need ideas for redoing heating system - central maine

[red247dog]

Appreciate any thoughts you guys have, I have learned a lot from you already...
I live in central maine, 2300 sq ft house, 20 years old, currently heated by old wood stove in basement with blower directed into living roof through hole in floor. House is two story colonial with full uninsulated basement. This set up takes way too long to warm up the house and really does not get the upstairs warm enough. The house is well insulated - rigid foam and fiberglass, southern exposure. This is our first year here, but it looks like we'll go through 4 cord, and some propane from using monitor heater in LR occasionally in mornings etc.

The house has ductwork built into the walls that goes to all the rooms on second floor, and is set up to run as an air exchanger with returns in baths and kitchen. However, most of the ductwork just deadends in basement and was never finished or hooked up. I guess the hard part is done though.

I am contemplating a few options:

New wood stove on first floor- should heat up the house much more quickly, keep downstairs warm and upstairs warmer than it gets now. I really don't want the bedrooms at 70 when we sleep anyway.

Wood furnace - would keep the wood mess downstairs, would need to finish off ductwork in basement, used forced hot air to heat whole house, get more heat to upstairs. More cost?

Fancy wood gasification - maybe do staple up radiant on first floor? Seems like this would cost a fortune and would need storage tank etc.

I am curious about experiences people have had, especially with the wood furnaces, Harman brand in particular, since there is a dealer nearby. Also if you know anyone in this area (Augusta) that you have dealt with that is particularly knowledgeable etc, I would love to hear. Any ideas about approximate cost for wood furnace and ductowork end of things? Thanks for your ideas.

chris

 

[Gooserider]

I live in central maine, 2300 sq ft house, 20 years old, currently heated by old wood stove in basement with blower directed into living roof through hole in floor. House is two story colonial with full uninsulated basement.

(bold added)

Well I think you've described a good bit of your problem right there in the bold bits...

1. A wood stove is intended as a space heater, not a furnace, to begin with, so it will do much better if you actually put it in the areas you want to heat, rather than trying to move the air around.

2. Un-insulated basement walls are HUGE heat sinks, I would lay odds that you are spending at least 1/2-2/3 of your stoves output in trying to heat the basement walls as opposed to the rest of your house. Woodstock Stove Co. has an excellent article on putting stoves in a basement - they said an un-insulated basement wall has an R-value on the order of .5, which is about the same as a medium grade window. They claim that insulating the basement w/ 2x4's, 3.5" fiberglass batts, foam board and sheetrock, boosting the R-value to about 15, will save about 3-4 cords of wood a season!

3. I noticed you mention blowing the heat upstairs through a hole in the floor. Many folks properly go ballistic about that, and it isn't allowed in modern codes, as it could potentially be a conductor of smoke or fire in case of disaster, but that is a seperate issue. For the subject of this thread however, I didn't notice you saying anything about the return air path - how is the cold air returning to your basement? You need a complete "circuit" for the air flow to be effective at heating... Are all those ducts you mentioned open in the basement? If not it might make sense to open some to provide a return path.

Gooserider

 

[red247dog]

Thanks for your input. I do realize it is not the safest set up at the moment. Most of the ducts from the upstairs are open to the air in the basement, and we leave the basement door open as well, so circulation is not really an issue in that respect.

I have thought about insulating the basement walls. Do you think that it is worth doing even if we move the stove upstairs? The basement will never get finished off since the ceiling would be too low. How much benefit does it give to insulate down there if the stove is upstairs?

Thanks

 

[Gooserider]

Thanks for your input. I do realize it is not the safest set up at the moment. Most of the ducts from the upstairs are open to the air in the basement, and we leave the basement door open as well, so circulation is not really an issue in that respect.

I have thought about insulating the basement walls. Do you think that it is worth doing even if we move the stove upstairs? The basement will never get finished off since the ceiling would be too low. How much benefit does it give to insulate down there if the stove is upstairs?

Thanks

I think some insulation would be very important - how much of the basement is above / below grade? How much plumbing or other freeze sensitive stuff is in the basement? Right now your stove is keeping the basement warm, but if you move it upstairs, the heat is NOT going to go to the basement in any significant degree - this means that you might have a risk of pipes in the basement freezing, and you will also now have an effectively uninsulated floor on your first floor.

If you were moving the stove upstairs, then I would consider just insulating the sill space and the part of the basement walls that are above grade and / or above the frost-line, since below the frostline tends to stay at 50-60* and will keep your basement at that temp if you reduce the heat loss from the colder areas, and then insulate and air seal the basement ceiling, probably with a spray foam type application. Doing that might well be your lowest total cost approach.

Gooserider