Coal Stove in Basement

Hello everyone, I have been looking into getting a stove since last year, it was either a pellet stove or coal stove, I made the decision of a coal stove. My house is 1200 sq ft above 900 sq ft finished basement. The basement is dryloked and the concrete walls are insulation. The wood frame is built about 6" away from the block walls. My house is heated by hot water baseboard right now.

I was looking at the Harman mark 2 stove, and was planning on putting it in the unfished section of my basement which sits under my kitchen. I was planning on cutting some vent holes to allow heat up from the basement. The more I read however, the more I see that having a stove in a basement doesn't work to well and that it has to be very hot in the basement to make it comfortable upstairs. This would not work, The master bedroom is in the basement, and we spend a lot of time in the family room down there as well, so 90 degrees would be very uncomfrotable. The room where I planned on putting the stove is closed off by walls and a door from the rest of the finished basement.The basement has a drop ceiling and I would easily be able to run ductwork from the back room to the far end of the house with a small fan to help move the heat. I don't know if this option would really work for me or not, I have a friend who heated their entire house with a wood stove that was in their basement, it never got hot in the basement and was always comfortable upstairs, and their house is much bigger than mine.

I looked into the coal boiler systems but I have a couple of problems with them. First problem, it is way out of the amount I want to spend, or really can spend. Second problem is, and this is a question as well, my boiler room is right next to the bedroom down stairs. Do the coal boilers themselves give off a lot of heat that it would radiate through and make the bedroom too hot? The wall between the bedroom and boiler room is insulated. Anothe problem would be the chimeny, that side of the house the basement is completly underground so I have no way to add another chimney without extensive work.

I have my Keystoker in the basement family room, and I run the family room in the lower 70's. I then pump the heat upstais with a Panasonic Whisperquiet fan with duct work into the bedrooms. Another way is to reverse the fan an create a postive pressure in the basment so the hot air rises easier. Do some research there are lot of links on this information.
Do a search "Moving heat upstairs" I can't figure out how to link it.

xandrew245x wrote: The more I read however, the more I see that having a stove in a basement doesn't work to well and that it has to be very hot in the basement to make it comfortable upstairs.

Where are you located (maybe I missed it) this will help on recomendations. I am in a single story ranch roughly 2500 between basement and living level. no insulastion in basement. Basement door open, and I have a temp spread of 2-4* depending how hard I push the stove.

Eric

xandrew245x -

Please check your private messages (envelope icon at top of page).

Thanks.

Mike

I am from central Pennsylvania, my total finished sq footage is about 2100.

I have some more information to add.

I haven't had any heat on in my basement since it has gotten cold and the temperatures stay in the high 60s to low 70s with zero heat, that is comfortable for me.

So I was thinking instead of putting the stove in the basement and trying to heat the main floor, I could put the stove in front of my fireplace in the living room and vent it out the chimney. Is there anyway that the heat from upstairs would seep into the basement to provide enough heat to make it comfortable down there?

If I install the stove in my basement I am going to have to either power vent it, or build a chimney.

Our stove is in an unfinished basement that is not insulated....

couple things to consider....pros & cons of installing in either location.....

if upstairs....
less coal usage to keep house up to temp
less work & $$ due to existing chimney

but....
more dust and coal dirt in living area, although this is manageable and if you are careful is minimal
logistics of keeping buckets of coal near stove (or whatever you use for indoor storage)
more noise when reloading

if in basement....
do you have an outdoor entrance to the basement? I am assuming so since you mentioned a bedroom in the basement., if so then...
less mess in living area
easier to store lots o' coal near stove to avoid those winter storm trips outside
less noise for late night or early morning re-loads
less use of clothes dryer in winter, hanging clothes in basement to dry also helps humidity levels (also works for drying snow clothes)

but....
more coal to get heat upstairs
experimentation to get heat distributed to the upstairs may or may not be effective

since you are already thinking about a boiler, I would probably look at putting in the hand fed upstairs for the short term and saving the fuel money saved to put toward the boiler. if you are in an area that gets a lot of power outages you may want to hold onto the hand fed for backup heat or sell it and also put that money toward the boiler install when the time comes.

Thanks for the reply, I wanted to try out a coal stove to see if I like them, I figured a stove is better for experimenting than a boiler. I do not have an entrance to my basement from the outside, I would have to carry it in the backdoor and straight down the stairs.

I figured if I really liked the coal stove I would invest in a coal boiler then use the coal stove out in my garage.

I got an estimate and im looking at $2100-$2400 installed which is a lot better than the 7k for a boiler.

If you already have hot water baseboard I wouldnt hesitate to jump for a boiler. many used units on the classifieds.

Call Matt or Dave at LeisureLine, They have a forum in the Manufacterer's section of this Forum.
LL has a nice 110K coal boiler with oil backup for around $4K. Let a good installer look at your boiler layout/situaton. get an installed price.

