Looking for Stainless Steel Floor Vents

[Bridget Bailey]

Hello,

We are buying a H300, from Houseneeds.com, and plan to put it in the basement to help heat our home in the winter. We have a small ranch style home that currently has small registers in most of the rooms. We are wondering if we would benefit from buying larger registers or if it will make any difference at all?

Below is the stove we are buying to heat 927 sq ft of our home (1854 sq ft with basement):

(broken link removed)

The registers we currently have are 2.25 by 10 inches.

For the registers, are some styles or materials better than others? Wood, Metal, Brass, Stainless?

Thanks,
Bridget

 

[CarbonNeutral]

I'm sure bigger ones would help, but not as much as putting register fans in to actively pull air. Try it first before you cut any more holes.

As another point, unless you spend most of your time in the basement, it is advisable to put the stove in the main living area - there are plenty of posts about it on here...

 

[Bridget Bailey]

Hello Burning Chunk,

We do plan on finishing off the basement in the future and our living room is on one end of the ranch and very small. I wonder if it would be more work to get the heat across the entire house to the bedrooms then up from the basement? I had never heard of register fans. I will have to google that. I may be back with more questions...

Thanks!

Hello Preused ufO brOKer,

Cute picture! The fireplace is in the center of the basement. I'm not sure which is the coldest areas of the house yet. Let me confirm that I should have a blower for cold air into the basement and another to let the warm air into the house? Do the fusible vents have blowers? We do have a open cellar door leading upstairs to the kitchen...

Thanks!
Bridget

To both: I bought the stove from Houseneeds.com they are recommending the Activent, a electronically controlled air register. Please tell me what you think...
(broken link removed)

 

[edthedawg]

Bridget,

Those Activents look like a total waste of time, money, and energy. Your existing registers are just free-flowing openings right now? Not part of a forced-air HVAC system?

Moving heated air around - especially from a basement-located stove - is all about convection loops. You need to find a way to push the cold air towards the stove. then natural convection takes over to move the heated air back to those spaces.

I'm not on the fusible-link bandwagon myself. I discussed them w/ my building inspector and he looked at the wide-open stairway and said "you really think a spring-loaded trapdoor on a tiny opening is gonna make that much of a difference??"

I do like the idea of the register fans, however. But again - set them up in such a manner as to drive cold air toward the stove. If all you do is try to pull warm air away, you will be very disappointed in the results.

Good luck!

(ps: I remember working in a restaurant in CT about 15-20 yrs ago w/ a Bridget Bailey - what are the chances??

 

[CarbonNeutral]

I agree with EdtheDawg about the activent.

Per the hot air removal, I would contest though that if you're pulling hot air from a room, that air has to be replaced. Granted, that isn't as efficient as pulling from the coldest part of the house and pumping it into the room with the hearth, but depending on your house layout, it could work for you. Typically it will also be easier, unless that cold air is coming from a basement that you WANT to heat.

 

[edthedawg]

I guess I might be missing something... the basement isn't finished now, and consequently isn't used much? but the thought is to put a stove down there anyways? That's actually not a great idea - in that case I'd go along w/ CN's original thought - best to put the stove in your general living area, and then take whatever measures necessary to ensure the pipes and stuff in the basement stay warm enough in the cold weather.

Woodstoves in unfinished, uninsulated basements "don't work" because of the massive thermal mass presented by the masonry/stone/concrete walls. The stove can't keep up w/ the amount of heat those walls can absorb without actually making you feel any warmer.

On the main floor, you just use some fans here and there to direct the cold air along the floor to the stove, and you'll be amazed at how quickly the natural convection loops make the whole house feel good and warm.

 

[Todd]

I've heated 3 different homes with basement installed wood stoves and they all acted differently as far as getting the heat upstairs. What I found is insulating the walls is a must and it's best to have the stove close to the stairwell since that is going to be your main supply/return. Also helps to find the coldest room upstairs and install a cold air return down to basement. Before cutting more holes in the floor try it how it is now, you may find it works fine for you as is. I think you might find your stove to be a little undersized for what your trying to accomplish unless your house is very well insulated.

 

[Bridget Bailey]

Hello,

We plan on finishing the basement in about a year. It is already insulated and there is also some sheet rock up. The staircase is seperate from the basement and has a door at the bottom and at the top or the stairwell. Air will not be traveling that way. the stove is currently on the left side of the house under the living room. Based on your the info you have given me, I think, the hot air that rises to the living room will then move (or we can help move it) across the ranch and push the cold air down the vents on the right side of the house back unto the basement... We will see if it does that naturally before changing anything.

Do you think this stove is more suitable for the size of our house? We could exchange...

Wood Classic Stove Model F3100

(broken link removed)

Also I have never lived in CT. That is weird though!!

 

[begreen]

A search on this forum for - fusible link registers - will find many threads and lots of discussions on this topic, including suggested suppliers.

 

[edthedawg]

an 80k BTU stove in a <2000 sq ft ranch seems like way overkill, but you do have basement install + vermont working as biases in the mental math to figure out what you need. It's definitely the high end - you will run yourself out of wood trying to keep such a firebox full.

I also think you'll wind up w/ a lot of basement heat, and (comparatively) much cooler upstairs. You're moving from convection to just plain radiation w/ a heater that big. might heat up the upstairs decently, but it'll conversely be unbearably hot in the basement...

Stairway is outdoor connected or something? trying to grok how it's "separate" if you plan on using it to get down to the stove for reloads and so on.

one final thing - those register fans - even if you do go beyond the current ~22 sq. in. register footprint - they won't move anywhere NEAR the volume of air that a regular HVAC system would. You're going to struggle to air. but it sounds like a decent chance of some success if you have a full-house loop established. just be wary of where you push cold air from, and where you expect the warmed air to backfill into.

hint - they're the same spot!

A room (or ROOMS) full of cold air won't just naturally flow down thru a couple tiny openings in the floor. You may just need to get fancy w/ some higher power fans and ductwork stubs to really draw the cold air out from the upstairs far end away from the stove, drive that at the stove, and then ensure it is naturally motivated to backfill the cold spaces.