How effective is rising heat when a pellet stove is in the basement?

[squeed]

Just thinking ahead for a possible summer project. If you install a pellet stove in a basement, will the heat rise through the floors and have a good heating impact
on the floor above it ?

-S

 

[vgrund]

Yours is a frequently asked question. Utilize the search function to do a little research here. I believe the consensus here is that it is horribly inefficient, unless you consider your basement to be a living space (w/ appropriate insulation).

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Heat rise through the floors, yup that will indeed happen. But not at any speed that would result in a lot of heat being transfered.

Most people who have successful basement installs (I'm one) also have insulated finished basements and can leave a large air pathway open to the upper floor (or floors).

You have to pay attention to heat loss. You need to use a heat loss calculator and understand what it is telling you and work backwards from that. Otherwise you are going to be in retrofit land. So far it has worked for this house despite some issues (since corrected) not associated with the sizing of the pellet stove. We didn't start out figuring on heating the house exclusively with the stove it just worked out that the stove has done a decent job provided I set the proper firing rate.

 

[TJ7960]

I live in a "raised ranch" type of house. I installed a whitfield traditions in the family room downstairs. The heat is good downstairs and the heat also travels upstairs due to the stairway. I can keep my oil fired boiler set lower upstairs due to the heat migrating upstairs and downstairs is comfortable as well. I've heard of the heat loss downstairs but honestly this works for me. Normally I've had the pellet stove set at about 68 ( which my kids raise when they get home from school) and 65 at night. Normally I go thru about 500 gallons of oil( which heats the hot water as well) and 2500 pounds of pellets. No complaints here. I also had blown in insulation put in my walls and ceiling. Prior to the installation of the pellet stove and the insulation. I was over 1200 gallons of oil yearly with the house set at 65

 

[tinkabranc]

This is a popular question and tons of threads on it for you to check out.

Basement installs can be successful for some but not others. If the basement is not
finished..fuggetaboutit..the walls and floors will soak up all the heat.

I have a basement install and the heat does rise to the first floor but I have alot
of factors in my favor such as finished basement, well insulated home & open
stairwell on upper level to allow the heat to rise up.

Good luck in your decision tho.

 

[Kenny1]

Rule of thumb - put the stove where you want the heat.

As others have suggested, this frequently comes up and you can get a lot of info by doing a search of the forums.

For some, it can work (having the stove in the basement), but generally the results are less than acceptable.

Cheers

Kenny

 

[rowerwet]

I have a neighbor who is heating his house this way, He went to antique dealers and bought old cast iron air grates like they made back when the coal stove was in the cellar and there were no fans. they are much larger than the biggest you can find at hardware stores today. he put them in each floor near the center and then put small FHA heat grates in the corners to return the cold air, he may do fans in the returns in the future.
If you look at OLD farm houses you will find that in some the upstairs floors were made with 1/2" gaps between the boards to allow heat transfer.

 

[KPWright]

When I lived in Maine, a lot of the houses using wood stoves as primary heat in the basement used grates in the upper floor to help distribute the heat. I had these in the outer rooms of my split level and it worked quite well. Still had to make the basement room pretty unbearably hot to get enough heat transferred to the other rooms though. With the pellet stove and the house I'm in now, I just work with the heat coming up the open staircase.

 

[Whimpster]

As most have said... if spending a lot of time in your finished basement as we do watching tv and playing with computers you need to make some changes to get heat to the next levels of your home.
In our case we have a Cape Code style home 30'/32' with three levels including the finished basement.The stove Harman P-61-A is in the basement,we had a problem getting the heat to flow to the upper floors... so I installed grates in the upper floors....guess what!! heat in moving nicely through out the house now.
I found a very large cast iron grate 18"/ 32" we installed the grate at the bottom of stairs on the second floor which now pulls the cool air from the second and third floor down the stairwell and dumps into the grate to the basement,in turn the heat rises up the basement stairwell to second and third floors.
I'm experimenting with a fan on low speed in the large grate pulling cool air into the basement it seems to move air flow better....
We heat the whole house with the stove and electric heaters are turned off.
So it can be done.... but be prepared to experiment and make changes to get proper heat circulation.

 

[56 chevtruck]

my bungalow is 45 years old. not insulated like todays newer homes. i have my stove in basement as well as i have my home theater stuff in rec room. its insulated 900sf. 1000sf upstairs.stove on one end stairs on other. yes to cut openings in floor probably note code everywhere but i covered openings on all 4 sides with sheetmetal . i also located smoke detector in these areas. i have one opening 10"x24" in dining room living room area (52" fan in reverse above it pulling from this and through kitchen as it comes upstairs from basement. 2nd opening is 8"x 10"which is closer to stove ceiling fan is 36" in hallway area near this. it was -12 with wind chill -25 this morning, basement 74 upper level 67. it will never be same temp on both levels with the stove only so i set programmable thermostat for furnace to come on at 4pm while i am on way home during weekdays so uppstairs levels off i have had good luch this way. i filled oil tank in april 2008 water heater is oil fired and the wife takes long hot showers tills she is like a prune. and we still have 3/8 of a tank left no BS. i bought 110 bags of pellets begining of nov 2008 and have about 20 bags left .depends on how warm you like it. still thinking about pellet insert for fireplace upstairs just because. you can make basement application work to a certain degree just my .02

 

