2 Days to Get Heat Out of Stove

I have a Harman magnum in my basement that I fired up monday. I had a good hot fire but could not get my basement to temp to get above 67 degrees. Tuesday heated up a little more to 70 degrees. Wednesday night was cold so I had it at run continuously and the upstairs was cold 60 degrees ( have a larger ranch house ). Finally, the heat is making its way up to the first floor. I guess the moral of the story is that it takes a couple days to heat everything in the unfinished basement ( block,concreate, and everything in the basement before you see heat from your stove. This is my first year burning coal and thought this might help someone else who is a rookie like me. My father told me it would take days to get heat out of the stove. Damn! Hes always right. Hugg.

You need to insulate the basement walls. Most of your heat is going out into the ground. You will burn up a lot more coal with bare concrete walls.

I Know. All it takes is money. Which is in short supply for me these days.

I would keep at it. It may take some time to heat things up, but I don't think it should be days. I also have a ranch house and the temp in the basement when cold will come up in a matter of hours. If you haven't already done so, try running some ductwork from the stove to a register somewhere to help move the heat some. There are a few topics here that have to do with moving heat around. Here is pic of a temp. solution I came up with until I get something more permanent done. I also have a duct fan inside the duct up by the register and I wired it to the blower on the stove so when the blower comes on the duct fan will come on at the same time. Good luck.

Jeff

I have 3 registers in the floor and have been opening and closing the basement door. Walking aroung with a cigarette to see what the air flow is in the house (wife is going to chop my balls off). It may take me awhile, but I will maximize heat distribution eventually. Hugg

Like I said keep at it. You will get it. There is also a post regarding installing a cold air return from the main floor so you are not heating the colder air off the basement floor. This also creates a loop for your air ciculation and will distribute your heat more evenly. It's harder to get good heat flow throughout a house using a stove rather than a boiler or hot air furnace. Some on here are always looking for a little challenge when it comes to heating with coal. Others call it an obsession .

Jeff

Some on here are always looking for a little challenge when it comes to heating with coal.

Like this? 27 degrees outside, around 67 on the 2nd floor. I haven't lit the hand fed yet.

Exactly, its neat to see some of the pics and the different mods that have been done. There are a lot of cool ideas out there.

Jeff

Your talkinga bout Hugg. I know this guy personally. I should drive down and fix it for him.

why would you put this nice looking stove in your basement.

Where is the insulation in your basement. typicaly your basement is out of your thermal envelope. If you are going to
heat the basement than the insulation must be removed. if you have insulation in the ceiling, and cost is a concern than I would remove it and put it along the perimeter on the basement walls. this will expand your thermal envelope.

I just added these ducts. Getting lots of heat upstairs just with the stove blower. More pics in this thread.

Ducting Heat

Even a sheet of plastic, stapled to the sill plates, draped over the bare concrete walls will make a difference with heating the walls and the ground outside.. Insulate the floor joist spaces above the sill plates, this is a common cold spot, and caulk the sills if you have obvious leaks.. the expanding spray foam works great for the sill/concrete block gap.

When you can afford it, buy 1" or 2" styrofoam board to insulate the walls with. This is a fairly quick/easy install.. I'd insulate behind the stove first, this is where the stove heat is the highest, and the heat loss/ gradiant the greatest. Be carefull with getting insulation too close to the hot stove.. if it is going to be close, use fiberglass insulation, not foam..

Greg L.

Tell the wife that you guys are going to burn way more coal to heat the house and that you don't want to run down a flight of stairs every time you need to tend the stove. Be a man and tell her the stove is going on the first floor. Seriously the stove will work better for you on the first floor. I can't undersdtand why anyone would put a stoker in a basement unless they have a duct system and can rig something that works with their fan and registers. But even then you're losing a lot of the convection from the stove and still have to run the stove hard to get the air warm that is being washed off the stove.

I was hoping to only have to burn one stove. I have two, the new magnum in basement (1900 sq feet) and gibraltar hand fired stove that is at the far end of the house in the family room (used to be attached oversized two car garage 27x27. and yes it would have been ideal to have both stoves upstairs but wont work at this time because of chimney placement.