Heat distribution

[xandrew4507x]

I know a 6-8 degree difference isn't that bad, but man 64 is just to cold for me, which is prompting me to find a solution. The reason I believe the basement heating is working much better for me is because 1. It is insulated and finished and 2. It is much more open then my up stairs floor plan.

The whole basement ceiling is a drop ceiling, so realistically there is no barriers at ceiling height for heat to move, the ares that are directly above this are the bath, 2 beds and living room. The other end of the basement is not finished and is sectioned off from the finished, these areas are over the kitchen and dining room, no problem here as the open stairwell leads into the kitchen, and plenty of warm air makes its way up there.

I think to help further my basement heat source, I could create a wall duct cold air return that is opened up to the basement, I would install one in each bedroom, and possibly two in the living room.

 

[bags]

You are thinking correctly. The drop ceiling does have an R-Value and block some heated air from rising too. Not as much as an insulated joist space but there is some. Just a thought on the dropped ceiling. Have you considered taking some of those panels out that are below the cold bedrooms? They make plastic vented grid panels for lighting you could use instead which would likely help some air infiltrate up into these colder bedrooms. Just a thought and trying to come up with some creative alternatives. Only one of those would be 2' x 2' or 2' x 4' of a air venting area depending on what type of dropped ceiling you have. A bunch of warm air can move thru a hole that size.

However your sub floor will still block this air but from what I see you are trying to not necessarily gain 8* in the cooler bedrooms but maybe 4* to hit 68*? Just look at what you have and forget about thinking outside of the box. Crush that box and then you are not limited to being inside or outside of it in regards to a solution. Creativity can go a long way. Again, with heating an entire home there is a limit where you have no control no matter what.

 

[xandrew4507x]

I'm honestly just trying to get the bedroom warmer, I now back when I was curing the epoxy on my bar, the basement temp reached 74, and my bedroom made it to 70-71 one night, all I know is I woke up hot for once ;P

I actually already removed some panels, I honestly don't care about them being out in winter, if it helps me move warm air upstairs then it doesn't bother me one bit. What is kind of cool is I will be putting the stove in the unfinished utility room, this borders a section of the family room, the joist run parallel into the utility room, essentially making a somewhat insulated channel that runes underneath the bathroom and bedroom.

 

[bags]

What was the outside temp when you hit the 70-71 in the bedroom? Was it a bit warmer out? Might have had something to do with it. I have noticed when it is in the 30's and 40's outside my cooler rooms come up in temp 2-3 degrees.

I am adding my 2nd stove I picked up to put into another area of my home to heat that area which will supplement and mesh with the far reaches of my main stove in the main core of my place. The house is larger than the 2,350 SQ FT main core of two levels I am currently doing. The cooler bedrooms are also over that way on another side of the house. By adding the 2nd stove and running it to do another area I think I will see good results in the far reaches of the main core also. It makes sense the way things are with the floor plans here but I am not going to get hopes up real high. I know it will help. The question is how much? I'll let you know because I am now freed up again to get things done here and get this thing installed. I bought it November 21st. LOL! Holidays, kids activities, la la la la have interfered big time with my new project. That and I went thru the entire stove so it is like new.

 

[xandrew4507x]

I know it was warmer those days, possibly low 40s during the day and low 30s that night, so definitely a bit warmer. unfortunatly even on warmer days with just the pellet stove going my bedroom still stays 64, I know this for fact because yesterday it was actually all but 50 and the stove was cranked and it still remained 64.

With my finished basement I have about 2200 sq ft, the coal stove I plan is going to take the brunt of the heat load, the pellet stove will be burned for a nice cozy living room if we would like.

 

[bags]

Adding that coal stove is a complete game changer. Your bedroom just forgot what cold was. Get that bad boy hooked up and go from there. You're over thinking this. I did the same thing in the beginning here. Tjnamtiw has some good knowledge on coal stoves and stuff. Look him up. There are others too just haven't seen many. I am interested in that stove. What is it? I have never burned coal but I will do whatever it takes to stay toasty for cheap. Not to get off topic though.

 

[xandrew4507x]

My original plan was to buy a coal stove, however there were a few problems. I didn't want that mess up stairs in my living room, I wanted something my girlfriend, friends or parents could easily use if I were away and three stoker style coal stoves were very expensive and I was having a hard time finding one that was a rear vent. So I bought a pellet stove for the living room upstairs for these reason, but one day I hopped on craiglist and found a nice coal stove, talked the guy down to 300 and went and picked it up. To my pleasant surprise it was an aarrow stratford sc75, a very very nice stove, and I got it for hella cheap! Man was I excited.

