Lesson Learned followed by a hypothetical question...

[sfsurfdude69]

My lesson was not keeping a high enough stock of pellets this week at home. During the night I ran out and had to depend on my gas furnace, an 80 percent Goodman Furnace forced air system. It must be the worst Ive ever had to endure as it seems to blow only cold air during the cycle and on the cool down its freezing cold. Ive tried everything I can do to remedy this to no avail. I had to be 24 hours until I went to get pellets the entire time was miserable even though the temp was an actual 66 degrees I would say it was intolerable. My home is 650 sq ft. in the main part and my castle Serenity once restarted did its job and Im thankful for that. Ive installed a thermometer in my kitchen where the stove is and on one of the high low cycles I noticed it reached 100 degrees. Di spite that one extreme I think I hover in the 80's until I turn on my fan to spread the heat.
Now that we are experiencing this extreme winter snowstorm Im sitting on enough bags to last a good number of days until its nearly over. I hate the snow, I cant wait until summer.
My question is regarding placing my pellet stove in my basement as per the suggestion of someone who knows nothing about pellet stoves but He lives in Alaska. My basement is fully closed off by doors of course and He insisted the heat would rise up into the house and everyone's a winner, I get the stove out of my kitchen, I can add cabinets etc etc.
The basement is not insulated and chill, my house upstairs will be insulated as soon as weather permits with dense packed cellulose from the exterior. Why someone has not done this before is insane, it is drafty and a waste of heat. The attic will get about 2 feet of the same. Between the heat loss from the basement I cant imagine there would be much benefit for the heating upstairs without venting or a way to directly help the heat to migrate to the upstairs, am I right?

 

[nailed_nailer]

A pellet stove is a Space Heater. If you want to heat your living area, you will have to heat your basement first if the stove is installed down there.
Any heat losses the basement has will reduce the effectiveness of the stove.
Then there is the question of Fire Codes in your area allowing venting passages between floors.

I'd look for a better Main Floor location for your pellet stove. And insulate the Basement ceiling and Attic.

A pellet furnace might be a better option in your situation. Or Oil/Gas/Wood/Electric/etc.

Good luck,
---Nailer---

 

[alternativeheat]

It sounds like there is something wrong with your gas heater to me. I'd start there and with insulation. It also could be the heater can't overcome the cold of an uninsulated house to begin with. Since your house is small, the stove apparently can, but if it was larger it would not.

As far as stove location and what is best, each house is different but I wouldn't think the kitchen is ideal. And once you insulate that basement , the insulation will block most of the heat from a basement located stove. You will heat the basement well though. I suspect with no insulation in the basement and the stove cranked to death, you might achieve 64 upstairs. Again though, each house is different.

 

[Stihl029]

New windows and insulation is always a better place to start in heating ones home in my opinion. That being said, I do agree that the majority of people hoping to heat their home from the basement may be asking for trouble and disappointment, but it is possible. I think the trick is taking everything into consideration. I have an 1800 sf raised ranch with an Englander 25 PDV in the basement. The home is very well insulated (blown in) and built in the 80's, new windows and siding last year. I installed the unit with an OAK as the instructions said it was mandatory. From the posts here I think its a good idea with a home that's well insulated. I also cut a couple holes 4"x10"s in two areas below the living room, and kitchen. In these holes I placed a booster fan http://www.atrendyhome.com/durebofan.html. They're quiet and seem to get the air moving. Right now the stoves running on power level 6 and its over 76 in the basement, and 73 upstairs. The temp outside in upstate NY is 20ish above. (I'm in a tee-shirt) The bedrooms at night seem to be 64-66 on cold nights. I've burned about 1.75 ton of pellets so far. Not to bad I think. So while as said, I do agree pellet stoves are primarily for room heating, the BTU ratings and square footage ratings do tell one that a unit that heats 2200sf, can by all means heat more then one room in a home. Its all in air distribution and placement. Good luck to you!

 

[bogieb]

Heat from my P61a, does not rise well from my 650 sq/ft basement. It didn't rise well before I insulated, or after I insulated. It would be close to 90 degrees down there and 68* (on a good day - no wind, not below zero etc) in the two rooms adjacent to the stairway. On cold, windy days it would be 64*. My bedroom, on the other end of the house would be in the low 50's. I tried everything; holes cut in the floor, fans in every configuration possible etc. I spent a winter forced to sleep in the living room because the bedroom was so cold (using the propane boiler was not an option as I would go thru $1200/month heating to 64*). Since my main floor does not have any place that I could place the P61a, because of clearance issues, I ended up putting a smaller stove on my main floor.

Basement heating with a pellet stove works well for some people, for others it doesn't work so well. Unfortunately there is not a really good way to tell how it will work for a particular house beforehand.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Take a couple steps back and look at the bigger picture. Heat does rise, but not much until all the space and surrounding mass in the basement is up to temp. As mentioned, any losses in the basement then will have to be made up with additional heat before enough can rise upward into the living area. You still have to go to the basement to fill the stove. You still have to pack the bags to the basement. Each time you use a stairway, is another risk of falling on it.