Plut your location on your signature, maybe someone lives nearby and you can see their setup.

More than $2k to buy and install a Harman MkII ?? that seems pretty pricey to me.

If you are at all handy, a used boiler is a very good option, but probably somethng to think about next year.

Look on your local Craigslist, local papers and ebay, see if you can't find a nice handfed to do the job this winter.

What is your available chimney in the basement? What are you using for Domestic Hot Water?

There are lots of options, Keep reading and try to find a good used stove or boiler.

Have you considered a good antique stove ? Some of the less decorative and simpler designs are not that expensive,
and they probably will hold their value better than a new 'Box stove'/

Just some thoughts.

Greg L

that $2100 - $2400 seems pricey to me for a stove that will be temporary. since you are getting it to see if you like burning coal before getting a boiler you can easily find a used one in good condition for half that.

the cost of the accessories to get it exhausted into your chimney and set up will probably be around $100 (flue pipe, damper plate, baro, manometer, co detectors).

check craigslist ads by using searchtempest.com, it makes it easier to search a wider area of their listings without having to jump from region to region to enter your search data.

eta....i see greg beat me to it.....

xandrew245x wrote:.... I do not have an entrance to my basement from the outside, I would have to carry it in the backdoor and straight down the stairs.

Where have I heard this before?? HOLY CRAP IT's DONE!!! and No One Got Killed or Maimed!!

As you can see, we have our stove in the basement. To tell you the truth from my perspective, your really not going to save all that much coal by having it upstairs. I burn 70 lbs. per day in the Mark III whether it;s cranked to 600° or barely lit at 200° - it still needs the same amount of coal at the same time every day. If I really crank it up, it needs it a couple hours sooner. That's the only real difference.

But our basement is basically a dungeon - it's wet, drafty, & dirty. There's so many air leaks coming in down there that the basement would barely be above ambient outside temps if the oil boiler wasn't there. Even still the stove heats it up to well into the 80's down there. The upstairs is a comfortable 70° even when in the mid 20's outside. We'd be in the poorhouse trying to maintain that temp on oil. The burner would never stop!

My parents used to have the woodstove in the basement for 30+ years until they switched to coal back in '05. The coal stove is there as well. They insulated the concrete basement walls, which made a huge difference in the upstairs temp. Basement is still hot any way you slice it, but it's nice having warm floors upstairs. Poor man's radiant system.

Hello,
I have a 1100 sq. ft ranch. Put an Alaska Channing 3 in basement (power vent) (unfinished). I ran a 7" cold air return from farthest point (bedroom) from cellar stairs back to stove and hooked it up to convection blower of stove. I did put a filter on inlet of cold air return. This set up allows me to heat whole house all winter. Heat comes up cellar stairs and travels through house to cold air return and actually gets preheated as it exits stove!

LsFarm wrote:Call Matt or Dave at LeisureLine, They have a forum in the Manufacterer's section of this Forum.
LL has a nice 110K coal boiler with oil backup for around $4K. Let a good installer look at your boiler layout/situaton. get an installed price.

Plut your location on your signature, maybe someone lives nearby and you can see their setup.

More than $2k to buy and install a Harman MkII ?? that seems pretty pricey to me.

If you are at all handy, a used boiler is a very good option, but probably somethng to think about next year.

Look on your local Craigslist, local papers and ebay, see if you can't find a nice handfed to do the job this winter.

What is your available chimney in the basement? What are you using for Domestic Hot Water?

There are lots of options, Keep reading and try to find a good used stove or boiler.

Have you considered a good antique stove ? Some of the less decorative and simpler designs are not that expensive,
and they probably will hold their value better than a new 'Box stove'/

Just some thoughts.

Greg L

I looked on craigslist, the problem that I have with buying a used stove is I really don't know anything about them and I won't know if its in good condition or if its in horrible condition.

In the boiler room there is one chimney that the furnace is hooked up to. I would have to powervent the oil furnace and then use the chimney for the coal boiler. I have an electric hot water heater and it is also supplemented from my boiler. If I get a stove I plan on using it for 2-3 years before I get a boiler, they are coming out monday to give me an estimate, I am going to ask him to give me a quick estimate for a coal boiler in the basement, I know its going to be way more than what I want to spend.

If I did end up getting a boiler in the next 2 to 3 years I would use the handfired stove to heat my garage and wood shop, so its not a total waste.

Lets see, how to say this...... Ok, there are many, many, many people in here with one flue and 2 appliances. If the coal is running the oil ain't. And the barometric for the oil is the same as for the coal boiler. At any rate, the use of GAS and another heat source was frowned upon. I also ignored this for years as I knew that if the coal/wood was running the gas wasn't. And multiple safety devices had to fail all at once to get the gas to spill into the room or chimney and I had a standing pilot hot water heater setting there so kaboom anyways. Not suggesting you try it, just saying it is done.

Kevin