What size of stove do you have?

 

[Badger]

Your situation is very similar to mine, Badger. There are no cold air returns in the basement, but there are 3 discharges.
Is your basement well insulated? What size of stove do you have?

Yes my basement is well insulated.

I have a BK Princess, which I believe is 2.85 cu in. It holds it's own til about 10 below.

Do you have an open split entry or is your stairway spacious enough to allow good convection?

 

[northwinds]

I've heated two walkout ranches with good success. The key is a well-insulated basement and very open stairway. It helps to have the stove
somewhat near the stairway. I've never needed to use the furnace fan. I do have a large ceiling fan in the great room upstairs that keeps the
air moving. I agree with BeGreen that you need to go big if you go at all. I have closer to 1100 downstairs and 1300 upstairs. On the coldest
days (below zero), the insert helps me avoid running the stove hard. I can go 3 loads per day downstairs and one load upstairs when it gets really
cold. Upstairs generally stays between 70 and 74 throughout the winter. We usually keep the lower master bedroom door closed so it stays cool.

 

[Ropelie]

This is the stairway right in front of where the stove would go.this leads into the dining room with a vaulted ceiling, there is a big calling fan here that really moves the air. I'm thinking Napoleon 1900 or 1400 with a blower directing to the stairs. If needed cold air return sucking it from the far rooms and dumping into the stove room

 

[northwinds]

(broken image removed)
This is what I have. You will have less airflow and that basement floor may suck up more of the heat.

 

[begreen]

This is the stairway right in front of where the stove would go.this leads into the dining room with a vaulted ceiling, there is a big calling fan here that really moves the air. I'm thinking Napoleon 1900 or 1400 with a blower directing to the stairs. If needed cold air return sucking it from the far rooms and dumping into the stove room

View attachment 121185

Napoleon 1900 for sure.