Home Improvement Today?

I have a woodstove in my basement and another one on my main floor

 

Cool. The one article I read said "if you are thinking of putting a wood stove in your basement, don't. Get a forced air furnace instead."

I thought that was a stupid article but wasn't sure how accurate it was. I thought wood stove in the basement- heat rises- it would have to atleast help a little bit, or at the very least, it will heat the basement.


Thanks again guys!

 

Obviously it won't be nearly as efficient, or as fast, as forced hot air. However, what is your financial situation like? Can you afford a new furnace, duct work, cutting holes in the floor if you don't already have them, and then whatever fuel it uses?

Versus a $100 wood stove, free wood, and some installation time and money.

This would be a relatively low-cost heating solution that you would keep running all day, and routinely check on. Due to the time it takes to heat the basement, then the floor above, then the rooms above you would not let the house cool down like you might with a programmable thermostat and furnace. Once my house gets up to temp it holds it decently well. All the furniture, hard wood floors, and thick plaster walls soak up the heat and help hold it in I think. But it does take time to indirectly heat the rooms surrounding the living room containing the pellet stove. Again, that's where fans help. Along with an open floor plan. We took out a doorway between our living room and kitchen going from 3 ft to 6 ft, and opened it up to the ceiling. That lets air move into the kitchen easier, and not get trapped at the ceiling by the lower door frame. If your basement is all open, you wouldn't have as much of an issue since you just want the whole area to be warm. Most radiant floor heating systems run about 80F because anything hotter is uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet. So figure if you can get the basement up to 80, you'll have the same effect. Add in some vents to allow cool air to sink to the basement, and hot air to rise, and you could get natural convection moving air around the house without adding fans to your electric bill! Fans help, but if you can avoid them that puts more money back in your pocket.

 

I have a brand new gas furnace that was installed last november.

The wood stove isn't to replace it, just to supplement it. I don't think I'll want to build a fire everyday, but at least on weekends when I'm working around the house I think it could be fun to have. I don't mind cutting some vents into the floor to help the heat rise.

Thanks for all your help!

 

If you have a furnace can you maybe utilize a recirculation mode to move the hot air from the basement to the rest of the house ?

 

Ah, so even better. Use it when you can and have time to cut down your gas bill a little bit. Also means you have a reliable heat source while you play with this and work the kinks out!

That's a good idea!

 

What article was that, out of curiosity?
We have a woodstove in our finished basement that we use as our primary heat during the winter. We installed vents in the floors upstairs (three of them) and it keeps our roughly 2000 square foot house very comfortable, usually around 68-72, at a low-to-medium burn.

 

I have an old ugly wood stove in the basement and it works like a charm. I take my basement door off for the winter and put up a baby gate so that hot air can rise. My house is not all that big at 1400 sq ft but the wood stove in the basement keeps the second story in the 65-70 neighborhood, the first story in the 70-77 neighborhood and I have no idea how hot the basement gets but it is hot. The wood stove is dirty but I love it.

I thought about cutting vents in the floor but deciding against it after I was told that it didn't make that big of a difference. Also I didn't like the idea that I would be creating a direct path for fire to spread in the house if a house fire would occur.

When I have my heat pump replaced I plan to have a cold air return placed directly above the wood stove to help pickup the hot air when I run in circulation mode.

 

I don't remember the article but if I find it again I'll post a link to it.


Last night I figured out where my chimney goes through my house and it actually is a great location in my living room. I'd have to rearrange everything and lose a seating position, but the gf wasn't against putting it in the living room.


But since you guys are saying you've had good luck with yours in the basement, and that seems like a cheaper/easier install, that might be better. I'd hate to install it in the small living room and then end up not using it as much as I think I might. Atleast in the basement it doesn't matter if it never gets used, doesn't negatively affect anything.

My basement stairs go up to my garage so now I'm thinking that the heat may rise up to the garage and help heat that too.


I'm going to try to stop at a woodstove and fireplace shop and pick their brains. Maybe if I agree to buy supplies for lining the chimney from them I can get someone to come look at the house and tell me what would be best.


Thanks again for all the replies guys!!

