New Pellet stove questions (basement)

[steppinthrax]

I've decided to do a pellet stove in my basement and I'm about to pull the trigger in buying one. Here are some stats.

I live in Maryland, I have a 3,000 sq foot home the basement is roughly 580sq feet. The basement is finished with cinderblock walls. I don't believe the basement walls are insulated well. The existing chimney is a 12 x 12 clay lined flue that goes up around 35'

(1) I'm looking at the PelPro 130 mainly because of the good reviews as well as it's on sale now at tractor supply. Issue is it's designed to heat 2200sq feet. My question is putting such a beast of a stuff in a small area, what issues would this cause. I suspect it would overheat the area maybe? Not sure?

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(2) I was reading that pellet stoves have a forced air exhaust and that I can simply exhaust this into an existing masonry chimney w/o a liner. My plan is to create a sheet metal block off plate on the throat of the chimney, then run a 4" pipe from the stove through this block and seal off the area. I would put a T-ee before the pipe to clean out any fly ash. The manuals show that you can vent directly into the masonry. Would this be a problem?

(3) I want to also block all the entire opening of my fireplace with some sort of "black solid plate" I will of course need to drill a hole into this for the flue pipe from the pellet stove. Question is where do I get this plate from, I've google searched but can't find much... I may have the incorrect term...

 

[jerrieric]

I have a 70,000 btu pellet stove in my basement. I never run it because the issue is heat distribution. No good way to get the heat to first and second floors. I have a 44,000 btu unit on the first floor in our family room and run that 24/7.

 

[articcatbill]

I have our P68 Harman in our basement. We use it to heat the entire house, our house is a split level though, our basement is about 600 sq. feet.

More information about your flue, does it contain your fireplace? If it is a stand alone flue with only one appliance or has thimbles you can securely seal/block off, in that case you can vent your stove directly into the flue. That is how mine is installed. If you have a fireplace or are venting through a fireplace you need to run the vent pipe up and out of the flue. There really isn't any way to assure that the fireplace is properly sealed and you risk the exhaust gasses leaking back into the home.

As far as the install this is what I have:

We did a basement install to replace our wood stove, have had it two years but we have been happy with it. It is in the unfinished part of our basement. 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. The unfinished basement is about 600 square feet, since it is a split level each of the 4 levels are about 600 square feet, totaling about 2400 square feet, we are heating it with the P68. So it is a smaller unfinished space than say if you had a ranch style home, that helps.

When I first started using it 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 (600 sq ft), 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. They are out of the way, the basement stays nice and dry.
• 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.

 

[FirepotPete]

If you already have a forced air furnace you may want to think about a pellet furnace instead. As others have said you will find it hard to heat the upstairs if not an open type building.

If heat in the basement isn't a huge problem then maybe you should look at an insert for the fireplace and get your heat upstairs to begin with.

 

[steppinthrax]

Thanks guys, in terms of the "decorative black plate". I don't want a huge hole directly behind my pellet stove. What is that plate called to block off the fireplace (not the flu)???

 

[Ssyko]

It comes with the stove its a pellet insert. Otherwise you have to get creative and make your own. Free standing stoves don’t come with anything.you may want to look into a larger stove. Easyer to turn a big one down than to get more out of one not capable of it.