basement temps while burning

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. Last year was my first year burning and I burned about a half a cord, basically just on the weekends. I should have enough wood this year to burn most of the winter and completely heat my home. My question is since my stove is on the first floor (ranch) should I be concerned with the basement getting too cold in the dead of winter? Last year my boiler was on enough that it kept the basement reasonable but this year the plan is not to use the boiler much at all. I don't think it would get below freezing and freeze the pipes but just wanted to see what veterans hear think. Thanks and looking forward to being a part of this community.

 

Hello and welcome to the FHC Great to have you. With the wood stove going i wouldnt worry about it.

 

Welcome! Basement should be fine. I never have issue in mine. Where are you in northeast ohio?

 

Welcome to FHC. What are your normal temps? Many days below zero? Is your basement buried on all 4 sides or any of the walls exposed? Do you have a loop/zone for the basement that you can use only when it getting cold in the basement? Is your domestic how water heated by boiler or dedicated hot water heater? Can you use a box fan or similar and blow warm air down to the basement? If you have a dug basement I would think your pretty good until you have weeks of negative temps.

 

Welcome to FHC SS...it depends on the house...if it is well insulated and air sealed, you will probably be OK...but if not, and you have pipes that run near windows, or leaky sill plates, then you may have an issue, especially during an extended extreme cold snap. Even if you don't have an issue with freezing pipes, a bigger issue to me would be the cold floors...I hate that! Even just having my forced air wood furnace going all the time is enough to help keep our floors from being cold like they were even with running the forced air oil furnace previously.
Also, how old is this boiler? Is it a "cold start" (I think that's what they call it) model? Meaning it can be left to go cold and just fires upon call for heat...some need to keep themselves warm all the time, call for heat or not...this type is likely to develop leaks when it goes stone cold...which it will likely stop when heated back up, but its makes a little mess, and makes things rust faster...something to be aware of.

 

Welcome to the club, get ready to learn more than you thought there was to know about heating and all other things firewood

 

Yep! And a lot about non firewood things too if you stick around....

 

I have found that if it is below -5 degrees F overnight, I may need to circulate water through my FHW system once overnight. I do this by turning the thermostat up as high as it will go for about 10 minutes. That puts 160-180 degree water in the pipes and provides enough radiant heat to keep the basement above freezing. Doing this can cold shock parts of the system, however so just be aware of that. If it’s warmer than that, I don’t have to worry. On the coldest nights, I check various parts of my basement for the temperature. That gives me a good idea of which parts of the basement are the coldest and are an indicator that it’s time to run the oil heat through one cycle.

 

I wouldn't worry till the basement gets into the 40's. Or if it's really windy. Wind can drive the cold in through cracks at the sill plate (as mentioned above) and pipes are often near the sills.
Especially with baseboard/hydronic heat.

Even in my basement/dungeon/stove room, that routinely get to 85-90°, my sills are still cold.

 

If temp becomes a problem, you can put a pellet stove in the basement, it can be vented by removing a casement window. Plywood, paint six inches of blue foam board to replace the window, route the exhaust vent through that. Floors will be warm, as with the pipes, plus you will burn less wood upstairs.

 

wow did not expect this many good responses this soon, thanks all! It is a completely dug basement (no exposed walls) but I have 8 windows that I know leak some air. I think I will just monitor the temp down there throughout the winter and cycle the boiler every once in a while. Hot water tank is separate from the boiler.
I have thought about possibly cutting a vent into the floor and somehow blowing some warm air by the stove down to the basement. Any body do anything similar? Or would blowing cool air from the basement with a box fan help or does the war air need to be blown down?
Good idea with installing a pellet stove in the basement, something to consider in the future

I am in Columbia Station in Lorain county. We will normally have only a few days at a time of extreme cold in the single digits or below.

 

You're probably not far from eatonpcat

 

One other thing to consider - does your stove have an outside air supply? Basically a pipe from the outside direct to the back of the stove.

Hot air rises and as you heat the upper floors cold air will be drawn in somewhere to compensate, and also to compensate for the air used in combustion.

Without an outside air supply, if the upper floors are well sealed cold air could be drawn into the basement. It's more likely though that cold air will be drawn in on the same floor as the stove. This can cause cold draughts which can be noticeable in areas away from the stove. Well, my wife notices them, at least.

 

Ground temp in NE Ohio is likely around 50 degrees. Try to windseal as best as possible - windows, doors, sill plate etc.. This often helps even with drafts upstairs in cold windy weather.

Blowing warm air down usually doesn't work too well until you start doing duct work and beefy fan(s). Most people don't want that industrial look exposed in their home.

 

Back when we heated the house as best we could with a conventional fireplace on the main level, the basement got into the 40's. The LP furnace would run at night and when I was not home to constantly throw wood on the fire. We did keep the house LP thermostat set to 62° back then though too.

It's something to be aware of and to keep on eye on if you live in a cold climate.

 

scootsaw I live in southwest Wisconsin and we see temps way below zero (-20 to -35) and we have a raised ranch with the fireplace insert upstairs and one one end of the house. The basement does get cool, in the 50's, but we don't spend a lot of time down there. We have an oil forced hot air furnace that we gave set to come on when temps get below zero just to keep the basement a bit warmer and to assist the wood stove. The wood stove provides about 75 to 80% of our heating needs.
I do run an electric space heater in the downstairs bathroom when I take a shower down there.

 

Do you have one of those raised ranches that projects outward on the front? Those can be a problem as the heater lines sometimes are t insulated well in that area.
Beyond that if the basement is constructed half decent you shouldn’t have a problem. Even if you freeze a pipe they don’t necessarily burst. It takes a longer colder spell to turn freezing into bursting. If it gets that cold you may just want to let the boiler sit a few degrees above what your stove pushes out for max. The furnace will come on during the coaling stage and keep things moving.

 

I did something that you might work into your place.
My first year was similar to yours. I was burning wood and worried about the basement. My water lines are all exposed.

I put a knife switch(any double pole double throw would do) in my thermostat wire and placed a 2nd thermostat down in the basement set at 45 degrees.
This kept the basement at 45 and the house above never got below 45 or so if I let the stove go out.
For normal upstairs operation I just flip the switch and the regular thermostat takes over.


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Welcome to FHC scootsaw ! Can you run your air handling blower independent of the boiler burner? If so just run the blower to exchange some air from basement to upstairs. Assuming the boiler is in the basement?