I have a wood burning stove heating up my basement but the heat can't get to the upstairs because of the home design. I can't cut openings in the basement ceiling (upstairs floor) for the heat to just rise, so I am thinking about cutting a vent in the cold air return duct downstairs so I can just turn the forced air fan on and the heated air downstairs will be drawn into the cold air return and flow through the forced air system. It seems to me that the warm air will get sucked out of the basement and more properly distributed through the house. I am anxious for any advice I can get - can anyone out there provide any guidance? Thanks! :)

It sounds like you just want to add a return branch onto your return system, so that shouldn't be a problem. Just can't provide much insight on how large to make it or how to tie it directly into certain stoves.

This does not sound like anything new, but something not typical for a forum like this. I would try posting over at hearth.com as I bet others there would know more.

Thanks DAC122 - I will check over there as well. Happy Holidays! :)

That sounds like a good idea to me, and in fact you could possibly take a step further and run the new return-air duct direct to the top of the stove or even to a stove-pipe heat exchanger for maximum efficiency.

Good luck!

Thank you scirocco70 - There is an existing cold air return running near the wood stove right through the ceiling of the hot basement room so I am planning to just tie into that. But your idea of maximizing the heat is very prudent and I will consider my options in that regard as well. Thanks for your thoughts - Happy Holidays! :)