Recommendations for My House

danothemano · Post by **danothemano** » Tue. Sep. 29, 2009 1:53 pm

Hello all long time visitor first time poster. I have a question/concern about my house and putting a stove in the basement. I have an older farm house that we have remodeled completely. We gutted the first and second floor and completely reinsulated and renovated. We currently have a propane fireplace insert that we love. However I would love to get something that will keep the floors warm in the cold months. We have an old fieldstone basement that we have parged the walls and added insulation to the floor. I have been leaning towards adding a coal stoker to my basement. Has anyone had a simular situation, if so what are their pros and cons. PS I was leaning towards a liesureline stove.

Rick 386 · Post by **Rick 386** » Tue. Sep. 29, 2009 2:50 pm

Dano,

Welcome to the forum......

What is the primary heating for your house ???

Any type of coal appliance can be located in the basement and supply some heat down there but what you really want to do is to be able to tie into the existing heating system to further distribute the heat throughout the entire house.

Rick

danothemano · Post by **danothemano** » Tue. Sep. 29, 2009 7:05 pm

Rick,
Our primary heat source is electric baseboard. That kind of puts us in a different situation than most I guess. I don't have duct work and I don't plan on running any. I Was thinking I could put a couple of vents in the floor.
Dano

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Tue. Sep. 29, 2009 7:30 pm

Hi Dano, welcome to the forum.

A stove in the basement will do a great job of heating the basement and the floor above will be warmer, especially directly above the stove. Unfortunately without a series of vents there won't be much benefit to the house above. You will need to install a vent through the floor, a good location would be above the stove. This vent can have a powered fan incorporated into it for extra heat transfer. Also it is important to have another vent in the farthest location from the stove to allow return air to find it's way to the basement.

If you don't want to install a central heating system I would go for a stove located on the first floor, the heat produced radiates directly into the living space.

In my case I have one stove in the cellar tied into the forced hot air ductwork and a second stove in the living space (plus a wood-burning insert in the fireplace-just in case).

danothemano · Post by **danothemano** » Thu. Oct. 01, 2009 7:51 pm

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I am at a cross roads. Installing a stove on the main (first floor) is more or less out of the question due to the little amount of space that we have. Unfortunately the benefits would be much better if we could. We were looking for a good amount of heat in our living room(main floor) with little or minimal heat on the second floor (we like the bedrooms a bit colder than the rest of the house.) Our basement isn't as tall as most basements I would say it's about 6'6" and I wouldn't be worried about putting vents in I could definitely find a couple of places that would work. Do you think the cost to run the stove in the basement wouldn't benefit the heat we would get? I remember going to my uncles house and he had a coal stove in the basement without vents or ducts and it seemed to heat his whole house, It seemed that way at least. Thanks again for the help.
Dan

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Thu. Oct. 01, 2009 9:19 pm

Maybe this will inspire you...
If my basement were only so nice...
focus on the stove...
The extra steel on the sides cause air flow...
that pulls the heat up...
to the main floor.
I am doing a similar thing...
Have the stove now time to install...
While the stove in the basement is not ideal...
it does warm the floors.
and your 2nd floor will be cooler.
I believe it is worth the hassle of coring the basement wall to get it installed properly.

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Fri. Oct. 02, 2009 12:42 pm

I have my Hyfire in the basement, But...a lot work to get good heat upstairs.

If in the basement, Focus on getting a furnace type stove (Keystoker A120, Koker, Alaska, etc..), usually have bigger blowers and double walls for washing the stove of heat, the standard "stoves" are only single wall on the sides and it only washes heat from the back and top. Normally made for your living area and you can capture the radient heat from the sides.

I added a heat jacket and extra blower to mine and it helped a lot getting the hot air upstairs. A lot to think about.