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I have a partially finished basement that includes a fireplace. The room down there is exactly the same size as the living room directly above it. I currently heat with oil via hot-water baseboard. My house is three zones. I've been thinking about putting in a wood stove in the basement, cutting four vents (one in each corner) in the ceiling into the floor of the living room, and letting the heat just rise up as it's naturally inclined to do. I'd rather not have to add any blowers or anything like that (the whole idea is to save money on heating). My first question is... is this a feasible solution to help heat the house? I figure that if necessary, the two "outer" zones would use the oil heat, but hoping that the heat coming into the main part of the house would work its way out. My second question is, what is a good stove to use? The house is about 1500 sq ft. What size do I need, how many BTUs, what are a few good name brands?
You'll be surprised how much heat with make it upstairs with NO vents cut. We use none in our house, which also has no ductwork, and the pellet and woodstoves heat the upstairs just fine. That also includes with the door shut to the enclosed stairwell going upstairs. The pellet stove has a blower but we never use the one on the woodstove. We seldom use both stoves at the same time.
I'd try it with no vents before chopping up the ceilings and floors.
There's all kinds of info on things like how will this work, what size stove, etc. at this site, which has massive amounts of information on woodstoves, pellet stoves, etc. Another question you should be asking is whether a fireplace insert would be a better option than a stove.
I agree about trying without the vents first and see if you really need them or not. For my house in the winter I actually close all the vents in the upstairs rooms because otherwise the upstairs will be the temp I want (since that's where the thermostat is) but the downstairs will be freezing cold. So if I close the upstairs vents, then the downstairs gets warmed up a bit, and the heat then rises up to the top floor and that way the whole house is closer to the temperature that the thermostat is set for (I have a furnace not a wood stove, but heat should behave the same regardless of what it's coming from)
I know this is an older thread... i am looking to to put a stove in the basement. #1 I am scared about having a wood burning stove in the basement with out supervision... how safe is it? What do you think about used stoves... what should I look for?
I had to have my Hvac system replaced this summer and they disconnected the woodstove. Does anyone have an economic way of me finding some assistacnce or directions for hookiong it back up. I knowthe hole in the brick chimney is blocked and i would need to purchase the part that connects that to the stove and the woodstove to the furnacel. I am on a fixed income and will really miss those warm wood mornings. It really just looks like a peice of pipe with an end to the stove, chimney and furnace + a amper to control the airflow...If i knew what to get, I think I could do it myself really.
