What should I do? Opinions needed.

[farmermike]

I've got an old 2600 sq ft farmhouse heated primarily with wood. A couple of years ago I built a corn burning stove to go in the basement under the living room. Room was always cold. Stove works fine for the most part, but heating the basement doesn't seem to be all that efficent. House is a big square house with a large,480 sq ft. living room off to the side. Living room has a fireplace but it is an old style one. Only used in the spring and fall. Seams to let more heat out than I get back. My inner cheapness is gettng the better of me what with the price of corn and all, I wonder about taking the corn stove out and replacing it with a wood stove, I could evan remodel the corn stove to burn wood, or put an insert in the fireplace. I only use it during the real cold weather which hasn't been much this winter. My concern with an insert is that the room will get to hot. I really don't want to spend much, cheapness thing keeps getting in the way Thanks for the help.

 

[stumpguy]

do you buy corn? wood is free. if i am going to buy a fuel, it will be gas. my point is this, if you're ok with paying for fuel, why not put a small gas fireplace in that room? it's very easy to regulate the heat.

i will never ever pay for firewood.

 

[farmermike]

I guess I hadn't thought of a gas fireplace. Thanks for the idea. I don't have to buy the corn. I farm so getting the corn is no problem. It just seems as thow I use an aweful lot of corn just so my living room is comfortable. Thanks for the idea.

 

[stumpguy]

okay, i thought you had to buy the corn. you may want to try to figure out just how much corn you use to heat that room. how much is the corn worth at current market price? are you burning $500 worth of corn when it could be costing $400 for gas? i am not saying that gas is better than wood or corn. i'm just saying that the wood i burn is free.

 

[mga]

why not run duct work from the basement up to other parts of the house?

heat rises, so a fan isn't needed. duct work come sin a variety of variations from steel to flexible plastic. a simple hole in the floor of the living room, covered with a grate, would allow tons of heat into that room.

you mentioned "primarily" with wood. does that mean you have an alternative heat method? ie: gas or oil?

 

[PA Plumber]

The ductwork is a good idea.

If privacy is an issue, I would be careful about straight ducting from a room into the basement. Sound travels very well through steel duct. Fiberglass ductboard dampens noise a lot better than steel, although may not give as good of airflow due to a rougher surface.

 

[ericjeeper]

Take the flex for an s turn

The ductwork is a good idea.

If privacy is an issue, I would be careful about straight ducting from a room into the basement. Sound travels very well through steel duct. Fiberglass ductboard dampens noise a lot better than steel, although may not give as good of airflow due to a rougher surface.

By turning the flex in a couple of zig zags will help the sound from traveling too.

 

[wdchuck]

By turning the flex in a couple of zig zags will help the sound from traveling too.

Airflow will be reduced considerably as well. I just removed 100' of flexible insulated duct work, put in regular metal, what an improvement.

When I was at the wholesale HVAC getting my stuff, I asked about flexible, only if there is no way to do it with metal, and each 90*bend is equivalent to 10' of straight pipe, so, the simpler the lay out, the more air you will get, where you want it.

....Does the basement stairway share a wall with the living room?, we too have an old square farmhouse, and the stairway goes through the center, I put in some vents(grills) at the bottom of the wall under the stairway on the living room side, the warm air that is trapped in the basement stairway comes through the vent(grills) and warms the center of the living room.

....Maybe you could find a way to channel the warm air along the basement ceiling, using the joist cavities as a channel to the ends of the run then have vent in the wall at the floor level, or in the floor, convection style.

.... They have inline-in the duct fans that would pull/push the hot air up to the floor vents if you use some 6" duct pipe, kind of like a kitchen exhaust hood over your wood/corn burner to collect the heat then direct it to that rooms vents.

My two bits.

 

[farmermike]

Thanks for all of the ideas. Adding more duckwork isn't feasible. The two runs I do have are over thirty feet long. The cistern is in the way. The house has a charmaster wood oil combination furnace. First class as far as I'm concerned. The corn stove was put in when corn was about 1.80 and now it's 3.50. At that point I had just started a full time job in town and was getting tired of spending all my free time cutting wood. That has since changed, I'm starting to enjoy it again. Last winter I used about 200 bushels of corn and about five cords of wood. I know I shouldn't complain. I'm getting enough for the corn to offset the increase in expense. Doesnt' seem as though I'm getting seven hundred bucks worth of heat though. I did put a couple of grates in the floor. Helps alittle but not as much as I thought. I'm a little leary of putting the insert in because of the mess. I don't mind it in the basement. I rarely use the fireplace because of the inefficiency of it and the mess. I think I'm going to look into a gas insert. I know gas isn't free but I can't believe I'd use seven hundred bucks worth of lp either. Again thanks for the help.