Outside furnace or stove in basement?

[02stangguy]

I'm having a hard time making up my mind. I have a big word burning stove in my living room with a blower on it that heats my living room as much as I want. It I can't get the air down the hall way to the bed rooms. I've tried turning the ceiling fan on in the living room to keep the hot air down then putting a fan in the hall way to get it to the bed rooms but it is still cold. It gets warm enough for my wife and me but we have little ones and then any likes to be pretty warm at night. I've always wanted an outside furnace and I feel like it would be pretty easy to install one and run the duct work since I live in a rancher with a basement. My other idea is to just put another stove in the basement and cut vents in the floor so the heat can rise to the rooms upstairs or put a wood furnace in the basement and run ducts. What would be the best way to go? Outside furnace, stove in basement and cut vents in floor or furnace in basement and run ducts?

 

[Lcback]

If your willing to cut vents in the floor I would put a furnace in the basement and run ducts where you want the heat.
But I am biased I am doing that right now. Outside furnaces are nice for the mess, a PITA to load in the morning, and I imagine loose some significant radiant heat.
My basement doesn't have heat with out the furnace. Even with the hot air blowing upstairs it's like having a stove in the basement that then radiates a lot of heat. The downside is bringing the mess into the house. And your chimney costs a lot more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bad LP]

If you don't insulate the basement walls most of that heat you generate gets sucked right up by the cold concrete. I had a wood furnace in my last house that was tied into the oil furnace duct work (FHA) that was amazing but it would eat wood like nobody's business. I'm sure today's wood furnaces are leaps and bounds better than 25 years ago.

Up here in northern Maine I have no interest getting all bundled up at -20 to load any outdoor unit at any cost. Currently there is a Jotul Rockland wood stove insert in the LR and a VC Vigilant in the basement that will keep the LP boiler off when we are here. I just bought a Tarm boiler and I'm currently working on water storage options.

 

[Bootstrap]

I have a fireplace in my living room. I used to run a nice Vermont castings hooked up to that fireplace, sounds like your situation. Except the coldness in the bedrooms was not acceptable to the war department. I say that, because she was never happy in a cold room.
So we got to talking about what we were going to do about that. I looked into furnaces. I looked at the Hot blast models and thought the concept was great. Since my house has forced hot air, the ducting is already there. And I have a chimney in the basement because I used to run a radiant stove down there(which always resulted in a cold house upstairs, vents cut and all.)

We looked at the Englander 28-3500 and it was priced right. Though not an EPA furnace, it easily lasts me 8 hours on mixed hardwood and the design is great. The cost was $960 which is great. Its built like a tank, weighing 450lbs. Has a glass door, which none of the cheaper built yet more expensive Hot blast models have. Also, my furnace is wood burning only, not a combo which I strongly recommend against as those things eat wood and have grates that are prone to breaking.

My house is now warm from front to back, side to side. And the left over radiant from the furnace warms the basement and the floors aren't cold anymore. With the wood stove in the living room, we had mess around the stove, it took up space. Plus the basement was frigid and the heat didn't work its way down the hall good.

Back when I had a radiant stove in the basement, it was warm morning 523. That thing ate wood, over 5 cords and no matter what I did, it was always out in the morning and the house was freezing. I would fire that thing hotter than hell and the house would never get over 65 degrees in the winter. That got old fast.

So far we couldn't be more pleased with this furnace. If money isn't a concern, or you want to split a bit less wood, you should consider an EPA furnace. But with my 1260SQ-FT(upstairs) house, I will probably only burn 4 cords and that's fine with me.

 

[maple1]

BTW, you'll get better results in trying to move air around like you're currently doing, by using fans on the floor in the cold areas to blow cold air towards the stove - rather than trying to move warm air with fans away from the stove.

 

[02stangguy]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'm leaning towards a forced air one with the ducts. Is the duct work expensive?

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

I also have the Englander 28-3500 and cannot say enough good things about it, especially for the money. Outdoor burners are nice for the mess, but I would hate loading in the cold. I've had mine for three years and we burn 3-5 cords per year, very acceptable for heating 2500 sq feet. Our house is all brick and not very well insulated. Imo it's not hard to install. We have two trunk lines off the furnace with one running through the cold attic. I block the attic line and ran the single line off the stove to the open trunk. Even though 1/3 of the house doesn't get the forced air it stays warm due to ambient movement. I should mention the two areas are open to air movement. I can easily keep our house 80° when it's 0° out, we love it. One caveat, you must burn dry wood. Anything over 20% moisture and it's no fun.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

And for me the duct work was very cheap and I installed myself.

