basement stove

I know alot of situations dont work. But ours would sit smack in the middle if the house/basement exposed tieing into a seperwte existing exterior chimney. Stove would be 10 ft from open stairwell to the main floor. Walls have 1" foam board and drywall on them. Ceiling is drywalled with no inuslation to the above floor. I cant tie into ductwork with an add on. That would require a whole new chimney bored and ibstsllled through foundation. So do you think this would work? If so would you go big tube stove or a cat stove? Existing chimney can only accept a 6" flex liner and that is without insulation around it

 

Ours works well in our basement and I really like being able to keep 95% of the mess of firewood life down there. Have really liked our Lopi Liberty. Takes a 24" stick, large glass for pyros (me) and can put out lotsa heat. A blower is available too. Uses a 6" flue pipe. EPA christened.

 

Biggest problem to overcome with basement stoves happens in the shoulder seasons. Poor draw( particularly on a cold start) - sometimes flow reversal as well ( note will fill a 2000 sq ft basement with smoke in about 2 minutes but will take a week to air out) so thing is to add a small y tap on the flue that one can use to add positive flow through ( like a shop vacs exhaust or a small blower) might have to crack a window down there as well. Once things are warmed up that can be removed and capped off until the next cold start. Less of a problem in the cold months as basement is generally warmer than outside so natural flow is positive but again at start up might need to crack a window open if place is real air tight.

 

We put our insert in the downstairs fireplace when we first bought it. Our basement is finished off just like yours. While it would maintain heat on the main floor, it would not raise the temp. I would need to use the furnace every morning and when I got home from work to bring the house back up to temp.

This year I moved it to the main floor fireplace. The wife was not sure about the move since it meant buying a new insulated SS liner "no way the basement one was coming out". We were just talking about how great moving it up stairs turned out to be. It has raised the comfort level exponentially on the main floor.

Now, part of my problem was my insert is just not big enough to heat my house from the basement. I had the guy a the hearth store come and look at my house to tell me what size I needed. He told me I needed a performer C210. I said that my calculations so I need a canyon 310. He assured me I didn't, and that he was correct. Well, it was too small!

So if you are putting one downstairs, I would definitely buy a larger one than you need!

 

Yup... bigger is better. It's costs more money up front... but when it's below zero, you won't care what it costs.

 

Yup, I know that now. His thought was it was better to work a stove hard than to smolder it. I was new to the wood burning game, and had just heard that same principle for the HVAC guys when the put in the central AC. So I went with his recommendation. It was wrong, it is much easier to run a stove on low, then to try and make a 74k BTU stove put out 85k BTU's. Last year I had the air rod opened all the way, loading that thing every 2-4hrs with wood. This year I ran it with the air rod 75% closed and only needed to load it "same amount of wood per load" every 6-8hrs! Last year I was lucky if my living room on the main floor was 68deg. This year I had to open a window when it went over 75deg! That and burning less wood, was a huge plus.

 

And, it's amazing how super dry wood makes those slow burns as good as it gets.

 

I have both an upstairs insert and a downstairs free standing stove. Like yours, my downstairs stove is in the center of the house and about 10 feet from a stairwell. What I added was a powered floor register at the far end of the house opposite the stairs. The floor register moves cool air down from the main floor to the lower lever. This helps the natural convection move warm air up the stairs. It has made the downstairs stove much more efficient...

In my case either stove will keep the house comfortable on normal winter days. During the really cold spells we light both stoves instead of pushing one really hard. Having two stoves gives a lot more heating options than just one including the ability to let one go cold for a complete cleaning during heating season.

KaptJaq

 

All good advice thanks. Another site that starts with H just answers with no dont do it.... our nc30 heats great upstairs but I wouldnt mind dropping a couple cord and storing in the basement. I would like to use the stove for wgen we are down there or to boost the heat when its below zero like these past 2 winters... hell if it works well enough I will heat 24/7 with it! Just sucks I dont want to spend money on say a bk and have it perform just ok.... bit having an existing chimney down there sitting empty bothers me

 

Well thats the debate... I really want a bk stove... I was thibking just put an nc30 down there to test it out.. I will eventually move my living room nc30 to the shop. Alot also depends on if we stay in this place
Yeah basement is insulated 1" foam board behind drywall. Not perfect but im sure it would help

 

Our Ideal Steel stove is in the basement of our ranch 1700 sq.feet home. It sits in the center of the envelope and exhausts into masonry chimney with 6" SS through it. But we had thermix poured down the outside of the SS pipe (between pipe and clay liner). It has done fine even though this last winter is the coldest I can remember for many years. I admit that the downstairs ( my mancave) gets nice and toasty while the upstairs is OK. Our stairs is about 18' from the stove. Basement is carpeted and insulation similar to yours.

 

For a basement install I don't see much need for cat stove if you want to heat the upper levels too. The benefit of a cat stove is the ability to burn long, low and clean, installing a stove in the basement and expecting it to heat the upper levels while dialed down low probably isn't going to happen. Now the hybrid stoves that gives you a decent low burn and a tube burner top end may be a better choice.

 

Kinda what I was thinking. Slap another nc30 or drolet ht2000. Basically as big of a plate steel tube stove that runs on 6" flue. I know what mine cruises at and I think from the basement I probably need the 700 plus degree stove temp