Which size for second wood stove (basement install)

[bens_igloo]

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice on which stove to purchase to heat my basement. Question: Will a Pacific Energy summit be too much stove for my 1200 ft basement as supplemental heat to my Blaze King upstairs.

Here is a bit of background on my situation: I moved into this house last year - a bungalow, 1800 sq ft upstairs and 1200 ft in the basement. Upstairs is well insulated (2x6 construction in half the area, other areas are 2x4 construction with 1.5 inches of rigid foam board). Wood siding everywhere. Basement fully finished and insulated (though less well) - R13 and tile floor straight on concrete. Half of the basement is above grade. Floor plan is open both upstairs and in basement.

We installed a Blaze King princess upstairs and it works wonderfully. It heats well and while it's on, the propane furnace barely ever runs unless it's extremely cold. This has brought on an issue though: It gets extremely cold in the basement, which has our guest bedroom and the kids' playroom. On a normal winter day, it goes down to approx. 13 celcius down there (55F), so I either need to run the furnace (which would overheat the top floor) or install a substantial supplementary heat down there.

The main rec room in the basement is nearly 50 x 20 so a pretty open space. As a plus, the location of the stove will be the opposite end of the house from the blaze king. So I'm hoping it will help provide heat to the bedroom areas that will be right above the basement stove but far from the Blaze king.

I decided to install a wood stove there, and planning on a PE Summit but I want to make sure it wont generate too much heat. Does the stove run well with a partial load, or would I be better off with a smaller heater like a Super.

I appreciate any input from folks who have experience.

 

[Mike M.]

One factor to consider is how much you will use the basement stove? Everyday, twice a week, twice a month? In the basement the stove works pretty hard to warm up the cold concrete slab. If your running it 24x7 this is not an issue as it will already be warm. However once it gets cold its like that slab can absorb endless btus. Summit would be my vote unless you plan for daily stove firing down there.

Sent from my SM-G900R6 using Tapatalk

 

[bens_igloo]

Not daily like the princess. Once a week at the minimum, likely not more than twice a week.

1) When I am working (my office is down there). I am tired of wearing my jacket and a hat to work down there !!
2) Kids playing in the basement
3) When we have people visiting and staying down there.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Install another BK and just do the slow and go. This way you are never going from a completely cold stove and basement.

 

[bens_igloo]

Install another BK and just do the slow and go. This way you are never going from a completely cold stove and basement.

I thought about a BK but I ruled it out for a few reasons. First, the chimney in the basement is going to be externally routed, since BK suggests should be avoided. Another reason is cost, the BK is much more expensive than the PE. Finally I want to be able to produce lots of BTUs to heat up the basement as quick as possible when needed - I definitely won't be running it daily.

 

[Ashful]

If any exposed concrete, go for the most convective stove you can find. PE Alderlea, Blaze King Ashford, anything with a iron-clad steel box. Exposed concrete can soak up damn near infinite radiant heat, and not give it back, so consider the radiant fraction of your heating a waste, until you get all exposed concrete insulated.

I have at least 60 cords of experience, in this particular matter.

 

[begreen]

The Summit is overkill. A PE Spectrum or Alderlea T5 would easily do the job. Both have very good burn time. Is there an open stairwell near where the stove would be located that would help with convecting heat upstairs?

 

[bens_igloo]

Hi, just providing an update. Thank you for the opinions and advice.

I was able to get a great deal on a Summit which only ended up costing a little bit more than the Spectrum. I figured it was better to make smaller fires in a big stove than not be able to get enough heat from a smaller stove. I worried it would look massive, but because the rec room is fairly sizeable, it looks tiny in the corner! Hopefully it was the right choice.

I picked up the stove on Sunday and had it installed yesterday. I think it will be a good supplement to the BK princess upstairs at the opposite end of the house.

Here's a picture of it fired up yesterday.

 

[begreen]

Congratulations. Looks like the fire just get started there. The Summit is a fairly flexible stove. Let us know how this works out for you.

 

[huauqui]

You will never regret getting the bigger Summit. It is a great heater.

 

[begreen]

If there is a way for the heat to easily convect upstairs it may heat the house.

 

[bens_igloo]

There is a stairway to my main floor entrance, which is usually a pretty chilly spot because it's a tough spot for the heat from my BK Princess to get to.

Just from firing the stove downstairs yesterday I noticed in a difference in temperature upstairs near the entrance.

Either way the BK Princess will continue to be the main heater. I'm generally gone at least 12 hours a day, and it's extremely convenient to come home to a stove that is still really hot and in the active zone!