 

Thanks! Don't look too hard, I'm just curious about the reasons they give.


If your living room is small, don't expect to spend much time in there if you've got a woodstove going. We've got a wood cookstove in the addition that we use as a supplemental heater, and when it's running it's uncomfortably warm (high 70's to low 80's) in our 13X16 room with cathedral-ceilings, even with the fans going to circulate the heat. The girlfriend loves it, but it's too hot for me.

 

Don't forget you won't want anything within a couple feet of it. So if you re-arrange living room furniture remember the fireproof pad it'll need to sit on (36"x36" maybe? That's what I have for my pellet stove I think). Couches and other things could melt or catch fire if they're too close. Not to mention the ash from cleaning it out, and the sawdust/bark/etc from the wood going in it. Might be cleaner to keep it in the basement along with being easier to have plenty of room around it. Or to keep animals/kids from getting too close.

Just have to remember to check on it!

Also this^^ It was easier to put ours in the living room, and vent through the wall above ground. However, I *really* thought about putting a wood stove or furnace down in the basement if I could have pulled it off. (Narrow stairs, hard to get a furnace down them, chimney in use by the oil furnace and couldn't share, and other financial challenges.)

 

Talked to local wood stove shop today and the guy talked me into putting it in the basement. So my roommate and I moved it to the basement and there is definitely no way I want to drag it back up the stairs, so in the basement it will stay!


Reasons for putting it in the basement:
- cheaper (no thimble for going through the wall $300)
- no brick hearth
-doesn't take up living room space
- if I don't end up using it much it doesn't matter because it doesn't negatively affect the living room if it's in the basement.
- mess doesn't matter in the basement and I could keep a dry supply of wood down there too




He said I could have a chimney sweep inspect my chimney to see if it's ok to use as is, but they are scheduled 6 weeks in advance so I'd rather just install a liner right off the bat. Probably safer that way anyway. Now to tie a go pro and a lantern to a rope and see what the inside of the chimney looks like. When I sent a tape measure down from the top I only got 21' but I think it should be more than that. I don't know if there is an obstruction or something.

 

What else is or was hooked up to this chimney ?

 

Cool deal putting it in the basement. Try a different chimney sweep you may find one that doesnt book out 6 weeks in advance. If you think your chimney is in decent shape then wait for the inspection. Not having to install a liner would just make things easier and less expensive. Any way you look at it you want to have the chimney inspected to make sure it is in good enough shape to use even with a liner

 

Why not just measure from the top of the chimney to the ground while you were up there? That'd be an easy way to check to see if the measurements matched up.
A simple/basic way to check for obstructions would be to stick a small mirror (I usually steal my GF's makeup mirror for the task ) in through the cleanout door at the base of the chimney on a sunny day. That'll let you look up through the chimney interior to see if there's any obstructions, but it doesn't let you inspect the chimney liner itself. I do this once a year before and after I clean mine.

 

My old oil furnace was hooked up to it. I switched to natural gas and have a direct vent instead of needing the chimney.

Could be lol

Yea I guess you're right

I did that while I was up there. I measured around 20' from the top of the roof to the ground, so since the chimney goes to the basement it should go further than 21'.

I don't have a clean out door. There are no openings in the chimney right now (besides the top). The thimble where the old furnace exhausted into the chimney was blocked off by the people who installed the new furnace. And I wouldn't be able to use that anyway because the new furnace is like 4" away from it. There is another hole below it on another surface that was blocked off at some point too, before I bought the house. The spot where I will have to cut a hole for the stove pipe to enter the chimney will be on the opposite side of the old thimble, between the old thimble and the other old hole.

I have thought about just making the hole now and use that to try to see up the chimney like you said. The possible blockage could have something to do with the old thimble.

 

Hm. Hopefully they didn't seal it off completely when the put the new thimble in.

 

Yep. Sounds like a pretty stupid thing to do but who knows. I'll post back when I figure more out.

 

Depends. If they're not using it they might have been getting drafts into the house or losing heat up the chimney due to stack effect. Sealing it off would reduce/eliminate that.

Good luck!