Coalpail.com Forum

I want to heat my basement. There's a small efficiency apartment there and I can ask more money with heat included.

I thought of a number of ideas and I think the simple solution is to replace the existing oil furnace with a stoker. I'm not using oil anyway as I'm heating the upstairs with coal and the apartment has a gas wall heater.

I've researched hot air furnaces but it's a lot of money when I think a stoker will do what I want. I can't put an add on furnace in because I have no room.

The furnace room is just outside the apartment. Looking at the picture, does it look like a stoker would heat through the walls into the apartment? If not, I think I can move heat through the existing furnace ducting into the apartment. Any comments on what I'm trying to do. Thanks

Who will tend the stoker,.....you or the tenant?

Carbon12 wrote:Who will tend the stoker,.....you or the tenant?

Me but I was thinking about putting the thermostat in his apartment.

I have a stove in my living room so I don't really need the heat from it and any heat that rises would just be a bonus for me.

If you are tending, awesome! Cover your ass with multiple detectors and such. The only thing I see is getting enough heat into the bedroom and mechanics rm to prevent freezing. Cover those and go for it!

Kevin

KLook wrote:If you are tending, awesome! Cover your ass with multiple detectors and such. The only thing I see is getting enough heat into the bedroom and mechanics rm to prevent freezing. Cover those and go for it!

Kevin

I should have showed where the gas wall furnace is right now. It's to the left of the picture along an outside wall near the kitchen (opposite end from where the bedroom is). Right now it's the only heat in the entire basement. I'm probably lucky right now that pipes aren't freezing.

If I put a stove down there then I think I could turn down my water heater or it would at least save me some money from being warmer there.

I'm going to take some pictures and some measurements of the furnace room. It's small and I know I'd have to install some 1 inch air gap spacing along one or two of the walls.

I'm not sure how much room a stoker I would need get in there when refilling the hopper. I have to make sure this will work because I don't want to have to put the furnace back in once I take it out.