Wood stove location in basement or first floor of a tiny-fish house?

[asburke39]

Hi all! I have read some similar threads on the subject but would love thoughts from the group with my specific context. Our house was just build last year. It is 15' x 52.' Amish built offsite and placed on a full basement with walkout. We have spray foam insulation. We currently are heating our main floor with 3 mini splits. We have 50+acres of wooded areas. Mostly hardwoods: maple, beech, etc. I have attached the floor plan.

We are trying to decide if we should put a larger wood stove in the basement vs a smaller one on the main floor and then later a smaller one in the basement.

Currently the basement is unfinished, but we plan to finish it in the next 3-ish years. We were originally thinking a Blaze King Princess for the basement. BUT, we would probably need to insulate the basement first and put up wall coverings, and cut holes between the two floors to put vents. We would really love to have a wood stove to utilize wood from our property and lower electrical costs next winter and worried its a lot of work to get done before then.

Other option is a smaller wood stove on the main floor. Originally was looking at a Morso Squirrel but there really is no great place on the main floor for a wood stove since our house is pretty small, and especially skinny. If we do this we would still need to add a heat source to the basement eventually when we finish it.

Any thoughts or recommendations based on personal experience? Thank you so much in advance!

 

[Sono]

My buddy has a wood stove in his basement at the opposite end of the staircase, he leaves the door open at the top of the stairs and that wood stove heats his entire house including the basement of course. His heating bill is practically $0 in the winter ( just whatever gas is used for hot water ) His wood is free as he gets it off his land. Every layout is different, so you have to know how the heat will travel as he uses a small fan to somewhat circulate the air in the basement as it can get really warm where the stove sits .

 

[begreen]

The Princess will work. It's a very good idea to insulate the walls first to reduce considerable heat loss through them.

 

[stoveliker]

I am heating from the basement, and heat my much larger (but not large) home fully that way - at least when it's below 40-45. (The rest is done with minisplits.)

See here for how it works for me.
Post in thread 'Moving heat from basement' https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/moving-heat-from-basement.198703/post-2667802

In your case I would think that a similar fan at the short wall of the den would work well.
Keeps your bedroom a bit cooler. We are fine with that.
If you need your office warmer, a small fan pushing can order air out into the hallway will work.

I would surely put the stove in the basement, given the small space and the mess that wood burning does make.
The tight home will avoid some negative pressure in the basement. Do put the stove on a wall where you can add an outside air kit. Those can't go up, so it has to be an exposed wall.

 

[crstrode]

If it was me, I'd put a Blaze King catalytic stove in the basement. Also, there would be an additional register to allow basement air to flow upwards from the basement to the main floor - installed as far as possible from the stairwell. I currently have a Blaze King insert in the basement, and I love it! I only wish there was an easy way to install that heat register - my floors are made of cast gypcrete.

 

[Murray01]

If you move your wood stove closer to the main beam the chimney will be closer to the peak of the roof requiring less exposed chimney and will make cleaning the chimney easier to access assuming cleaning the chimney top down.

 

[asburke39]

Thank you everyone for your speedy responses! And helping to confirm my gut feelings around putting a wood stove in the basement. Also some excellent things to think about that I hadn’t before. Really appreciate this community ❤️