finished basement - heating problem

[timdog]

hey - wondering if anyone knows a decent solution to the issue I am having. we moved into a house recently and the previous owner finished the basement. problem is, he put the cold air return about 6 feet away from the heating vent in the ceiling. as such, the basement is always a few degrees colder than the rest of the house. Can i just cover the cold air return? what kind of problems could that cause if I do?
I know I should probably relocate the cold air return to the floor and further away, but for the time being this isn't something i can do for a little while.

[masoncgy]

Your basement is always going to be cooler than the rest of the house, that's the nature of the beast, you're typically several feet below grade. The trick is to run the heating vents down the walls to vent near the floor in your basement to avoid heating downward from the ceiling as in your case. Heat rises, so therefore the style you have is ineffective.

Don't cover the cold air return, that makes your furnace have to work that much harder to pull in air from other areas, thus reducing your life expectancy, etc.

Get a space heater if you find it really cool, you can find models that heat on 900w of power... super cheap to operate.

[Xtrema]

Unless you have a separate themostat in the basement (and a separate furnace), it'll always be colder.

Return air has nothing to do with it.

[legendboy]

I have the cold air return in my basement covered up with no problems.

There are enough of them in the rest of your house to keep the system mostly balanced.

Should help your "short circuit" heating problem

[timdog]

thanks legendboy.
i realize a basement is always colder, i am not an idiot. and i am actually aware of the recent invention of space heaters. good point about relocating heating vents near the floor though. sounds like alot of work. i'll cover the cold air return to see if it makes a difference. if it does, then i'll investigate relocating it.

[duffy]

I am no expert when it comes to these things, but if I had to make a guess I would say moving the cold air return to the floor should be the first thing. I agree that moving the heat vents down would be a good idea, but until you have a way for the cold air to be taken out of the room (which is near the bottom) it won't warm up as much.

[timdog]

seems to make sense - thanks. i still plan on covering the cold air return just to see how it affects the heat in the room. I was hoping an expert could tell me if this would cause any issues (for the short term). i asked my dad and he said in his old house he didnt even have a cold air return in the basement. and from legenboy's comments it sounds like its no big deal. i have 3 cold air returns on the top floor and 2 on the main floor so there should be plenty of circulation.
if covering it makes a significant difference then atleast I know the issue is the air flow, and not something else like insulation. if in the end if I choose to relocate the return to the floor, does anyone know who i should call to get that done?

[sputnik]

I would try constantly running the furnace fan.

That way more air from upstairs gets circulated through the basement instead of only when the furnace is on.

The basement will be colder due to the nature of it being a basement and during the day (especially on sunny days) the upstairs will be warmer and the furnace will cut out sooner.

[mr2mike]

What about just tossing on a small fan on the floor to help circulate the air?

Moves the cold air at foot level around. No, it won't move the hot air down, but worth a try if you have one around.

If not, then electric baseboard heaters?

If there's other cold air returns in basement, covering it may not hurt the furnace IMO. It'll be sucking the cold air harder from the other cold air vents. But, yes, moving the cold air return to the floor is probably easier than rerouting the heat ducts.

My basement has one massive cold air return in the floor area and all the heat ducts are on the ceiling. Its pretty warm even in winter, but sometimes I'll toss the fan on like I said to keep the air circulating.

[timdog]

cool thanks. someone told me constantly running the furnace fan in the winter would make my heating bills skyrocket, because it is constantly exchanging with outside air and reheating the whole house like every hour or something like that. not sure if that's true. I have lived my life in basements, i know they are always a bit cooler but have never had any issues before. when i lived with my parents my bedroom was in the basement (in a 100 year old house, too) and i was never too cold, even in the winter. sometimes i would wear a hoodie or whatever and that was good enough.
in the end i suspect its more than one issue. probably this cold air return location, some insulation/window issues and maybe even something else. are there heating experts that can actually come do a survey/assessment?