Stove or Furnace in a 1200 + 1200 ranch house well insulated with new windows.

[freeburn]

I have a clay lined chimney in my furnace room on one end of the house. It's in good shape and want to use it with a wood burner. I have a wood furnace right now, but was wondering if anyone on here has a wood stove in a furnace room at one end of the house in the basement? Does it work to heat your whole house? If so, any mods to your house? I realize of course that the basement would be quite a bit warmer than the upstairs. I do have a register that I could open up right above the furnace room to go upstairs, but it's a smaller one. I guess I'd like the simplicity of the heat apart from the ductwork as well as the long burns from a stove with secondary burn tubes and be able to see my fire rather than guess where it's at or what it's doing? Any thoughts I'd like to hear? And of course any sarcasm is always welcome too!!

 

[summit]

if you already got the furnace there, why rip it all out to install a stove? wood caddy? (i think) makes a hot air furnace with a glass door to see the fire if thats your main motivation

 

[summit]

here it is, psg caddy

http://www.dynamitebuys.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1131

 

[freeburn]

I've thought about that and heard of the caddy, but would be almost double the price of a stove. The ductwork is not that difficult to remove and I'd have to buy almost all new anyway. Plenum is different size, cold air return would have to go in a different place. I have my current furnace installed in parallel setup, kind of ugly, but does the job, sort of. I would patch up existing furnace ductwork/plenum, not a big deal. My main question is the heat distribution, does it work, or not.

 

[cmonSTART]

Basement installations rarely work as well as installations on the living level. Heat distribution can be challenging.

 

[Todd]

If your house has a very open floor plan with the basement stove near the stairwell in a central location a wood stove may work, but most find it too hot in the basement and too cool in far away bedrooms upstairs. Floor vents can help a little but the majority of the heat goes up the stairwell. If not an open floor plan stick with furnace or maybe a stove for each floor.

 

[mike1234]

My wood furnace is in the garage at one end of our house, it heats the whole house to 74 (or whatever I want) all winter. 4800 sq ft.

My wood furnace has a blower, it takes air from house moves it downstairs and connects to the end of the original heating ducts. With no other blower, just the one on the wood furnace, and no fans moving air, it pushes that warm air all the way to the other end of the house using the original heating ducts. The air moves slower than the other furnace, but is hotter.

I think you would have no problem heating your whole house with a wood furnace, and as far as moving air, it would be way more efficient than a stove. You can set it up in 2 ways, use the blower on your existing furnace to run the air through your wood furnace, and through the ducts, or (my preference) use a blower on your wood stove, tap into the return air to bring air to the furnace, tap into the heating ducts (after furnace) to heat the house. There are pics of this kind of set up on this sight (they were posted last winter), but I am having trouble finding them at the moment.

My issues with furnace in the basement - pay attention to how you get the wood in, and store it. Do you have to track through the house to bring a load of wood in? Can you store enough close by for a few days? Wood and bugs go together.

Good luck.

 

[freeburn]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll just stick with what I have for now. I do have a cold air return in basement and hooked into plenum, I just can't get the air to come out too strong in the house, but then again maybe I don't want it (get too hot). It's a walk out basement too, so I can bring wood in through the door, down a short hallway to the furnace room. There is a little mess, but it's not carpet, so easily cleaned up. Thanks again guys. Once again this forum has been helpful in making decisions.

 

[timeuser]

I'm in a nearly identical situation... same size house, walk out unfinished basement etc. Except, I have a propane furnace installed in the center of the basement with duct work run throughout the house. I was thinking of going with a Caddy and hooking it into my existing duct work with some minor modifications. But as I think about it a wood stove would be easily half the price. The wood stove/furnace would go a the end of the house as that's where the current chimney is and would basically be at the bottom of the stairs that go down the center of the house from the kitchen. So if I left the stairwell open and ran the blower fan on the existing furnace I'm thinking maybe I would have good enough circulation with that. Also, a nice looking wood stove would be more enjoyable than a furnace when we get to finishing the basement and would also heat that space better. Hrm... decisions.

 

[daryl]

With a wood furnace it is all in puting in the ductwork right.You would need two backdraft dampers one for the wood furnace plenum and one for the furnace plenum. Return air is important also use the same size ductwork that goes to your return air on your furnace. It is better to get a HVAC guy too desighn your system. It has too be balenced too work with your ductwork.If put in right it would be a hotter and better air system then your full time furnace.

 

[freeburn]

timeuser - You have a pretty nice setup if that is where you can put a stove. I'd go with a stove anyday over a furnace. It's much easier install, cheaper, more efficient in the long run, and longer burn times. I can't do that with my setup because my chimney is on the other end of the house than the steps and you have to do down a hallway around the corner to get up the steps. Too far to get the heat to go. It would be right next to the gas furnace, but I was told that it doesn't really pay to put a stove next to the furnace and suck the hot air into the cold air plenum, it cools the air too much. I simply don't want to spend the money on a Caddy + Ductwork, it wouldn't be financially worth it.

 

[timeuser]

I dunno.. based on this link I found elsewhere on the forum, it just sounds like it'd be a bad idea to put a woodstove in my unfinished basement.

(broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/pages/basement_install.html)

Seems I'd be best to either put in a furnace or figure out how to get a wood stove in main level.

 

[daryl]

All you need is that woodchuck.