 

[brenndatomu]

Outdoor forced air furnaces started to be popular around here at one time...and then you started to see 'em for sale...and now nobody even sells new ones that I know of (around here) It sounds like a good idea, but I just don't think it worked out very well for most people.
A wood stove in the basement to heat the whole house works for some, but often times not very well.
A forced air furnace in the basement sounds like your best option. Duct work is not very expensive (if you DIY) and not really that complicated, just follow all the recommended clearances in the owners manual. My basement is not insulated and it stays pretty warm just from the radiant heat off the furnace, one unexpected benefit of that was no longer having cold floors! I hate cold floors...
Ductwork can be integrated into the existing, or installing separate is many times simpler/easier

 

[Bootstrap]

I also have the Englander 28-3500 and cannot say enough good things about it, especially for the money. Outdoor burners are nice for the mess, but I would hate loading in the cold. I've had mine for three years and we burn 3-5 cords per year, very acceptable for heating 2500 sq feet. Our house is all brick and not very well insulated. Imo it's not hard to install. We have two trunk lines off the furnace with one running through the cold attic. I block the attic line and ran the single line off the stove to the open trunk. Even though 1/3 of the house doesn't get the forced air it stays warm due to ambient movement. I should mention the two areas are open to air movement. I can easily keep our house 80° when it's 0° out, we love it. One caveat, you must burn dry wood. Anything over 20% moisture and it's no fun.

I installed mine toward the end of winter last year. Although I had heated for a while and through a lot of really cold nights, this will be my first full season with it.
Since you burn 3-5 cords in a house that seems to be about the size of mine, that's good news for me. I have over 7 cords but I like to have left overs for next year. Counting my basement, its about 2500 sq-ft but the basement get only radiant heat from the furnace.

The wood I've been burning has had mixed moisture levels. My experience here is a bit different as this furnace doesn't seem to care about moisture levels up to 35%. Maybe its my chimney or something.
Also, I never ever use the bottom vent. Not even when I start the fire. That knob always stays shut. And when its time to load up and hit the hay (or go to work), I move the slide all the way to the right, then move it about 1/8" over to the left. That gets me my 9 hour burns.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

/4

I installed mine toward the end of winter last year. Although I had heated for a while and through a lot of really cold nights, this will be my first full season with it.
Since you burn 3-5 cords in a house that seems to be about the size of mine, that's good news for me. I have over 7 cords but I like to have left overs for next year. Counting my basement, its about 2500 sq-ft but the basement get only radiant heat from the furnace.

The wood I've been burning has had mixed moisture levels. My experience here is a bit different as this furnace doesn't seem to care about moisture levels up to 35%. Maybe its my chimney or something.
Also, I never ever use the bottom vent. Not even when I start the fire. That knob always stays shut. And when its time to load up and hit the hay (or go to work), I move the slide all the way to the right, then move it about 1/8" over to the left. That gets me my 9 hour burns.

Sounds like you have a really strong draft. Be careful with that. We have great draft, so I don't need to open the bottom dial, but usually do since it's a bit faster. Once things are going, my long burn settings are the top slide open about 1/4" and the dial open about 1/4 of a turn. Usually get at least 8 hours of burn time. Our 2500 sq ft includes the basement too, which we have one line heating it. I can burn fine without the dial, but find that the the glass stays pristine if I open it just a cog or two. On another note, yours must be right for burning wood that wet. Anything over 20% on ours it get pretty finicky, >25% and you can forget it.

 

[Bootstrap]

/4

Sounds like you have a really strong draft. Be careful with that. We have great draft, so I don't need to open the bottom dial, but usually do since it's a bit faster. Once things are going, my long burn settings are the top slide open about 1/4" and the dial open about 1/4 of a turn. Usually get at least 8 hours of burn time. Our 2500 sq ft includes the basement too, which we have one line heating it. I can burn fine without the dial, but find that the the glass stays pristine if I open it just a cog or two. On another note, yours must be right for burning wood that wet. Anything over 20% on ours it get pretty finicky, >25% and you can forget it.

Yea I don't fill the stove with logs that are 35%. I just did random checks on all three of my wood piles. 95 percent of my wood is between 15%-18%.
Once in a while I find a log that got wet as my piles get covered with tarps. When I throw those logs in with the 15%-18% logs it doesn't seem to mind.

My chimney is that triple layer simpson duravent 6". The stack is about 18'- 20' long not counting the black stove pipe

. It runs from the basement ceiling through the house and out the roof.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

Ok. That makes sense about the wood. I'm not sure I would say that ours chews it up fine, but I can throw a less dry piece or two on without too much trouble. Your system is very similar to ours in the sense that our chimney goes up through the middle of the house, which keeps the gas hot and the draft strong. Very nice.