Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

Hi Guys...

I am looking to have a pellet/woodstove installed to curve the costs of
increasing "hydro"/electricity prices.

My original idea was to have it in the living area but due to the
layout of the house I don't have alot of options where to put the
stove.

The safest place was to put it in the mudroom which is roughly 6'X15'.

The ideal place would be to have it facing the kitchen so it could blow
the heat into the house.

My problem, there's a window there and due to clearance distances the
stove would take too much space for anybody to walk in there...

So I am pretty much limited to have it in the basement...

The basement is not finished.
32X14 of the walls are concrete and 32X14 is half concrete and half
wood(thus insulated with vapor barrier)

The concrete wall is underground while the wood one isnt.

My square area is roughly 1280sq feet.

If putting a stove in the basement, and making some vents in the floor
to allow the heat to go upstairs, would it require a significant amount
of heat (pellet consumption) than having it upstairs?? What kind of
figures would it be?

I do plan on insulation the whole basement, I just dont know when it
will happen. :)

Thanks for all the help you can provide to help me reduce my energy
costs. :)

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

I am looking to have a pellet/woodstove installed to curve the costs of
increasing "hydro"/electricity prices.

Don't get a stove, get a furnace. They do make ones that use pellets. Then
just have it hooked up like anything else.

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

I understand there are issues with negative pressures if sufficient
make up air is not available.

TB

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

i don't see the savings adding up by heating a previously unheated
basement. if there's a chance you have gas, look at the wonderful
RINNAI gas heaters. gas is presently cheaper than electricity heat in
buffalo ny.
here's a link to al in maine, you'll enjoy his website:

http://www.alsheating.com/RinnaiHeater.htm

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

wrote in message

So I am pretty much limited to have it in the basement...

The basement is not finished.
32X14 of the walls are concrete and 32X14 is half concrete and half
wood(thus insulated with vapor barrier)

The concrete wall is underground while the wood one isnt.

My square area is roughly 1280sq feet.

If putting a stove in the basement, and making some vents in the floor
to allow the heat to go upstairs, would it require a significant amount
of heat (pellet consumption) than having it upstairs?? What kind of
figures would it be?

I have a similar setup. My intention is the augment, not replace the other
heat. That works. As for heating the entire house, it is not going to work
well. Trust me, many homes around here heat with wood and they all have the
same problem -- poor air circulation.

You can assist it with fans, you can risk fire codes by putting in floor
vents, but you will just not achieve the same level of comfort you are used
to. A temperature variation of 20 to 30 degrees from the stove location to
the other corner of the house is common.

If you put in open floor vents, one over the stove, one a the opposite end
of the house, you improve the air circulation and heat distribution, but you
also make a serious hazard for flame spread in the event of a fire, by the
stove or any other origin. I'm not sure it it is local or national, but
they are not permitted in most areas. .

Insulating the basement will have a better payback than the stove. If there
is one thing you are going to do, put up the insulation. Frame the bottom
portion of the wall with 2 x 4 and carry them across the top. Insulate it
and then put a wood shelf around the room where it meets the upper framed
section. You will end up with about 10" of shelf width just below the
windows. That is where I am sitting right now and it holds a small TV in
the corner, speakers, some bookcases, etc.

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

i disagree with everyone. i have a 880 sq ft 103 y/o ranch style house with
little or no insulation anywhere. my woodstove is in the basement. it heats
up the entire basement and then the nice warm air does what it does best. on
the ceilings of the main floor there is a ceiling fan to push that nice warm
air pack down again. i can heat my entire house all winter just using the
woodstove in the basement.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi Guys...

I am looking to have a pellet/woodstove installed to curve the costs of
increasing "hydro"/electricity prices.

My original idea was to have it in the living area but due to the
layout of the house I don't have alot of options where to put the
stove.

The safest place was to put it in the mudroom which is roughly 6'X15'.

The ideal place would be to have it facing the kitchen so it could blow
the heat into the house.

My problem, there's a window there and due to clearance distances the
stove would take too much space for anybody to walk in there...

So I am pretty much limited to have it in the basement...

The basement is not finished.
32X14 of the walls are concrete and 32X14 is half concrete and half
wood(thus insulated with vapor barrier)

The concrete wall is underground while the wood one isnt.

My square area is roughly 1280sq feet.

If putting a stove in the basement, and making some vents in the floor
to allow the heat to go upstairs, would it require a significant amount
of heat (pellet consumption) than having it upstairs?? What kind of
figures would it be?

I do plan on insulation the whole basement, I just dont know when it
will happen. :)

Thanks for all the help you can provide to help me reduce my energy
costs. :)

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

A few thoughts, some prices people pay for hydro is maybe as cheapr as
pellet, figure costs by btu, burning continously leads to soot inside.
Pellet is made, as electric oil go up so will pellet

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

"I R Baboon" wrote in message
...
i disagree with everyone. i have a 880 sq ft 103 y/o ranch style house with
little or no insulation anywhere. my woodstove is in the basement. it
heats
up the entire basement and then the nice warm air does what it does best.
on
the ceilings of the main floor there is a ceiling fan to push that nice
warm
air pack down again. i can heat my entire house all winter just using the
woodstove in the basement.

And the temperature differential is less than 2 degrees from room to room?
And never fluctuates more than two degrees?

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

And his ambient temps are ... ?

And his fuel consumption is ... ?

Not to mention that distribution over 880 sq-ft is summat simpler than
over 1500, say, with multiple floors.

Where you really need heat, sealing can be much more important than
insulation in avoiding losses, per govt. tests. Meaning, you need all
the insulation you can get, and to seal whatever possible to make that
insulation effective.

Simple wild extrapolation- I. R.'s handle sez it.

