Basement insulation is great because I redid it all years back. Kitchen and living room area (main floor) is terrible, as from the little area I did open up once, has no vapour barrier tape and some places with no insulation at all. Upstairs is hard to tell, it's probbaly bad too, but the heat goes up so I don't notice as much. It's actually warmer in my basement than rest of house. I am hoping with the furnace fan alone the hot air from stove can move throughout the house at a decent rate so the whole house is warmed up. I will have to experiment with different ways to move the heat to where I want it. Separate duct runs, heat exchanger with water loop etc.
I eventually want to experiment with storing heat too, because the wood stove will generate lot of heat but for a relatively short time, so the more of that I can capture and store, the better. I could then release that heat in the morning, specifically in the bathroom so it's nice and warm when I take my shower. These are all minor things I can experiment with later.
I'm off for part of the day tomorrow so hoping to start on cleaning up the basement so I can prep the area for the wood stove. Need to lay cement board on the floor to prep for tile, and do the walls too then figure out what I'll do for shielding. Ceiling is iffy too, installer said I need to put cement board there too, problem is my outside garden house runs there so I really don't want to cover that up and make it inaccessible in case it ever needs to be changed. I may wait for that part so I can discuss options more. I'm hoping just a metal heat shield that is hanging on threaded rod or something might actually be good enough. Can probably layer metal sheets and space them out. Basically what they did for the JWST. If it's good enough for NASA... 😛
