Wood stove in basement?

[Lead Pipe]

I have a 2700sf colonial with a 1000 sf unfinished basement, which is insulated. I have a high efficiency gas boiler with baseboard heat. I am thinking about putting in a wood stove in the basement to supplement the heat and hopefully save some $. Would a wood stove in the basement be enough to accomplish this or would it take to long to for the heat to rise.

Thanks
John

 

[jtp10181]

There are countless posts about this topic already. Normally you want to put the stove in the primary room you want the heat. Stoves are made to be zone heaters not whole house heaters. If the basement is well insulated so you don't loose a lot fo heat through the outside walls it might not work too bad.

 

[Jags]

JTP is right on, and with that I will add:

Hauling wood downstairs to burn
Going down stairs to feed and monitor
Hauling ashes up stairs.

Unless you have a fairly open staircase, you must also consider how that hot air is going to get to the main floor. With some floor plans that is a major hurdle. If reasonable, I would suggest locating the stove in the living area somehow.

 

[Henz]

thats a big *ss house man..I would have two, one in the basement and one in the upstairs

 

[Risser09]

I am in the same boat. I am in the process of installing a stove into an unfinished basement, that I plan on insulating.

I have some benefits to my installation...
1. My basement door is right inside my side door (path to stove is very unobstructed).
2. I have a short ceiling height in the basement with no subfloor (aside from thin fiberboard).
3. I plan to make registers in at least 2 areas to get better heat exchange.
4. I already have 3 ceiling fans on my first floor to circulate.
5. Right now my 1950s furnace is only heating the first floor (700 sq. ft.) and it gobbles oil.
6. I will be rearranging my "man-cave" to take full advantage of the stove and the view of the fire.

 

[Todd]

I heat 1800 sq ft from a finished walkout basement. I have good air circulation (10"x14" floor grate above stove) and an open floor plan so it works well for me. Basement temps are usually 75-80, upstairs is 68-75, and my bedrooms tend to be a little cooler. I try to maintain an upstairs temp above 70 and most of the time I have no problem, but when it gets below zero and windy I may have to light a fire in my upstairs fireplace to help out.

When I lived in Michigan I tried to heat 2400sq ft total from my basement and it worked ok in the spring and fall, but when the temps dropped in the winter I found I needed another stove on the main floor. Your house is pretty big so I'd either look into a wood furnace or two stoves, a small one for the basement and a larger one for your main floor.

 

[Thomask9590]

I am having the same battle. Basement or kitchen. Basement is a walk out the house is 150 years old with minimal insulating and the walk out door is wood and there are two big wood windows down there too. I have a propane heater in the basement and one in the dinning room on the first floor. I say heat from the kitchen with my brand new Napoleon. But some people say it burns hot. I am afraid it will blast me out of the kitchen. I have added a scetch for all to see. The two big red towers are my chimneys. The one that runs to the second floor has the furnace in it.

 

[RedRanger]

I have a 2700sf colonial with a 1000 sf unfinished basement, which is insulated. I have a high efficiency gas boiler with baseboard heat. I am thinking about putting in a wood stove in the basement to supplement the heat and hopefully save some $. Would a wood stove in the basement be enough to accomplish this or would it take to long to for the heat to rise.

Thanks
John

Even with a doorway fan to help push the heat upstairs it still takes a long time to get there. And it will always be considerably cooler upstairs. This is why we invested in an insert that hopefully will give us the opportunity to burn 24/7. It`s like if you can keep the heat continous, it is much more effecient. And if you buy an insert or stove that can accomplish that, then be prepared to open a window once in a while in the basement if you spend any time down there. Conversley, if you are not planning on finishing the basement then that won`t be a problem.

Yes, it has saved us money and should save you money. EG: we only burned 300 litres of oil last year in our old boiler (fairly mild climate though). We also spend all of our evenings in our (finished) basement where the big screen is and the temp hovers around 80+. wheras upstairs it hangs about 62-65 most of the time. though it doesn`t seem that cold if the insert is burning continously. also burned approx. 350 litres of propane for our insert located on the third level of our house. Basically, we use our propane insert and the old boiler as a much needed boost for the upstairs.