# Pellet stove in basement. Questions.



## MIoutdoorsjunkie (Oct 11, 2006)

Just had an Enerzone Euromax pellet heater installed in my basement. House is 2000 sqft and basement is a unfinished walkout. Also 2000 sqft. 

Long story short, I have the stove installed directly across from the stairwell which leads to the open floor plan living area upstairs. Just fired it up yesterday evening and, as suspected with an unfinished basement, I am having issues moving heat upstairs. 

Looking to hear from those of you that are "basement dwellers" and have pellet or wood burner in the basement. Need ideas on how to get heat moving upstairs. 

Luckily, the Enerzone stove I have is a ductable unit. Meaning you can buy a plenum kit and to make two runs to forced air registers in the upper level. I wanted to try it without the duct work this winter and see if I can make it work. 

Creative ways to move heat from a basement????


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

A couple registers through the upstairs floor away from the stairwell to serve as cold air returns, should do it.

Your trying to push air up the stairwell, but the airflow going up is blocking air from coming back down to be heated.

You only have x amount of air volume in the house. You are missing the second half of air circulation. If you have exposed cold air returns from your furnace you may be able to use a duct booster fan to pull air down through those returns.


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

If you run heat ducts from the pellet stove, the stairwell becomes the cold air returns. That's probably the most efficient way to do it.


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## MIoutdoorsjunkie (Oct 11, 2006)

swampbuck said:


> If you run heat ducts from the pellet stove, the stairwell becomes the cold air returns.


Thanks.....I appreciate the advice..... short of cutting holes in the floor, any other ideas? Not sure that I want to cut holes. 

I haven't tried it yet, but was thinking of running the furnace fan set to "on" instead of "auto". I am wondering if that will circulate the air or If the vents will just blow cool air.


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

You would still need to get the heat into to the furnace ductwork. The only opening in the ductwork is between the heat registers and the cold returns.

If you could run the heat ducts from the pellet stove into the furnace heat run, then you could set the furnace blower to on, and you would be golden. Even better if you connect the cold air returns to the stove also, then you don't need the furnace on. You could run either or both.

you would probably want to leave one open to the basement and one to the furnace heat run. So your heating both levels. If you want to heat the basement

Either way your blower is pulling cold air and pushing warm air. If you restrict that flow, you lose efficiency.


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## tmanmi (Sep 20, 2005)

You could unhook your cold air return from the furnace and let it pull warm air out of the basement.


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