[MCPO]

my bungalow is 45 years old. not insulated like todays newer homes. i have my stove in basement as well as i have my home theater stuff in rec room. its insulated 900sf. 1000sf upstairs.stove on one end stairs on other. yes to cut openings in floor probably note code everywhere but i covered openings on all 4 sides with sheetmetal . i also located smoke detector in these areas. i have one opening 10"x24" in dining room living room area (52" fan in reverse above it pulling from this and through kitchen as it comes upstairs from basement. 2nd opening is 8"x 10"which is closer to stove ceiling fan is 36" in hallway area near this. it was -12 with wind chill -25 this morning, basement 74 upper level 67. it will never be same temp on both levels with the stove only so i set programmable thermostat for furnace to come on at 4pm while i am on way home during weekdays so uppstairs levels off i have had good luch this way. i filled oil tank in april 2007 water heater is oil fired and the wife takes long hot showers tills she is like a prune. and we still have 3/8 of a tank left no BS. i bought 110 bags of pellets begining of nov 2007 and have about 20 bags left .depends on how warm you like it. still thinking about pellet insert for fireplace upstairs just because. you can make basement application work to a certain degree just my .02

I`ve heard some whoppers in my day but you just took first place!
PS, How big IS that oil tank?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

my bungalow is 45 years old. not insulated like todays newer homes. i have my stove in basement as well as i have my home theater stuff in rec room. its insulated 900sf. 1000sf upstairs.stove on one end stairs on other. yes to cut openings in floor probably note code everywhere but i covered openings on all 4 sides with sheetmetal . i also located smoke detector in these areas. i have one opening 10"x24" in dining room living room area (52" fan in reverse above it pulling from this and through kitchen as it comes upstairs from basement. 2nd opening is 8"x 10"which is closer to stove ceiling fan is 36" in hallway area near this. it was -12 with wind chill -25 this morning, basement 74 upper level 67. it will never be same temp on both levels with the stove only so i set programmable thermostat for furnace to come on at 4pm while i am on way home during weekdays so uppstairs levels off i have had good luch this way. i filled oil tank in april 2007 water heater is oil fired and the wife takes long hot showers tills she is like a prune. and we still have 3/8 of a tank left no BS. i bought 110 bags of pellets begining of nov 2007 and have about 20 bags left .depends on how warm you like it. still thinking about pellet insert for fireplace upstairs just because. you can make basement application work to a certain degree just my .02

I`ve heard some whoppers in my day but you just took first place!
PS, How big is that oil tank?

Gio that was likely 110 (1 ton) bags he bought nov 2007 ;-) .

He's been one busy boy keeping his pot belly stove filled with pellets.

 

[MCPO]

my bungalow is 45 years old. not insulated like todays newer homes. i have my stove in basement as well as i have my home theater stuff in rec room. its insulated 900sf. 1000sf upstairs.stove on one end stairs on other. yes to cut openings in floor probably note code everywhere but i covered openings on all 4 sides with sheetmetal . i also located smoke detector in these areas. i have one opening 10"x24" in dining room living room area (52" fan in reverse above it pulling from this and through kitchen as it comes upstairs from basement. 2nd opening is 8"x 10"which is closer to stove ceiling fan is 36" in hallway area near this. it was -12 with wind chill -25 this morning, basement 74 upper level 67. it will never be same temp on both levels with the stove only so i set programmable thermostat for furnace to come on at 4pm while i am on way home during weekdays so uppstairs levels off i have had good luch this way. i filled oil tank in april 2007 water heater is oil fired and the wife takes long hot showers tills she is like a prune. and we still have 3/8 of a tank left no BS. i bought 110 bags of pellets begining of nov 2007 and have about 20 bags left .depends on how warm you like it. still thinking about pellet insert for fireplace upstairs just because. you can make basement application work to a certain degree just my .02

I`ve heard some whoppers in my day but you just took first place!
PS, How big is that oil tank?

Gio that was likely 110 (1 ton) bags he bought nov 2007 ;-) .

He's been one busy boy keeping his pot belly stove filled with pellets.

I`m really hoping he meant 2008 on those dates. I`m feeling a bit guilty calling him out on this but as written it`s more than I can swallow. I`m hoping he can set me straight.

 

[56 chevtruck]

sorry for error on date i bought 110 bags nov 2008(wish it was 2007 when i bought them!) i dont
bs when when i post on forums just honest info just like i hope others give honest info.oil tank is regular size 900 litre.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

He he,

I was sure enjoying the mental picture of you going back and forth with those bags of pellets.

Just where in Nova Scotia are you 56 chevtruck ? It has been decades since I've been there.

We discussed cutting some openings for registers and decided after having the stove for a bit they weren't going to be needed. We also started out running the fans on the first floor and discovered that also wasn't needed.

 

[56 chevtruck]

hi bear yes you can get yor exercise lugging pellets. i have no walk out basement entrance but have a window that comes out easy and i have a slide i put on ledge wife grabs bags as they slide down. i live in dartmouth across the bridge from halifax . i am gonna try running no ceiling fans now that you mention it to see what happens.upstairs will never be same temp as down with pellet stove in basement but supplementing with furnace like i mention is what has worked for me and oil consumption is no bs the wife brags to her mom about how little oil we use.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Hey cool, Dartmouth is a bit warmer in the winter than where I am. Must be all that water and the gulf stream. I just finished up bag #150 and I have a bit more than 3/8 of a tank of oil left and about the same area of floor space being heated by the pellet stove. Both the oil and pellets were purchased in July of 2008.

 

[MCPO]

sorry for error on date i bought 110 bags nov 2008(wish it was 2007 when i bought them!) i dont
bs when when i post on forums just honest info just like i hope others give honest info.oil tank is regular size 900 litre.

Ahh. Thanks for the correction 56 chevtruck. You have redeemed yourself.

 

[56 chevtruck]

no problem gio i was wondering why you and bear where beating up on me so bad until i seen year 2007 .

 

[56 chevtruck]

no problem gio i was wondering why you and bear where beating up on me so bad until i seen year 2007 . if it wasnt for using basement would have put insert in fireplace upstairs.