J

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

According to :
And his ambient temps are ... ?

And his fuel consumption is ... ?

Not to mention that distribution over 880 sq-ft is summat simpler than
over 1500, say, with multiple floors.

Also heavily depends on your house layout.

We have 2200 square feet in two floors, and a single wood stove is
capable of keeping it quite comfortable when temperatures are well
below freezing.

However, this is very much an open concept home. Stove is
centrally located on first floor, there's no floor above it, the
rooms are very large, with large passageways between them,
and there's very few doors.

It's also very well insulated, and our personal comfort temperatures
are somewhat lower than most people's.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

Might want to remove or move that window!

I prefer to keep a *very* close eye on my woodstove. It seems to me it can
get too hot very easily. Also the fire can wilt away to nothing if I don't
pay attention. Then need to restart the fire. It is easier to add a piece of
wood while it is still hot.

Depending on the wood I an using, I might need to add another piece of wood
every hour or half hour.

I've learned about the "behavior" of my woodstove by sitting and watching
it. It is in the living room where I am at most of the time. I added an
outdoor wireless temperature sensor on the wall by the woodstove so I can
monitor the wall temperature when I am in other rooms (bought several on
same frequency).

I've also learned there is a "time delay" for everything related to my
woodstove. If the outside temperature goes from 50 to 28, then I know I will
need to build up the fire. If the outside temperature is going from 28 to
50, then I know I need to let the fire burn down (Or I will roast myself out
of the house!).

There is a time delay for the outside temperature to cause the inside of the
house to change. And there is a time delay for the inside temperature of the
stove to change the outside temperature of the stove (and thus the room
temperature).

So far as keeping an eye on the woodstove while I am in another room, I
would like to eventually have remote temperature sensors for the
following...

-Chimney temperature (would alert me to a chimney too hot situation).
-Stove top temperature (I can tell if fire is burning down or stove too
hot).
-Wall temperature (can tell if surrounding walls are getting too hot).
-Outside temperature (can decide to build larger fire or let fire burn
down).

Also I got some books on woodstove cooking. What they suggest is slow
cooking all day long similar to a crock pot. I made ham and lima beans
yesterday. I kept the stovetop around 200 degrees and cooked it for 8 hours.
Also cooked my turkey on the woodstove. For that I kept it around 250
degrees and it was done in about 3 hours.

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Might want to remove or move that window!

snip
Depending on the wood I an using, I might need to add another piece of wood
every hour or half hour.

you burning balsa wood or something?

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
...
According to :
And his ambient temps are ... ?

And his fuel consumption is ... ?

Not to mention that distribution over 880 sq-ft is summat simpler than
over 1500, say, with multiple floors.

Also heavily depends on your house layout.

We have 2200 square feet in two floors, and a single wood stove is
capable of keeping it quite comfortable when temperatures are well
below freezing.

However, this is very much an open concept home. Stove is
centrally located on first floor, there's no floor above it, the
rooms are very large, with large passageways between them,
and there's very few doors.

It's also very well insulated, and our personal comfort temperatures
are somewhat lower than most people's.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.



i live right on lake ontario where it can get quite cold and windy. i can
keep my house around 68 degrees all winter. who cares about a 2 degree
difference between rooms? i keep unused rooms doors closed anyways. every
room has a fan on ceiling. open the door and turn it on and rooms back up to
temperature again. fuel consumption is 3-4 face cords which is free for me
(friend) plus all the pine scraps from work i can handle. yes, pine=more
creosote. thats why i have my own chimney brush. i see no reason to not put
the woodstove in the basement HammerJoe, get some fans make sure you set
them for winter. the heat will radiate through the floors. whats the r of a
floor? R-1? its almost like having in-floor heating. nice warm hardwood
floors mmmm

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

Agreed - pellet prices are up this year, and availability in the Northeast
is very spotty. The pellets I'm getting now come from British Columbia, so
the freight has driven the price up about $50/ton over last year. I like
the pellets, though. They're burning clean and hot.

We heated this house from the basement for years with cordwood, then for
more years with a simple pellet burner. There's one small grate in the
kitchen floor, and otherwise we leave the door to the basement open. The
floor plan helps, as does the fact that the only opening to the outdoors
from the basement is a well insulated hatch - no windows. The house is also
insulated for baseboard electric heat, so it's quite tight. Our floors are
all either tile or hardwood on the first floor, and it's nice when they are
warm. The kids' bedrooms were upstairs, and they could always close the
door if they got too warm.

"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
A few thoughts, some prices people pay for hydro is maybe as cheapr as
pellet, figure costs by btu, burning continously leads to soot inside.
Pellet is made, as electric oil go up so will pellet

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

Thanks for all the replies.

Hydro/electricity costs in New Brunswick 11cents/kwh (based on some
formula found on the web)

Pellets can be had around here for $3.89/$3.39Cad per bag.

We have been threathned of a 16% rate increase in electricity next year
and I can't see it get any better for years to come.
Pellets will no doubt increase as well, but I dont see huge increases
in the same scale as electricity.

Also, I dont like electric heat and I am not heating the house properly
to not escalate my electric costs.
At least with pellets/wood stove I will have proper heating in my house
while controling costs.
Even if it installed in the basement.

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

"I R Baboon" wrote in message

you burning balsa wood or something?


I would rather not say what type of wood. I don't want to open another can
of worms on that subject! :-)

Having stove in the basement to heat whole house...
 

"Bill" wrote in message
...
"I R Baboon" wrote in message

you burning balsa wood or something?


I would rather not say what type of wood. I don't want to open another can
of worms on that subject! :-)



Probably old pallets and shipping crates he is stealing from work.