Need Some Help

I recently purchased a koker stoker coal furnace. I had to put it in the basement of my old farm house. All in all ,it is working quite well EX: basement 80*, first floor 69 to 71* and 2nd floor 61 - 63*. It is a large home and poorly laid out. The basement is split in 1/2 by a wall foundation (all uninsulated), 1/2 the rooms on the second floor have no basement under them. Total squ ft for the house is probably 4000 including the basement. I have been leaving the basement door open and have 1 grate installed per room. The one thing I noticed was no heat coming up through the grates. last night when I was down in the basement I realized all the cold air was coming back through the grates into the basement. Also, with the cellar door open and the furnace fan not running I can feel even more cold air coming down the steps. Is this normal that so much cold air is finding its way into the basement. Im assuming this isnt a bad thing? I have no grates going into the 2nd floor upstairs so will I need a cold air return from there into the basement? As a newbie Im just trying to understand it all. Also with temps in the 20's and 30's Im burning 75 to 90 lbs per day. Is this normal for this setup? Thanks

Your usage isn't bad for trying to heat 4000 sq, ft. I'm assuming from what you described that you do not have duct work hooked up to this unit. Trying to heat a home by burning an appliance in the basement typically yields the type of result you are experiencing. When the hot air rises, the cold air has got to fall. Hot basement, comfortable first floor and cool second level. If it is capable of being connected to the duct work that would work better.

No duct work - yet

What you might want to try is to put some fans over top of the grates and have them blowing down through the grates into the basement. The hot air should flow into the rooms to replace the cold air that was pushed down.

It usually is better to push the cold air down rather than try to move the warm air into the room.

And I'll bet that if you can check the basement doorway again, there will be a layer of warm air flowing out of the basement as well as a layer of cold air flowing in.

Experiment, you will get it......

Rick

Thanks Rick , I will give that a try. You are also correct. There is air moving both ways at the basement door.

Good ductwork will allow less heat in basement and then more heat for upstairs.
Use less coal also.

MudBug, you sound just like me 2 years ago when I got my Reading forced hot air stoker. I put it in the basement and thought I'll just leave the basement door open and heat will come up the stairway. I had a basement that was like a sweatshop and the rest of the house was cold. Trial and ERROR I found you need to duct the hot air to the first floor which creates a positive air pressure on that floor. The next thing I found out that was huge is that I cut in a return register on my lower landing which returns this air back to the basement. I next found out if you put a fan on it and basically pull a power return the air flow has my upper floors running at 71* while burning much less coal and my basement is now running 73*

Hoss, thank you. That is an awesome setup you have! Hopefully this weekend I can study the pictures you sent.