Coal is very cheap in pa, so thats great, about half the price of pellets per million btu. All the mess will be contained in my basement, its all cement and tile floor so I don't care if I get dust and ash down there. Should be able to get close to a 24 hr burn time with this stove, and there will be no lack of warmth.

 

[bags]

NICE! For that short cash I'd buy one for sport and to toy around with. Can't go wrong. I just bought two pellet stoves so I am not entertaining anything now but If I saw that deal I'd have jumped on it.

KY has coal too. I just haven't checked anything out as to where I can get it or local costs. Might not be the good coal as well. I know nothing about burning coal other than it's hot and lasts a long time. Cheap too.

 

[xandrew4507x]

coal is roughly 220 per ton, coal is about 8 dollars per million btu and pellets are all but 20 per million. I couldn't resist that deal either, I bought it primarily to heat my finished basement, but now I am wanting to heat pretty much the whole house and it shouldn't have any problem at all doing so.

Just waiting for my stove pipe and damper to arrive so I can get this baby hooked up.

 

[Lake Girl]

...I think to help further my basement heat source, I could create a wall duct cold air return that is opened up to the basement, I would install one in each bedroom, and possibly two in the living room.

You seem to have a good convection loop going w/o the cold air duct. Not sure if cutting one would interfer with that loop or not....

 

[titleist1]

I think to help further my basement heat source, I could create a wall duct cold air return that is opened up to the basement, I would install one in each bedroom, and possibly two in the living room.

If you do the cold air return make sure you run the return duct to the basement floor or at least within a foot or two of the floor. That way the warm basement air and cold bedroom air won't fight each other at a higher vent location. I have a similar setup in our ranch house, the basement heat rising upstairs via an open stairway and the cold air return in the far bedroom dropped to the basement floor allows the warm air to be pulled in as the cooler air heads out of that bedroom and back to the stove.

 

[Wilbur Feral]

KY has coal too. I just haven't checked anything out as to where I can get it or local costs. Might not be the good coal as well. I know nothing about burning coal other than it's hot and lasts a long time. Cheap too.

I doubt you'll be burning much local coal inside the house, in a coal stove. Too soft - bituminous - very dusty. Coal stoves inside the house (not the furnace type of yesteryear) run on lump coal (anthracite / hard). KY and WV is, as I recall, almost all bituminous. Northern PA is famous for its anthracite coal, but is much more rare.

All that based on my memory of growing up in coal country, but that's been a long time ago.

 

[xandrew4507x]

Got the coal stove hooked up last night and got a fire built in it, still a learning curve I couldn't get the stove temp over 250 degrees, I think I have to much draft and I am waiting to get my barometric damper. Thanks for that info titleist, I didn't even think of that.

Wilbur I think your right, I don't know if there is any anthracite down south, unless then haul it down there and then it would get expensive.

 

[xandrew4507x]

Well I finally figured out the coal stove and its cranking, 14 degrees out with up to -11 wind chill today. Getting about an even 66 on the main floor and 78 in the basement, I cut a vent with a inline fan blowing air up out of the stove room, fans blowing down the stairs to act as the main cold air. I am hoping I can get it warmer.

 

[bradyboyy88]

Not sure about your staircase but this works very well with a split foyer. Pix are taken from the front door and one from the stove. Works very well. hths

I have a split foyer as well. So your heat is able to make it up the staircase to the main levels? What stove do you have?

 

[TonyVideo]

You more than likely will want to reverse your fans as more heat will come up the stairs vs the opening you cut. Actually s8nce the stair opening is more than likely bigger it will want to do that on its own since you cut a return and more than likely will not need the fans at all.

 

[St_Earl]

yes, if you are trying to suck heat through a small opening, it won't work nearly as well as displacing heat from the stove room by putting the cool air in to it.
and it needn't be a gale force wind either. lowest setting will be fine.

you are really getting double action that way as well, the cool air pushes heat out of the stove room, and the back side of the fan is creating low pressure that will help the already displaced air find it's way upstairs even more effectively.

you're the first person i've read of who actually did this with a vent above the stove room.
if i had a two story house and needed distribution, that's exactly how i would do it.