Looking for opinions

[CoFireplace]

Just looking for thoughts/opinions to verify my train of thought.

I live in Colorado and have a 1970s 2 story ranch. Basement is ~800 sq/ft and top is 1000 sq/ft w/two bedrooms. We have a single chimney with a fireplace in the basement and in the living room. We like the open fireplace upstairs and are planning on putting an insert in the basement to help heat the house and to stop smoke from being drawn into the basement when we use the upstairs fireplace. So my questions are:

1. Is putting the fireplace downstairs to warm the whole house the right line of thinking? Will enough heat transfer thru the floorboards to keep the upstairs warm. The downstairs has carpet but there are three sides with concrete walls. Never got unreasonably cold downstairs but the furnace with a fan is down there so I was thinking I could leave the fan running on the furnace with the downstairs fireplace to help heat the house.

2. As far as selecting an insert, which ones are the easiest to repair and obtain parts for? I've read around that some places make you go thru dealers vs. being able to purchase online so consideration of future repair parts.

3. I dont have a particular cost in mind, but what I definitely do not want is to hear the metal popping as it heats and cools. So far the Jotul is the only brand I have seen that is fully cast iron which I think will help with that. Are there any other brands that are completely cast iron or have thick enough metal to prevent popping?

Anyway, thanks for you time and I would appreciate any personal experiences, thoughts, or advice.

 

[begreen]

Are there two flues in the single chimney and do they terminate at the same height? If so, that is part of the problem. Raising the upstairs flue termination may stop the smoke from being pulled down the basement flue.

Osburn and Drolet sell parts online.

Jotul inserts are steel body with a cast iron front trim. The Hearthstone Clydesdale has a cast iron body. A slight pinging as metal heats up is not uncommon.

 

[kennyp2339]

Its going to be pretty tough heating from the basement to the upstairs unless you have a direct path for the cold air to go into the basement / heat to go up - establishing a convective loop.
The concrete walls will soak up some of the heat and transfer it into the earth... studies have suggested that concrete can absorb up to 1/3 of the heat produced, so out of every 3 cords of wood that is burnt, 1 cord is going directly into heating the walls.
I heat my raised ranch from the basement, I do have a large stairwell that is pointed in the right direction to have good airflow, plus my upstairs insulation & windows are pretty decent, so I can keep the upstairs in the low 70's all winter.
If i were you though, I'd flip the insert into the main living floor (upstairs) get a chimney cap that can be closed by a interior cable and put that on the chimney for the basement fireplace.

 

[bholler]

I personally almost always prefer heating from the basement. Yes you will need to be sure you get a good loop of airflow but it isnt that hard. And yes you need the basement walls insulated.

 

[moresnow]

The 3 uninsulated basement concrete walls will suck heat big time. Do you spend your time downstairs or upstairs? I'd put the heat where I spend most of my time if possible. Is there a open stairway heading upstairs from the basement? Centrally located?
Your existing forced air furnace likely has upstairs cold air returns for the most part. I've tried pulling (wood stove) heated air from a un-insulated basement with a forced air furnace located very near the wood stove. We even altered the cold air returns to pull almost exclusively from the basement in the end. By the time the heated basement air exited the forced air heat register in the upstairs bedrooms (ranch as well) it did very little. Possibly just my experience? Dunno. Overall I considered it a failed experiment. My background is limited so take my info with a grain of salt
Fill in some more details for better advice. There are many who do heat from the basement successfully.

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy!

 

[bholler]

I know many people say put the stove in the room you use most. I cant say thats wrong but it is not how i like to do it at all. I am to hot and very uncomfortable spending to much time in the ssme room as the stove. To me that means either keeping the stove room comfortable and the rest of the house is much cooler. Or keeping the rest of the house comfortable and the stove room to hot.

That is just my opinion

 

[Bad LP]

Your bare concrete walls are just a huge heat sink for any basement heat generated. I would address that problem first.

 

[yooper08]

Can't repeat it enough - insulate the walls in the basement if you put it down there. Otherwise you're just lowering your frost line.

I'm probably not the best example of heating a house from the basement as that's not my primary goal, but I do try to distribute as much heat upstairs as I can. The main living area where the stairwell comes to stays warm. The opposite side of the house though, not so much - still trying to figure that out.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I know many people say put the stove in the room you use most. I cant say thats wrong but it is not how i like to do it at all. I am to hot and very uncomfortable spending to much time in the ssme room as the stove. To me that means either keeping the stove room comfortable and the rest of the house is much cooler. Or keeping the rest of the house comfortable and the stove room to hot.

That is just my opinion

Thats true! My stove room 20x20 avgs 95 degrees. No way could i keep the stove in my living room 24x24 ,In a more open concept home sure. Or if i used a smaller stove or a catstove ,i could. The harman just puts out too much heat even on low air.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Your bare concrete walls are just a huge heat sink for any basement heat generated. I would address that problem first.

