Heating Old Farm House Wth Stone Wall Basement

Here are my cold air returns I built. I have 2 one opposite ends. I left the power vent from my oil furnace in just incase . Feeds plenty of cool air to the stove. I leave the upstairs door open . Heating around 2400 sq/ft. I had a buddy do the same with a 50-93 . Similar set up on a split level, his basement was mostly exposed above ground . My basement walls also have 3/4blue board on the outside . Im sure that dramatically helps a lot. The only fan I run is an eco fan on top of the stove .

ColdHouse wrote: ↑

Wed. Dec. 21, 2022 6:45 am

I am not sure if you actually need return air into the basement.

Light a candle upstairs and then go downstairs to see if the scent travels there. If it does then you have return air. You'd be surprised how much air those stairs can move both ways.

HandFire wrote: ↑

Fri. Jan. 13, 2023 1:44 pm

Light a candle upstairs and then go downstairs to see if the scent travels there. If it does then you have return air. You'd be surprised how much air those stairs can move both ways.

I know it's not what you meant, but I used to hang out at a guys house that when you went down the cellar stairs, they literally went both ways. Left-right and front -back. When you are afraid of heights and prone to motion sickness, you don't want to load the wood furnace there very often.

Right. If air is rising to bring heat upstairs, it needs to be replaced somehow. My staircase acts like a conveyor belt. Warm air rises up to the ceiling and floats upstairs while cool air is coming down the steps, underneath it.

waytomany?s wrote: ↑

Fri. Jan. 13, 2023 4:00 pm

I know it's not what you meant, but I used to hang out at a guys house that when you went down the cellar stairs, they literally went both ways. Left-right and front -back. When you are afraid of heights and prone to motion sickness, you don't want to load the wood furnace there very often.

I don't know if you remember when they built open stair towers in high rises but they were a sight looking down 10+ stories through the center on the stairwells. If the elevators failed I'm sure there would have been a lot of people that would have not made it down out of fear. Depending on what doors in the tower and the building were open it would create a massive suction in or a huge blast out of the tower. Why they didn't see they were building a massive chimney I don't know.