Basement Stove Setups

Looking to see who has a basement Stove in a single level ranch? Share all the details please. For example sqft. Of basement and house, location of the stove in relation to the basement stairs...etc. pictures are greatly appreciated (speaking for everyone I think)

Hi Johnny5, I have an 1100 s ft single level brick ranch with a stove in the basement. The stove is at one end and the stairs the other. The stove sits beneath 2 bedrooms under the center beam of the home. The set up works well as the cool air rolls down the stairs toward the stove. There is no insulation above the stove between the floor joists so the floors above are very warm. I connected my box stove to the return air trunk of my existing heating system. The small blower on the box stove pushes 200* air out many of the return vents upstairs, this works very well until temps fall below 10* then I lite the living room Stove and then I idle both. I have insulated half of the basement walls, (end of basement where stove sits), and this has made a positive impact and has paid for itself in coal savings the first yr. I'm in central Maine and still burning as I type 37* outside 72* inside with a window open a foot in the bedroom Good luck!

Mike

I ran a small potbelly coal stove in my basement woodshop for a few years. Only held about 20-25 pounds of coal.

It was diagonally across from the basement stairwell- that had no doors. There was some warm air went up the stairwell as cold air came down. But by the time the warm air reached that side of the basement, there wasn't a lot of temperature difference to cause much convection. And I couldn't move it closer to the center of the basement because it would be in the way of machinery use.

Being such a small stove, it kept the 25x24 basement warm, but could not do enough to heat the rest of the 2 story colonial house (1500 sf). Plus having an acoustic tile ceiling in the basement, and no insulated walls, it likely did more to warm the ground outside the foundation than the floor above.

If I had used a larger stove, then putting in some floor registers to help get the heat to circulate upstairs would have worked better. And insulating the basement walls would have really helped.

Paul

MA and I have pretty much identical houses and setups right down to a Vigilant in the living room. I don’t have whole house ducting so I have one 12” duct going to a closet at the end of the hallway. I put a window fan in there to pull the air and the stoker convection fans run slow on a fan speed controller. The far end of the house does stay a little cooler than the bedrooms but the LL Pocono has plenty of heat in reserve to fix that. I just crack a window in the bedroom or close the bedroom door before I go to bed. If I light the Vigilant I put out the stoker unless it’s stupid cold. If it’s just the Vigilant the electric blanket gets turned on for 30 minutes before I go to bed. Even heat distribution with my setup is difficult.

I bought a 2 story 1500 square foot chalet at a foreclosure auction for a song. Needs some work, of course. Built on a slab so no basement per se. The first floor is mostly an unfinished basement type area. Most of the finished living space is on the second floor. There is an existing metal chimney on the first floor and small wood burning fireplace on the second floor. Baseboard electric heat currently. My plan is to put a Liesureline Pocono stoker on the first floor this Summer and see how it does for heating the whole house this winter. No ductwork so will install some cold air return vents from second to first floor. Will see how that works. Stairway from first to second story is in exact center or house. It might work. House built in 1977 so has half way decent insulation on both stories.