Wood Stove in Large uninsulated basement not heating up stairs.

[winsormcbeth]

I have a wood stove in my 1,050 sq foot unfinished, uninsulated block basement with half the walls underground and half above ground. The side above ground even has 2 windows. The ceiling does have insulation. I can only raise the temp in the basement by 11 degrees so there is no way its going to heat the upstairs. I loose too much heat through the walls and its too big of a room, especially uninsulated. I have 2 thoughts...
1. Run duct work to within a couple feet above the stove with a fan to push the heat through the duct work to the center of the upstairs.
2. Run duct work from a couple feet above the stove to my return duct work for my furnace and run the fan so it pushes the heat to every room up stairs. Someone told me this could throw the system out of balance since the system is designed for the exact size of the house?? I'm trying to heat the 1 level above the basement which is 2,400 sq ft. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[stihly dan]

Get some air movement up stairs. Some high low vents. The longer you keep the heat in the basement the more you will lose. Can't lose it if it's already upstairs.

 

[kwalshy]

Get some air movement up stairs. Some high low vents. The longer you keep the heat in the basement the more you will lose. Can't lose it if it's already upstairs.

What he said.

You need a means to bring the warm air upstairs, hence the vents. With the insulation in the ceiling of the basement there is no path for the warm air to reach the living space in your house.

And if you can afford it, put Styrofoam boards on the block walls in the basement.

 

[Patrick62]

build a little room?

build a little room around the stove, and run a couple of 20" ducts off this room up to the floor and use a couple of large floor vents? Bring a return air duct back down from opposite side of the house. You now have a "gravity" furnace.

 

[kevinlar]

why not insulate the basement walls?

 

[winsormcbeth]

build a little room around the stove, and run a couple of 20" ducts off this room up to the floor and use a couple of large floor vents? Bring a return air duct back down from opposite side of the house. You now have a "gravity" furnace.

I am certainly considering this. I may build a little room plus put a "hood" over the stove like is done in the attached picture. The stove is at the opposite end of the basement where the stairwell door is so i could just leave that door open to be my "gravity" return?

 

[winsormcbeth]

why not insulate the basement walls?

I thought of that but that would be more expensive than putting a hood over the stove to suck the concentrated hot air up stairs. It would take a while to heat the upstairs after i got home from work by heating the whole basement as well. Its a large basement.

 

[winsormcbeth]

Four mil plastic hung from the ceiling down to the floor is quick and cheap to make a small room. You'd be surprised at the difference in temperature it creates.

That sounds like a great idea, However is there something Better that would insulate more that I could use? It would be nice to hang something rather than put up 2x4s for a insulated wall.

 

[gregfox]

A "through the floor fan" above the stove will directly take your heat upstairs. Convection through the floor doesn't work very well. I used to stay 10-15 degrees warmer downstairs until I installed a "level to level fan"(too lazy to look for link but one of these phrases will find one. Anyways now basement and first floor are within 5 degrees with the fan. It was about $180 and worth every penny.

 

[PEKS]

You need to circulate the warm air upstairs for sure..
Running a cold air return, to your furnace will help, especially if there is no return air vents already..
Do not install a vent directly above your stove, that is too close, it will draw and could create a negative pressure when you open the stove door to add wood. (if you do install a return air vent above your stove, have an open/shut damper on it and close it when opening the stove door, especially on light up)
Insulation of the walls is a must..

 

[struggle]

Insulate the basement walls. It is the only true fix. Bare concrete walls are huge heat suckers.

Also it is easier to bring colder upstairs heat to the basement than to push the hot air upwards often due to pressure differential between floors.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Steve NW WI]

I have a similar setup, except for 1" foam on the outside of the block up to ground level. I pulled all the ceiling insulation which helped some, added some vents in the floor to help with airflow, that helped a bit more, and I'm going to rig a downflow fan at the opposite end of the house to keep air moving which should help a bit more.

What concerns me the most is that you don't have a large enough stove to be effective, if you can only raise the basement temp by 10 degrees or so right now, without helping the upstairs much or at all. You are either going to need insulation, a bigger heater, or both to make this work well.

 

[EXCALIBER]

I agree, bigger stove needed. Only a 1000sq ft basement and you can't get it to heat up, time for a decent stove. My trailer is 1200 sq ft and I can heat it up pretty fast, and about as hot as you would want to have it. No insulation on the floor either. Bigger stove, then worry about the upstairs if that doesn't get the job done.