 

[SuperJ]

Nice, your house sounds just like mine. Ontario, bungalow with a Blaze King upstairs and a 13C basement. I run the furnace if I'm down there to bring it up to 17C, but it tend to overheat my upstairs (even though the upstairs registers are closed. My office is down there, so I use an electric space heater but that thing is expensive to run for not much heat.

I would've suggested the new BK Boxer 24 for your basement. It's supposed to be quite a bit cheaper as it's a no nonsense smaller stove. But everyone I know with a PE stove seems to love it almost as much as people love their BK's around here. And it's not available yet.

I'm curious to get your review on the BK Princess versus the PE Summit, since your one of the few who owns both simultaneously. Would be interested to hear your comparison.

 

[bens_igloo]

For sure! I need to get some more burns on the PE Summit before I can give an opinion. However I can already see that I like it more than my previous non-cat stove at my old house (Regency i2400 insert). I find the PE has a better air control system.

BTW: I love my BK, it's a wonderful stove.

 

[bens_igloo]

I've had the chance to fire up the stove a couple of times now. I've learned a few things:

1) As some mentioned, it takes A LOT of energy to warm a room up from 11C (~52f) to 22c (~ 71f). I have to run the stove pretty hard for a while for the basement temps to stabilize. Afterwards it's easier to keep it steady and I can turn the stove right down. By the end of the day yesterday it was 76f! down there. It is great to be down there without freezing now!

2) I know basement installs can be a challenge. I did have a mild down draft yesterday prior to lighting the stove. Unless there is a trick, it's not that easy in the PE to flip the draft. In the regency i2400 I had in my old house, I would move one of the baffles out of the way and hold a piece of lit newspaper in the stack. Not easily done with the SS baffle on the PE. I got a lot of smoke in the house before it finally reversed. Any suggestions? Maybe use a torch?

3) It is a lot easier to control the draft on PE than it was on the Regency i2400 without the fire going out. Really happy with that.

4) The PE blower is loud, much louder than the Blaze King or the blower I had on the regency. Even on the lowest setting, it has a really annoying humming / electrical noise noise.

5) The pin holding the door handle in place on the PE was trashing the door gasket. I tried to squeeze the pin against the handle and it's better but still pulling at the gasket a bit. At this rate the gasket will be gone by the end of the season. I did a search on the forum but haven't found anything. I might have to call the dealer to get their advice.

 

[begreen]

Can you post a picture of the latch area at the gasket? The T6 uses a different gasket, but @Hogwildz has a Summit.

Ask the dealer about the blower. Ours has a low hum too, but nothing objectionable. Most of the time I barely hear it. Might be my rock n' roll smoked ears though.

 

[Ashful]

Anything that warms the flue should reverse the draft. Even a running hairdryer pointed in there will eventually do it.

Got a Wagner heat gun? That’s how I’ve done mine, when it needs it. More HP than a hairdryer or burning newspaper, may overcome the indirect baffle problem. Then you can use it for heat shrink tubing on your trailer wiring and stripping paint off door casings, in the summer.

 

[bens_igloo]

It's probably hard to see, but the handle is held in by a pin which is bent back around the shaft. The two ends of the pin are at the top of the shaft in the photo below. And those ends catch on the gasket. I tried to bend them closer with pliers, channel locks, a screwdriver and hammer, to no avail.

 

[Hogwildz]

It's probably hard to see, but the handle is held in by a pin which is bent back around the shaft. The two ends of the pin are at the top of the shaft in the photo below. And those ends catch on the gasket. I tried to bend them closer with pliers, channel locks, a screwdriver and hammer, to no avail.



View attachment 224500

That little bit on the edge of the gasket won't harm anything. The "S" bent pin should be up against the round area of the latch pivot area though.
I see no big issue from the photo.

 

[Highbeam]

So glad you got the bigger summit. It’s a 3000 sf house! The cold 1200 concrete tomb will need some serious horsepower to make it comfortable in any sort of reasonable timeframe. You correctly assumed it is easier to get low output from a big stove than to exceed the maximum output of a small one.

 

[diverscale]

You'll be glad with the summit once you learn how to use it 100%. Basement install here, heating solely on the summit in cold quebec. I always use a propane torch to light up. Try this, might help with your back draft.

When building smaller fires in warmer temps, I build thin and high, which mean I don'T use the complete width of the stove, but try to use as much of the height possible, to get the best secondaries going. Found it was the best option for smaller fires.