Idea for wood stove in uninsulated basement

Hi all,

Im not sure if this is the right section to post this in so let me know if I should post it elsewhere.

I recently bought a 1400 sqft home with an uninsulated, unfinished basement. Currently there is a wood furnace/oil furnace (with ducts blowing to each room) in the basement hooked up to the chimney. We would like to get rid of these furnaces because the configuration of the furnace exhaust is not to code and is highly susceptible to creosote buildup (exhaust pipe goes 90 degrees from the furnace, then almost horizontal for 5 ft and then has a ~ 60-70 degree elbow to the chimney)

We were thinking of putting a regular wood stove in place and then cutting vents in the floor for the hot air to rise into the house. After reading up on this, it would be useless since most of the heat would be absorbed by the cement walls unless we insulated the whole basement (can’t do this because it’s an older foundation that leaks in some areas and also we can’t afford to insulate the whole basement.)

My idea is this: install a regular fireplace in the basement and hook it up to the existing chimney. Then build a 10ftx10ft (or whatever minimum size that would still have safe distances from the fireplace) insulated room around the chimney/new fireplace and install a vent in the ceiling (upstairs floor) for the hot air to rise into. I would of course need a grate/vent somewhere on the walls near the floor in that fireplace room for passive air to enter.

Does this make sense? Any thoughts or inputs?

Extra info: This is not our primary source of heat. We have ductless heat pumps that heat the house and we would like a wood stove for extra cold days and because I just like to cut and burn wood. This does not need to heat the whole house, just the living area above where the furnaces are now.

 

1. Cutting holes between floors to aid in air circulation is a fire code violation.
2. The basement is the worst place to put a wood stove, unless you spend most of your time down there.

Having said that, I've done both....with not great results.

If you used the existing chimney and located the stove upstairs, would that be a good location...or would it be in a bedroom closet?

If you want to put a stove down there, I'd look into spray foaming the walls of the basement. It is pretty cheap compared to what it used to be.

 

"most of the heat would be absorbed by the cement walls "
right, and white pine causes creosote

I have a wood stove in the basement heating upstairs very well.
So does a neighbor right up the street.

We have a cutout in the floor right above the store installed by the stove shop, inspected by the town for an occupancy permit and inspected by the insurance agent. Some municipalities require a thermal shutter in case of a fire. Ours didn't and still doesn't.
In fact, vents right above the stove or between floors is quite common around here.
Many split ranches really don't need them if there are no doors between floors.

 

Think more about continuing to use the already existing ductwork system for the heat distribution.

 

I heat my house with a stove in the basement not insulated it takes a day to warm up the concrete walls under the stone fireplace my stove pipe goes right up through the old ash cleanout in the fireplace up through the old fireplace ( THE damper was removed ) the stainless liner is one piece all the way up from stove to top of chimney I have glass doors on the fireplace and the stone hearth has a heatilator in it once that gets warm the house is very warm my place is a small bungalow built in the 40's the basement is only under half of the house and it has kept the house warm 75-80 in zero degree weather JB

 

I also have a wood stove in a basement. House is 24x36 and the floor above is usually at 70-72 without pushing the stove real hard. I do burn quite a bit of wood yearly though. Typically 7-8 full cords if I burn daily from say early Nov until mid March