What to buy?

[Maineman Heat]

What to buy? Building a new Ranch in Eastern Maine and plan to put a new wood stove in the basement.
Never had a cat stove and don't think I want to make the change now. This will be my primary heat until
I get to old to do it anymore. Center of the basement with the stairwell close by. 1600 sq' above with a
full basement. Thoughts welcome. thx

 

[begreen]

3,200 sq ft is a large area. It may be better to heat with a high-efficiency wood furnace. The amount of insulation, window area, and building tightness will determine the heat loss. Has this calculation been done already? If so, what is the estimated heat load for the house? The basement walls should be well-insulated. Even better if the floor can be too, to reduce heat loss.

There are still large non-cat stoves made by Quadrafire, Pacific Energy, and SBI (Osburn, Drolet, etc.), though a lot of companies have gone to cat hybrids to meet the EPA requirements.

Heating from a basement presents challenges both for heat distribution and possible negative pressure. An outside air supply can help. Will the basement be a fully earth-encased or a partial daylight basement? Will there be a HRV installed in the basement?

Stoves are generally considered area heaters. Is installing the stove on the main floor an alternative possibility? That would open up a few more choices in non-cats.

 

[stoveliker]

I hope you have a walk-out basement. Moving wood for primary heat (to a large stove eating a lot for a large home) down stairs inside will get old quickly.

I think the larger the home, the more important it is to create an air flow circuit if the stove is going to be in the basement indeed. I.e. not only stairs for warm air upwards, but other place(s) for cold air to go down.

The reason is that having both go thru the same stairwell is going to create mixing/turbulence. That's going to limit the amount of heat going up.

A post of how I did this is here:

Post in thread 'Moving heat from basement'

May 1, 2023

I heat from the basement, and if I include my basement squre footage, I have 2500 sqft.
825 in the basement and 1700 above that. Late 70s. Brand new triple pane windows, fantastic sealing and insulation (R57) in the attic. Mediocre wall insulation.

My basement walls are insulated, but the floor is unfortunately not.

Heating my home above the basement is easy. Only when it gets to be 5 F do I have to push the stove (as in 8 hr reloads), still keeping my main floor around 70 F.

However, I second the comment above that heating from a basement benefits from consistency, i.e. you heat...

• stoveliker

• 

I find this made a huge difference. And the inline duct fan made that difference 10 times as large as natural convection through a hole I had made earlier (that hole was also not done right/fire safe/according to code, as it allowed fire or smoke to spread thru the floor).

 

[stovelark]

Agreed- This would be a job for the biggest, baddest steel frame stove you can get for an unfinished basement. Quadrafire 5700, biggest Osburn or Drolet would be my choices. Dry firewood yet? Will this be a Class A metal chimney or Masonry? Centering stove downstairs is good, but needing to get heat to circulate upstairs is always part of the battle.

 

[Maineman Heat]

This is my layout. See the chimney chase in closet of bedroom #2. I'll face stove toward the living room/ kitchen area's. Class A metal chimney will be used. I've thought about cutting a vent in the floor in exterior wall in the utility room. Maybe mount a small fan under the vent to pull down the cold air for starters. If also need I may set up a box fan in basement under bedroom 3 area to help push the heat to the end of the house I want it. (south) I'll see how that does before doing anything else. The basement walls and floor will be insulated. Bedroom's 2/3 doors will be closed most of the time also. May have a walled in utility room in the basement on one end of the house. The center of the basement will be somewhat finished off as a TV room.
Begreen, no calculations have been done yet. I haven't considered an HRV yet. I really wanted a daylight, but wasn't able to get it (wife). Had one with my last house and loved it. I will have stairs from the attached garage down to the basement. Planning on pulling in the tractor with wood dumping it on a shoot that leads to a cart on wheel in the basement. Probably won't go as smooth as that sounds.
Stoves - I have a PE dealer down the road. I like the Summit LE and the Alderlea T6. Does the recent weld cracks worry anyone??
Stoverliker - Yes, I have read that too. Great information. Thank you. I do have some seasoned firewood coming next month. (and a moisture meter here waiting). Thank you all. Please keep the thoughts and ideas coming. I'll update as I go......

 

[Maineman Heat]

I forgot to mention/ask. Will I need and is it possible to have an OAK with my set up?

 

[EbS-P]

What to buy? Building a new Ranch in Eastern Maine and plan to put a new wood stove in the basement.
Never had a cat stove and don't think I want to make the change now. This will be my primary heat until
I get to old to do it anymore. Center of the basement with the stairwell close by. 1600 sq' above with a
full basement. Thoughts welcome. thx

If the basement isn’t finished put the stove upstairs.