is anyone heating from basement ??

[acesover]

would like to hear from anyone who has a stove in there basement or if you know someone who is.
what kinda of stove
sg foot of home
any info please

my head is starting to hurt thinking about all of this!

 

[begreen]

This is a really popular issue. Do you have specific issues or just a general question of how well it works?

If you do an advanced search for Basement in just Titles you will get a lot of links. Here are a couple to get you started:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/17380/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/15945/

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I have a two story, and full basement, unfinished. Each level is approximately 1000 square feet.

I have in the past ran an airtight Sears (seem my signature below) coal/wood stove over night and some days, but working 12 hours days was a bit too long for the burn time even with anthracite (hard) coal. Even when running full, and with the central forced air fan on to circulate heat the best I can say for the stove in the basement is: nice in the basement, perhaps mid 70s, but the main and second floor needed some heat from the central unit to keep them in the mid 60s. I'm talking about a condition where the outside temps ranged from 30s in the day and teens or low 20s at night.

I also burned hard wood in the basement stove, and got similar results. I estimate that the stove puts out a little more than 30,000 BTUs per hour when under a steady-state burn, land much less when down to coals.

 

[BotetourtSteve]

I have an unfinished (concrete floor, walls, not much else) basement located below 2100 square foot bungalow with poor insulation (circa 1923). My stove, a big cast iron Jotul F600 w/blower provides my primary heat with propane logs and furnace as back-ups. I am able to keep floor one around 70, and floor two around 65 (although several rooms have doors closed upstairs). It is around 80-85 in basement itself. Only rarely do logs get used, usually if windy, temps below 25 out, or first thing in morning to knock chill off. Furnace only kicks on under similar conditions from say 4 am till I wake up and rebank stove. So yea, it works for me.

 

[savageactor7]

Of the three people I know that put a stove in their basement all but one moved eventually theres up to their living/great room. The one that didn't got a pellet stove for upstairs and just fires up the basement stove on real cold below zero days.

 

[nhtodd]

I have a 1400 sq ft cape. Heating with a Summers Heat nc-30. I run it flat out during the day as I work form home. Basement runs around 76, 1st flr 72 and upstairs bedroom 66. I burn more wood than I should because of the pour concrete walls and floor but it is very comfortable in the house and the really nice thing is the 1st floor floors are always nice and warm which is not the case when I have to use the oil. If you have a choice keep the stove out of the basement otherwise buy extra wood and let her rip.

 

[acesover]

thanks everyone for the fast replys it all helps me in my decision. my home is a bout 1200 sg ft. 2 story. brick basement will be insulated and divided in half. so i hope it works. hot floors would be nice at the least :-}

 

[stanleyjohn]

I dont have one in the basement but my dad soon will in his.Its finished and he spends alot of his time down there.He is hoping some of that heat will travel to the main floor!but to be honest!i dont think much will.

 

[begreen]

thanks everyone for the fast replys it all helps me in my decision. my home is a bout 1200 sg ft. 2 story. brick basement will be insulated and divided in half. so i hope it works. hot floors would be nice at the least :-}

How will the heat make it to the 1st floor? Is there an open staircase in the area with the stove?

 

[acesover]

yes there is an staircase in the mid?? should i put a wall on the far side of the stairs to force air up? basement is all studed right now so its easy fix. rigth now the stairs are open on both sides with basement divided in half.

i plan on putting a vent on either side of stairs on 1st floor plus leaveing door open or cracked. maybe floor reg if nec i also have forced air ducting maybe i could incorparate?

 

[acesover]

and the stove would be under the living room witch has an open side of the staircase to second floor so if i could get the living room to a good temp some heat might go up. on those stairs i also have my return for central ac witch i might be able to use with its fan?

 

[begreen]

Keep it simple, try it with the door open. If it works, take the door out for the winter.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

My central system has a low speed fan that I can turn on manually. I set this fan on whenever I'm heating with wood or coal. Most of the time I'm heating from the main floor, and I can assure you heat doesn't do down-hill, the basement gets real cool :coolhmm: if I'm heating from the main floor. The circulating fan must help, but the basement is not somewhere you'd want to spend a long time seated.

 

[sullystull]

You could also install a ceiling fan above the basement stairs...circulate it so it is drawing the warm air up.

 

[vtdavid]

Installed the T6 in the basement last fall close to the centrally located OPEN stairs to the first floor. Good dry wood heated the almost 1000 sq ft first floor to 70 degrees when it was 20 below outside with a reload every 6 hours. The house is very well insulated and has a southern exposure. I did use a small fan at times on the stairs to help push the heat up. The chimney runs straight up through the master bedroom closet. The floors get nice and warm, like radiant heat.

 

[begreen]

Although it may seem counterintuitive, a small fan usually works best at the top of the stairs, set low, blowing down towards the stove. In order for hot air to rise upstairs, it need an equal return air flow of cold air to displace it. A small fan set low, blowing toward the stove will assist this return air flow.

Put a portable thermometer at the stairway entrance to measure the temp at the top and then the bottom of the stair doorway. You find as much as a 10 degree difference if there is a good airflow happening.

 

[RISurfer20]

My stove is located in the basement and it works well. I live in a 1500 sq ft cape. Open staircase is located in center of basement. Stove heats basement to about 80, 1st floow 70-75 and 2nd floor 65-68 during 20 degree weather. I can't complain. Seems to work well for me.

 

[acesover]

i would love get that kind of a performance. do you have any vents of just leave door open.

 

[LarryD]

We have our Isle Royale in the basement. If I had it to do all over again I wouldn't put it in the basement. It does keep the house warm, similiar results as earlier post's. We have to throw a lot of wood through our stove to get those results. I would imagine that we would use half the wood if the stove were in our living room. We are putting an addition on our house, hopefully there will be room for the stove up stairs now. :^) My .02.

LarryD

 

[RISurfer20]

I leave the door open. I do place a fan on the first floow hall way to move some of the heat. Typically do go through some wood. 1 cord equals one month of burning 24 7.