If you need more cabinet space, put the cabinet in the basement. I had to give up some storage space when I put my stoves in. To make up for it, I have an insulated 10x12 garden shed right next to the car port. I put some nice shelving from Home Depot in and keep my soda pop, water, canned good, and paper products out there. It is rodent tight and lockable with a steel cased man door. My bike and tools etc. also stay in there

Basically, when you have a finite, limited square feet and a preferred volume of stuff to store, take a look at the weight of the products and amount of times per day that you have to access any of it, and prioritize the location of it based on that. If I had a basement, that's where a freezer would be and any canned goods and exercise equipment. A cool, lower temp swing area is better for each of those.

 

[tlc1976]

It might work for some, but I wouldn't want to heat from the basement. First assuming your basement is the same size as the floor above, you're heating twice the air volume. Then you have a lot of heat loss thru the concrete and ground before it even gets to the main living area. Then unless you have a considerable air circulation set up, only so much heat can rise because the cold return air needs a path down too. Fire codes can restrict passages between floors. Also unless I had a walkout basement, I wouldn't want to haul pellets down there constantly. Only real bonus is you would get warmer floors, and a little more room in the living area.

 

[sfsurfdude69]

I appreciate the input, I wanted to ask those with more experience than I just to verify the placement of the stove in the basement. It is going to remain right where it is, maybe I can find a a way to have it cycle on and off so I dont have 90 degree temperatures when I get home . Although its better than the absolute cold for sure.

 

[tlc1976]

I'm not familiar with your stove, but for a USSC King stove I once built a module that tapped into the stove's on/off buttons and was connected to a cheap manual Honeywell thermostat. The board sent power to relays that bridged the button contacts for 1 second, so it was like the on button was being pushed when the thermostat called for heat, and vice versa. The stove's actual operation was left alone. The temperature swing can be increased so the stove doesn't cycle so much and wear down your ignitor. You can save a lot of pellets when the stove is unattended.

I think some higher end stoves already do this.

 

[jp57]

I figured I throw my 2 cents in here...I can heat most of my 1983 1800ish sq ft Cape Cod using my '03 25-PDVC in the finished/insulated basement/family room. Vent and fan in the ceiling plus another fan on the stairs leading up to the next floor help get the heat to the main living floor above the family room. However, the next floor above that doesn't get much heat...though I wouldn't expect it to. I run the electric baseboards in a couple rooms just to maintain something around 60.

Also, I've never set the temp range on the stove above a 4...normally will run at a 2/7 or 3/7 and can maintain or increase the temperature on the main living floor. Anything more than that gets the family room unbearable to be in. That room is anywhere from 77 to 82 while the main floor above is in the upper 60's/low 70's which is comfy for me (and too warm for the wife). Had the family room up to 84 once...almost melted my shorts.

Wife likes it cold at night so we'll close the bedroom door and it drops down into the mid 50's where she prefers it. Helps keep the rest of the house nice and warm though.

 

[tbear853]

A big wood stove with a air jacket and fan to blow heated air through ducts with a cheap supply of firewood and easy access is OK in the basement.

A pellet stove in an uninsulated basement which requires hauling bags down stairs just to heat up an unoccupied basement hoping some heat finds it's way upstairs is a waste of $$$ and effort IMHO.

Maybe I read the OP's post wrong?

 

[rich2500]

I appreciate the input, I wanted to ask those with more experience than I just to verify the placement of the stove in the basement. It is going to remain right where it is, maybe I can find a a way to have it cycle on and off so I dont have 90 degree temperatures when I get home . Although its better than the absolute cold for sure.

Have you tried programming the stove to run on a schedule instead of running all day.

 

[articcatbill]

Our house is a split level, so we have 4 levels, from the garage you go into the family room, above that are bedrooms. Down a 1/2 flight of steps to the lowest level (unfinished), above it are the kitchen, living room, dining room. We installed our pellet stove (Harman P68) in the lowest level to replace a wood stove that was already there. When I first started using it this winter I was a bit disappointed in the heat circulation. The family room was great, but the kitchen, living room and dining room areas were cool. There were 2 4x12 vents in the floor in the dining room, with the wood stove under there the heat was so intense it drove the heat up those vents on it's own, not so with the pellet stove.

I bought 2 of these Tjerland RB12 fans(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FNL0SS/?tag=hearthamazon-20) register booster fans for the 4x12 registers. Wow what a difference, it certainly balanced everything out and now I am very happy with the set-up. The upstairs and family room are now consistent. The bedroom area is cool, but I like it that way.

I do realize I am burning pellets to heat an unfinished area, we have the washer dryer down there, but there are some nice advantages of having it down there:

• Our floors upstairs are nice and warm, with much of the heat rising from the floors the rooms feel very cozy.
• I can store 4 tons of pellets down there. It takes my wife and I around 1/2 hour to carry a ton down there, then we are done with them other than dumping them in the stove.
• I don't have to fret about cleaning the stove and the dust. While I am getting better at not spreading dust, since it is an unfinished space, not really that big an issue.
• I makes a nice warm space to go read if you want to shake off the winter chill.

So as some people mentioned there are basement installs that work. I think for us the split level helps, the booster fans made a huge difference, and well the P68 can really crank out the heat when I need to warm-up the house. Our basement while unfinished and uninsulated, isn't that bad, it is a well sealed, not drafty, block wall basement. Decisions like this depend on the set-up and what you want out of the stove. We wanted nice warm floors, and to heat the entire house. So far I am now very happy with our set-up.