Best way to use Alaska Stoker II in the basement?

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sitdwnandhngon
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska Stoker II

Post by sitdwnandhngon » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 7:52 pm

I joined just to ask this, seems like people here know a lot about these things.

Our house is about 1400 sq ft, the main area is lofted to the three bedrooms and it's fairly open to the kitchen, the bathroom is kind of out of the way. The basement is unfinished, probably 1200 sq ft of open space.

When we moved in over a decade ago the primary heat was a multifuel furnace in the basement, it was very well installed, but probably as old as the house (built in the mid 70's). I burned wood in it for years, and switched to coal about 4-5 years ago as the primary fuel, it worked well enough except having to babysit it every day (shake it down, fill it, empty the ash pan repeat every 12-14 hours)

This past year though it wasn't acting right, and I was getting the smell of smoke through the ducts, I shut it down and tore it apart, it had multiple cracks in the fire box, time to retire it.

Recently I got an older used (but in fantastic shape) Alaska Stoker II stove with duct ring on top, and I'm not sure how to use it properly to heat my house. I saved the main duct and cold air return from the previous furnace set up, and my first impulse was the hook up the duct ring right to the main duct. I got it all hooked up, blocked off the front of the stove, and turned on the fan, I can get a good amount of air moving out of the ring, but once it goes into the main house duct it just kind of peters out, and I'm afraid it won't move enough air up into the house that way.

My next plan is to just put a T off the duct attached to the ring and hook one to the main living area floor duct, and the other to the bathroom and just push heat into the two areas so the main duct doesn't just eat all the heat.

Alternatively, I could just disconnect all the floor registers, crank the heat in the basement, hope that it goes up through the registers.

The guy I bought the stove off has a similar sized house, and he said even in the middle of winter that he had no issues keeping the house really warm with it in the basement, I forgot to ask him how he ran it though.

Any ideas for me? I have lots of time to get it installed correctly, but I don't want us to be huddled up in the basement on the first day hovering around zero degrees, and I don't really want the basement hotter than the upstairs, I work out down there and don't need it to be a sauna while the upstairs is freezing.

Thanks

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 8:13 pm

Looking at the specs on Alaska's site that is 85K BTU unit. That would supply most of the heat but I would not rely on it for all your heat especially with it being uninsulated and sitting in the basement. Somebody more familiar with it can give better advice that I can.

 
sitdwnandhngon
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Post by sitdwnandhngon » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 8:26 pm

Yeah, I'm in uncharted territory here.

I'm starting to think my best option is going to be just vent it direct to one central register and crank as much heat into the main living area as possible, the fan on the stove pumps a lot of air out of the duct ring and the run to the main register is nearly directly above it.

I can leave the cold air return right in place where it is, it draws from the opposite side of the living room, or possibly block that one off and turn bathroom register into a the cold air return to help draw warm air that way.

Our old stove was entirely too much stove for the house, I ran it as low as possible on all but the very coldest days, and we often had it too warm to be comfortable in here.

We do have electric baseboard as a backup, so we won't be totally screwed if we need a bit more heat.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 8:44 pm

sitdwnandhngon wrote:
Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 8:26 pm
We do have electric baseboard as a backup, so we won't be totally screwed if we need a bit more heat.
I was just tying to give you fair warning. Those small stokers put out a lot of heat, it will certainly take most of the heat load. Go with it and see what works.

They list a 265 cfm blower on their site with an optional 500 cfm blower, check and see what you have. Upgrading the blower will make a huge difference especially if you are trying to move it through a large amount of ductwork.


 
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Post by franco b » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 8:59 pm

The return should be ducted to the furnace as well for best results.

 
sitdwnandhngon
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Post by sitdwnandhngon » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:11 pm

franco b wrote:
Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 8:59 pm
The return should be ducted to the furnace as well for best results.
The way it's configured right now it ducts right back to where the stove sits, but I have no way to actually attach it since it's not a contained furnace like the old unit.

Also, should I insulate the ducts that I do end up running off it to prevent heat loss in them?

None of the old stuff was insulated, but it was moving a lot more air through them.

 
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Post by 2001Sierra » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:22 pm

i am doing just about the same with you. I have a Keystoker90 that I cut and welded a duct ring into the top and am heating both the basement and the upstairs, as well as the 1 car attached garage quite well.

 
sitdwnandhngon
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Post by sitdwnandhngon » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:32 pm

2001Sierra wrote:
Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:22 pm
i am doing just about the same with you. I have a Keystoker90 that I cut and welded a duct ring into the top and am heating both the basement and the upstairs, as well as the 1 car attached garage quite well.
Nice.

How many ducts are your running off it, and what size are they?

I'm going to assume with this set up that fewer hotter ducts are better then more that are cooler. Our house is so open that I think just pumping heat into the middle of it might be the ticket. The first two years we lived here we did Kero heaters in the winter often and one of them right in the middle of the living room would heat the whole house decent, and cook us out of the bedrooms upstairs.

I'm not too far from you, I'm about 2 hours west of Albany, it gets cold over here in January and Febuary.


 
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Post by franco b » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:38 pm

Just terminating the return close to the furnace is good. Insulating can only help.

 
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Post by sitdwnandhngon » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:42 pm

franco b wrote:
Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:38 pm
Just terminating the return close to the furnace is good. Insulating can only help.
Should I consider turning the bathroom register into a return also and hope that it draws air from the hallway to warm it? Or would I be better off just trying to send some air from the stove up through it?

The bathroom is really the only area I'm worried about, it's on an exterior wall, and it's the only room with a door and a register. It can get very cold in there (I need to insulate under the tub, but that's another project all on it's own)

 
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2001Sierra
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Post by 2001Sierra » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:55 pm

My stove is in the worst place. It is below the kitchen at the opposite end of the upstairs "ranch house" bedrooms. I put the duct ring from the stove into a duct that then feeds the bedrooms upstairs, and of course the rest of the house before returning to the basement stairs off the kitchen. I have a Panasonic FV-20NLF1 inline. The stove is the factory 240 CFM feeding the duct. Upsatirs is 1100 sq ft, the basement is the same with half being heated even more than upstairs, and the garage door is opened every evening keeping the garage in the 60's.

 
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Post by franco b » Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 10:11 pm

sitdwnandhngon wrote:
Fri. Jul. 20, 2018 9:42 pm
Should I consider turning the bathroom register into a return also and hope that it draws air from the hallway to warm it? Or would I be better off just trying to send some air from the stove up through it?
Probably using the register as a supply would be more effective, but doing nothing, at first, and seeing how it works as a return is easier. Also consider using an electric heater as supplement when in use. this can be effective if you only need a few more degrees and the room is not too large.

 
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Post by sitdwnandhngon » Sun. Jul. 22, 2018 5:29 pm

I finished getting the stove leveled, hooking it up with new pipe, and re-routing my fresh air supply line to near the combustion fan.

I gave it a test fire, smoked the house out (never owned a bottom draft stove), then made a small copy of a charcoal lighter and went again and got it running well. It was cranking with the carpet feed set way low, so I mocked up the duct work to the main register in the center of the house to see what would happen.

It was pumping out a steady 145 degrees out of the register on low (it's warm today, but my basement doesn't get too cold anyway in the winter). So I plan on hooking the duct coming off the stove up to the two central house registers and the one small bathroom register, and putting a damper on the one heading to the bathroom and one of the main registers so I can push air one way or another as need (if needed), then just kind of seeing what happens as the weather gets cooler going into fall.

Even with the humidity today the chimney drafted great once it heated up, I need to borrow a draft meter and get my barometric damper set up correctly.

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