 

[haveawoody]

Clear poly cover over the windows in the basement as step 1.
Bet that is around 50% of the heat loss.
Insulate the north wall only inside the basement, another 10-20%.
1" styrene insulation sheets and construction adhesive and very little money and time.
Continue walls as needed.

In the long run you will end up with a much warmer house, the basement semi finished and no silly temp things you need to remove later.

The savings in firewood costs i bet will be more than the wall insulation and window poly costs.

 

[GeeVee]

That sounds like a great idea, However is there something Better that would insulate more that I could use? It would be nice to hang something rather than put up 2x4s for a insulated wall.

Try ThermoPly. Its structural sheathing about an eighth inch thick, foil face on one side, about ten bucks a 4x8 sheet. Its not super insulative, but it is very reflective. You can cook and egg on it outside in the sun. Basicaly a heat reflective barrier we use down here in the sun, it will send heat away from the walls.

Go buy ONE sheet and drag it down there, stand it up and come back ten minutes later. If you don;t feel the heat coming OFF it by standing in front of it then moving sideways away from it, send me the bill for the sheet.

A cold barrier on the block would be a good idea, Styro and ThermoPly can both be adhered with adhesives.

 

[NorthernOntario]

I'll repeat what others are saying... you need to insulate those concrete walls (and floor if you can). Concrete is a huge thermal sink... unless it's well insulated on the outside to "hold" the heat, all it's doing is absorbing the heat from your stove and moving it outside.

Consider this... if you build a little room around that stove to duct heat upstairs, what happens to the rest of that basement? How quickly will it cool down to the surrounding soil temps? And it's still sucking heat out of the house.

If it's all open and easily accessed, you could consider spray foam on the walls for a nice high R value. Consult with local building codes as to the best method of application... whether you need to stud the walls ahead of time, or if you can strap over it. If $ is a concern, you can also do it one section at a time with foam board, or even studs and fiberglass/rockwool insulation. With extruded polystyrene (XPS) board, you're looking at R5/inch.... fiberglass/rockwool batts are R3/inch. The XPS board can be fastened directly to the wall, then covered with drywall for the fire-rating necessary.

How much heat is being sucked into the floor directly around the stove?

 

[Jules083]

1" styrene insulation sheets and construction adhesive and very little money and time.
Continue walls as needed.

Sorry to muck up the op's thread, but,

Is it really that easy?

I was thinking I'd have to basically frame in the basement, run insulation between the framing, then screw drywall to that. I was thinking that if the wall ever leaks or sweats the glue would let loose and cause a big mess.

How would you put drywall over the sheets? More glue? It wouldn't have to be perfect, I'm happy with good enough. I spend more time in the basement than the rest of the house, but it's still just a basement. I have an exit door here, and I'm roughly 40% underground. Most of the front wall, some on the sides, none on the back.

 

[SS396driver]

I remodeled my basement last year. The cement floor was so bad it was crumbling so the floor came out 2 inch insulation and 6 mill vapor barrier and poured new cement. Studed the walls out about an inch and used blue foam to get r-15 . The dryboard is the dense armor that wont rot or mold no paper . My point is after doing this I use a lot less wood and my house is warmer

 

[DB43725]

Get a bigger stove. I got an 1800 sg block basement and my ashly will run you out and the up stairs as well,, when fired up. I have to shut is way down or Im constanly opening windows up stairs enven when its 20 degrees outside. Now if the wind is blowing its not so bad.

 

[Marc]

With the plastic I was talking about something that could be done in a couple of hours for twenty bucks or so plus the cost of grates for the floor.

Another idea with the plastic is for a cold air return. If you have a floor vent just hang a plastic tube from the vent in the ceiling of the basement that reached to within a foot and a half from the floor. Cold air will thermosiphon down this tube quite well and it can be located quite close to the stove. I used this set up for a decade or so in a situation similar to yours. If you don't mind cutting some vent holes in the floor a 12x16 or so plastic room with return vents could be done really cheap and quickly. Where the plastic touches the floor old magazines work well as weights.


I kind of disagree with all of the suggestions of insulating the whole basement. It is a big job, expensive, and lots of things like mold, etc. to contend with in the future. It is a large can of worms to get into expecially as the floor above the basement is already insulated. Did I mention it's a big job?

Even a small studded out insulated room would be better than doing the whole basement.

Now if you happen to live in a really nice house........it would be the way to go.

It's an easy and cheap solution, but polyethylene sheeting + space heating device sets off my fire protection alarm bells. I wouldn't want that in my basement, especially in close proximity to floor/ceiling bypass holes.