P43 in finished basement

[pelletnewb12]

Hi there.

I'm considering installing a P43 in my finished basement.

My house layout:

500 square foot walkout basement below 1500 square foot main floor with vaulted ceilings. 1000 square feet of the main floor, and the entire basement are heated using in-floor heating, while the 500 square feet of the main floor directly above the basement is heated with baseboard electric.

The in-floor is supplied by an on-demand in-floor propane hot water heater. My main challenge is that while the in-floor does an amazing job of maintaining the temperature in the home, on cold nights (really anything below -8 celsius or 17 fahrenheit) it stays on for so long to reach temperature that I pay through the teeth for propane.

I am strongly considering offsetting these heating costs by install a Harman P43 in the basement. The location would be at the bottom of the stairwell, so the blower should direct much of the heat directly up the stairwell. Located at the top of the stairwell are the bedrooms with the baseboard electric heat sources as well as access to the other living spaces. I also have an HRV installed in the home which would help recirculate some of the air around the home, including drawing air up the stairs, and bringing air back downstairs.

Does this seem like a reasonable solution to a self-diagnosed problem?

 

[pelletnewb12]

Anyone?

 

[webfish]

Not sure this correlates, but

I don't have a pellet stove but have in- floor geothermal wirsbo for basement and forced air geo for the rest. . Before my stove I fought the same battle on cold nights. Do you have separate thermostats for basement and main floor? My issue was the basement thermostat was the priority one which was backwards for me as the main floor needed the heat and on cold nights it never fired as the basement could never catch up.

First I flipped the priorities for the thermostats. That helped. Then added wood stove to main floor. This way the main floor thermostat was not going because of wood stove and the basement could keep up because of residual heat from stove and it ran off basement thermostat.

 

[mikkeeh]

I had a p43 in my basement for one heating season. 1350 sqft ranch,built in 2004, full walkout unfinishef basement, cathedral in living areas, 8foot in bedrooms. Center open stairway. Propane forced air, electric heat pump. Used almost zero propane that year. Floors were warm...house was warm. Moved the stove upstairs, just for asthetics. Installed a Serenity in the basement this year. With p43 upstairs, furnace never fired and basement and ceramic upstairs floors were cold. Comfy now. Hope this helps. Btw, i had my 500 gal propane tank filled when I moved in (2011) Havent filled it since, still have about 20%.

 

[MtDew]

I have a P43 in my basement. I have a 1500 sq ft ranch style home. My set up is very similar to what you are proposing. My stove sits at the bottom of the stairs. My only other source of heating is electric baseboard, I have not used them in 10 yrs since installing the P43. I have my P43 connected to a programmable thermostat that is located in the living room. I have had no issues heating my rancher this way even in the coldest months.

Without knowing how much insulation is in your home and the condition of your current doors and windows, there is no guarantee you will have the same results as my setup. But I can tell you it can be done. For just a little more $$, you may want to consider getting the P61 so you have a little more BTU's in case you need them.

 

[pelletnewb12]

That's a ton of help. Very confidence-boosting.

 

[articcatbill]

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.