Pellet stove in basement to heat whole house?

[JayGualls]

Hey guys,
So I have a very small house in Western MA (main floor just under 900sq ft + walkout basement/built in garage which will not be heated, about 700sq ft of basement that will be heated). I have all electric baseboard heat on my main floor and my basement has a non-functioning gas stove. I'm considering replacing the gas stove with a pellet stove to heat the basement and provide at least some heat for my main floor as well. I currently have no floor vents but on the plus side, my door to the basement is in the center of the house.

I'm wondering what anyone here would think about using a pellet stove in the basement to utilize for heating the whole house or at least some supplemental heat for the main floor and what tips any of you may have.

As a side note, if I could I would put one on my main floor but there's no place with adequate space that makes sense in this little house other than the basement.

Thanks!

 

[johneh]

Welcome to the forum
First, a pellet stove is a space heater
You may have good luck heating the upstairs
some people do. In most cases, people have trouble getting
the warm air upstairs
Others will chime in

 

[whit]

With the basement door open you should get significant supplemental heat. We have a wing that's two 300 sq ft rooms on two floors, and an open staircase between them at the far side from the pellet stove. The upstairs room gets heat, which of course rises, but is roughly 6-8 degrees colder than the heated room below. I also used to, years back, get much of our heat off a wood stove in the basement, with a few vents. But that required running the basement around 10 degrees higher than the resulting heat on the 1st floor. If you basement and/or upstairs is decently insulated, drafts sealed and so forth, that can make a big difference. In our case it's a 1910 house that's reasonably insulated, considering.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Hey guys,
So I have a very small house in Western MA (main floor just under 900sq ft + walkout basement/built in garage which will not be heated, about 700sq ft of basement that will be heated). I have all electric baseboard heat on my main floor and my basement has a non-functioning gas stove. I'm considering replacing the gas stove with a pellet stove to heat the basement and provide at least some heat for my main floor as well. I currently have no floor vents but on the plus side, my door to the basement is in the center of the house.

I'm wondering what anyone here would think about using a pellet stove in the basement to utilize for heating the whole house or at least some supplemental heat for the main floor and what tips any of you may have.

As a side note, if I could I would put one on my main floor but there's no place with adequate space that makes sense in this little house other than the basement.

Thanks!

I have two Harman pellet stoves, one of which is in my basement. This stove also heats my kitchen which is at the top of my stairs.

On the other hand, you should put the stove in the main area you want to heat, if at all possible.

 

[Daveman]

Hey Jay….there are lots of ways to move air around, but really it’ll depend on the design of the house. I have a 25pdvc installed in the basement (2014), and it does a phenomenal job of heating all 3 levels of my home….but I live in a semi detached 3 level with 1 shared wall and open stairwells creating almost a chimney effect. If tou have supplemental electric baseboard upstairs it’ll certainly help keep you comfy and most likely provide a heat boost upstairs.

 

[shtrdave]

I have seen some have duct work attached to the the stove to pus the air to the main duct work. If it is not to hard to run some simple ducts up through the floor I would think you would do okay, this would also depend on the size of the unit you get. If I wanted to heat 2 levels I would opt for larger if possible.