My stone basement walls are uninsulated and totally underground. The room avgs somewhere in the 90s with the stove running. If i insulated the walls im afraid what it would go up to. The stove is generally already on the lowest air setting. The kitchen and living rooms above stay about 75 ,perfect.

 

[bholler]

My stone basement walls are uninsulated and totally underground. The room avgs somewhere in the 90s with the stove running. If i insulated the walls im afraid what it would go up to. The stove is generally already on the lowest air setting. The kitchen and living rooms above stay about 75 ,perfect.

Yes you can overcome uninsulated walls for sure but you are wasting heat regardless.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Yes you can overcome uninsulated walls for sure but you are wasting heat regardless.

Only other option for me would be to put smaller loads in more frequently , but would not be able to engage the afterburner and utilize the clean burn tech built into the stove. Im not using much wood, mild winter days only 1 filling a day . Burns from 10PM until about noon the next day. And heating 3000 Sq ft. On 3 floors.

 

[bholler]

Only other option for me would be to put smaller loads in more frequently , but would not be able to engage the afterburner and utilize the clean burn tech built into the stove. Im not using much wood, mild winter days only 1 filling a day . Burns from 10PM until about noon the next day. And heating 3000 Sq ft. On 3 floors.

Yeah thats a Harman. Massive heatoutput but very little control. It doesnt change the fact that you are using a decent percentage of your wood to heat the ground around your house.

 

[begreen]

I know many people say put the stove in the room you use most. I cant say thats wrong but it is not how i like to do it at all. I am to hot and very uncomfortable spending to much time in the ssme room as the stove. To me that means either keeping the stove room comfortable and the rest of the house is much cooler. Or keeping the rest of the house comfortable and the stove room to hot.

That is just my opinion

This sounds more a case of the stove and the house layout. Our stove is in the living room in an open floor plan, 2 story home. Since we switched to the T6 the heat has been remarkably even. The living room runs only about 2-3º warmer now than the kitchen and dining room. The staircase is wide and open with a flat ceiling. A lot of heat was going upstairs making it a bit too warm. I added a false transom in the hallway opening to the stairwell. That has helped keep more warm air downstairs. The balance is very good now and there is the benefit of having a great fire view in the living room.

Another thing to consider with basement heating is how the wood gets to the stove. With an outdoor access it's fine, but if one has to lug every load downstairs it can get old quickly.

 

[bholler]

This sounds more a case of the stove and the house layout. Our stove is in the living room in an open floor plan, 2 story home. Since we switched to the T6 the heat has been remarkably even. The living room runs only about 2-3º warmer now than the kitchen and dining room. Our staircase is wide and open with a flat ceiling. A lot of heat was going upstairs making it a bit too warm. I added a false transom in the hallway opening to the stairwell. That has helped keep more warm air downstairs. The balance is very good now.

Yes with an open layout you can get the heat away from the stove easily. My house now is a ranch which is not the easiest to distrubute heat. The basement works well. And regardless it is living space that needs heated also

 

[Bad LP]

No way would you get away with that above the 45th parallel

 

[bholler]

No way would you get away with that above the 45th parallel

Get away with what?

 

[Bad LP]

Get away with what?

Getting a basement into those temps with bare uninsulated walls. My basement never got above 68 this summer unless I opened the walkout.

The first woodstove I had down there was a 30" log eater that gave off a great deal of heat. While not a good baseline It would take a long time to get any sort of serious heat to flow up the staircase into the first floor but it would get there after a few wheelbarrow loads of wood.
2" of rigid Dow foam applied to the walls changed that from night into day even though the exterior of the foundation is insulated.

 

[bholler]

Getting a basement into those temps with bare uninsulated walls. My basement never got above 68 this summer unless I opened the walkout.

The first woodstove I had down there was a 30" log eater that gave off a great deal of heat. While not a good baseline It would take a long time to get any sort of serious heat to flow up the staircase into the first floor but it would get there after a few wheelbarrow loads of wood.
2" of rigid Dow foam applied to the walls changed that from night into day even though the exterior of the foundation is insulated.

Ok i had no idea what you were referring to.

 

[Bad LP]

Ok i had no idea what you were referring to.

For some reason it wouldn't quote the post it was in reference to.

 

[DaveInPhilly]

I do something similar. I have a split level, so you walk into the main level with the living room, kitchen and dining room. There is a basement under this level, and an attic above it. There are two half staircases on this level, on that goes down a level to the family room, laundry room and garage, and another that goes up a level to the bedrooms. So the bedrooms are on top of the family room. I hope this makes sense.

Anyway, we have the stove in the family room on an interior wall. That room stays very warm (in the 80s) when the stove is going. Without the blower going, or any fans on (i.e. when we lost power in an ice storm last year) the farthest points in the house from the stove were in the low 60s.