Bought a house about 8 years ago and included was a Fisher Grandpa Bear, I believe?, in the main living room area. Stove is about 32-36 inches? wide with 2 front doors. I love this stove and it puts out serious heat. We just remodeled this family room, took down wood paneling and put up drywall and pulled the carpet and installed hardwood. This combined with years of my wife nagging about the mess, dust, smell, intense heat I finally agreed to take the Fisher to the basement. I knew it wouldnt be efficient so here are my questions...
Its a full basement, unfinished bare block with 7 foot celing. I can keep the basement 80+ degrees no problem by just feeding the stove of the morning and again in the evening. Stove is located directly under the family room but its on one end of the house. On mild days above 50 degrees enough heat trickles up to keep the house in the upper 60's. When it drops below freezing its kind of pointless to even have a fire. Again, I knew this was going to be the case.
I'm not trying to heat the whole house, just supplement our central air system and propane stove on the other end of the house. Plus I enjoy cutting and gathering firewood.
Thought # 1. Build a wall in the basement that closes off the section directly under our family room, where we spend most of our time. Insulate this new basement room and install drywall or some other wall covering? Cut out 2 grates/vents directly above the wood stove and use my central air fan to draw heat out of the basement and to the return located in the center of the house. I have an HVAC buddy who can get me some kind of code approved vent/grate thingy that auto close in case of a fire. I like this idea the best as I can do the work myself for fairly reasonable expense. Plus I dont have to be as careful with my mess in the basement.
Thought # 2. My wife has a friend with a Hearthstone SoapStone stove which is beautiful. This friend claims there is little to no smell and very little dust. This would go in the main family room. The downside is these things are mega expensive and I would still have to deal with tracking in dirt and debris bringing wood in. I could practically drywall and insulate my entire basement for the cost of one of these.
Thought # 3. Install gas logs in family room and forget wood alltogether. This sucks because I have access to as much hardwood as I can cut and gather.
Its a full basement, unfinished bare block with 7 foot celing. I can keep the basement 80+ degrees no problem by just feeding the stove of the morning and again in the evening. Stove is located directly under the family room but its on one end of the house. On mild days above 50 degrees enough heat trickles up to keep the house in the upper 60's. When it drops below freezing its kind of pointless to even have a fire. Again, I knew this was going to be the case.
I'm not trying to heat the whole house, just supplement our central air system and propane stove on the other end of the house. Plus I enjoy cutting and gathering firewood.
Thought # 1. Build a wall in the basement that closes off the section directly under our family room, where we spend most of our time. Insulate this new basement room and install drywall or some other wall covering? Cut out 2 grates/vents directly above the wood stove and use my central air fan to draw heat out of the basement and to the return located in the center of the house. I have an HVAC buddy who can get me some kind of code approved vent/grate thingy that auto close in case of a fire. I like this idea the best as I can do the work myself for fairly reasonable expense. Plus I dont have to be as careful with my mess in the basement.
Thought # 2. My wife has a friend with a Hearthstone SoapStone stove which is beautiful. This friend claims there is little to no smell and very little dust. This would go in the main family room. The downside is these things are mega expensive and I would still have to deal with tracking in dirt and debris bringing wood in. I could practically drywall and insulate my entire basement for the cost of one of these.
Thought # 3. Install gas logs in family room and forget wood alltogether. This sucks because I have access to as much hardwood as I can cut and gather.