Pellet stove in a weekend home

[mrsuds]

First off, hello to everyone....

Great site. I sent the better part of this morning just pouring over all the great info..

Here's my problem/plan..

I have a weekend house in the Catskills that is chewing through a lot of oil. Currently I have a oil fired boiler with hot water baseboard. I initally looked at getting a pellet furnace but do not like leaving the house unattended for a lengthy time with the pellet furnace running. I'm thinking now that I might put a pellet stove in my unfinished basement (about 1200 s/f) and just run it when I'm there. Since the basement is unfinished it gets cold down there. My hope is that I can heat the basement and radiate some of the heat upstairs.

Has anyone tried this? Pro/cons would be appreciated. I'm new to pellet stoves, but am trying to learn as much as I can.

Thanks

 

[buttaluv]

I would be interested in getting the heat upstairs part...not trying to hijack the thread, but that's kind of what I was hoping for and it seems I am just really heating the basement and hardly any is getting upstairs. what could we do to help that...cheap and easy, short of tying into existing duct work...oh yeah, I'm using a us stove 6220...again not trying to hijack the thread, but I think mrsuds will have the same problem

 

[mrsuds]

Agreed that some of the heat will be absorbed by the concrete walls, but some is better than none right now. I talked to a buddy regarding this and his suggestion was to put 2 or 3 registers in the floor to allow some of the heat the travel from the basement. Not a big fan cutting a hole in my floor but it beats the $2000 dollar oil bill for the winter heating season. I wish I had more room on the first floor to place a stove.

Anyway back to the problem. Is having a pellet stove in the basement a viable option?

Forgot to mention, I have a catherdal ceiling in the Living/Dining room. 18' to be exact.

What is the smallest model made in terms of depth?

 

[webbie]

I say it is not at all a viable option if you want to save money. The reasons are many, but mostly because the actual efficiency of delivered heat to the living area is tremendously low.

Looking back over the thread, I guess the question becomes what your goal is? Maybe saving money is not the idea.

If you are going to install a pellet stove, put it in the living area. My opinion, anyway.

 

[flatboy]

In front of my accentra I put 2 floor ducts then ran them up to the ceiling above where I put a inline 6" duct fan. The hot air blowing through was about 140 deg F. Way over the temp rating for the fan but they have lasted 2 years now.

 

[mrsuds]

I say it is not at all a viable option if you want to save money. The reasons are many, but mostly because the actual efficiency of delivered heat to the living area is tremendously low.

Looking back over the thread, I guess the question becomes what your goal is? Maybe saving money is not the idea.

If you are going to install a pellet stove, put it in the living area. My opinion, anyway.

The idea is to 1) heat the basement with the hopes some of the heat traveling upstairs, 2) reduce the amount of oil I use while I am in the house. Like I mentioned I am not at the house during he week so I would be leary of leaving am type of stove running while I was not there. Unfortunately, my sister had an accident with a pellet stove that burned down her house.

I like the idea of the duct fan. That could be an answer.

 

[webbie]

If money does not figure into the equation, then you could certainly have some fun and provide some heat. You will also save some oil....but, again, the MPG will be extremely low, both in heat delivery to the basement and to the upstairs. Being somewhat of a purist, I tend to look at the delivered efficiency of a system.

How about a pellet furnace hooked up to a few of it's own ducts - something like this:
(broken link removed to http://www.americanenergysystems.com/magnum6500.cfm)

That will do somewhat of a job in the basement, but put vast amounts of heat into your living area.

 

[mrsuds]

Money is part of the problem. $3000 for the furnace plus $1500 to wire it, vent it, and duct it is a little hard to swallow. I know beggers can't be choosers. I'm just trying to determine if the installation of a pellet stove would be somewhat of a solution or just a unsuccessful attempt at one.

Thanks for the input.

Anyone else feel free to chime in