Developed basement cold

[craigcd]

In general the basement is always about 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. It isn't unusable but it sure makes the bonus room upstairs more appealing.

Our house is about 8 years old and the basement was developed by the builder. I had my furnace checked over when I was having AC issues and he mentioned the furnace is "just" big enough and that the basement ducting isn't the best. He attributed this to the cool temperatures.

We will not live in this house forever so installing a direct vent gas fireplace is likely not worth it.

Is there and economical solution out there? I was looking at wall mounted electrical heaters but was thinking the operating costs would be high.

Suggestions?

[superflychief]

Have you tried closing some of your vents upstairs?

[Darell_n]

You should have a large return air grill in the basement at floor level as well as the heat registers. Your furnace and hot water tank should also be in a sealed mechanical room and the cement floor insulated one way or another.

[craigcd]

Originally posted by superflychief
Have you tried closing some of your vents upstairs?

I have, if I close the upstairs vents then the rest of the house ends up being cold. Really think i could benefit from a larger furnace.....

[craigcd]

Originally posted by Darell_n
You should have a large return air grill in the basement at floor level as well as the heat registers. Your furnace and hot water tank should also be in a sealed mechanical room and the cement floor insulated one way or another.

I have a large return at floor level. The mechanical room is sealed and actually stays about the same temp as the rest of the basement. The cement floor in that area isnt insulated or covered in anyway..... not sure how much of a difference that would make?

[jeffh]

There should also be some additional ducted supply lines installed(or upsized from the original 5"lines they usually install). Hard to tell way after the they developed the basement, but itd help explain some of the temp diffential. Are any of the supply lines in the exterior walls?

[rage2]

Originally posted by craigcd
I have, if I close the upstairs vents then the rest of the house ends up being cold. Really think i could benefit from a larger furnace.....

Where's your thermostat located? Upgrade to one with remote temperature sensor(s) and that'll partially solve the problem by triggering the furnace based on basement temperatures. Then adjust the vents throughout the house to balance.

[craigcd]

Originally posted by jeffh
There should also be some additional ducted supply lines installed(or upsized from the original 5"lines they usually install). Hard to tell way after the they developed the basement, but itd help explain some of the temp diffential. Are any of the supply lines in the exterior walls?

Nope the supply lines are all in the ceiling- pretty sure part of the problem is there simply isnt enough. There are 4 in total. I would guess the space is 800 sq feet?

I need to supplement with something, I dont think there is much I can do with what has been installed already.......

[craigcd]

Originally posted by rage2

Where's your thermostat located? Upgrade to one with remote temperature sensor(s) and that'll partially solve the problem by triggering the furnace based on basement temperatures. Then adjust the vents throughout the house to balance.

T-stat is on the main level.

This might help though. I will try messing around with the vents bit more.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by craigcd


I have, if I close the upstairs vents then the rest of the house ends up being cold. Really think i could benefit from a larger furnace.....

That doesn't make any sense...if you close off the vents and it's "colder" upstairs then that should trigger the furnace to turn on to make it the temperature that you set the thermostat to, which is what the temperature should of originally been upstairs to begin with

Unless you mean the top floor of a two story home, but either way I think you gave up on vent management too soon

Heat rises, cold falls... thermostat will always try to keep that room the temperature you set it to. So to balance your home you have to try and even out the rooms. Closing vents in the warmer parts of the house and opening them in cooler parts. Say all closed on the top floor, also make sure the return isn't blocked by a dresser or something as you want to pull the hot air back down to the furnace. Main floor, close off say half the vents. Mostly near the thermostat and perhaps leave them open where the air would rise best to the top floor. After that maybe measure the different temperatures in each area of the house and see what needs adjusting from there

[craigcd]

^^^ yes I meant the top level....

OK back onto vent management for a bit, will report back

[rage2]

My house used to have that problem too but I fixed it using my described method.


» Click image for larger version

Using an Ecobee thermostat with 3 remote sensors. The Follow Me feature is awesome because it detects which rooms are active and uses those sensors in an average to determine what temperature the thermostat uses to run the furnace/AC.

[craigcd]

Ok I will give it a shot- thanks. Looking into ecobee also.

[ercchry]

Also the nice thing about closing off vents is that you will increase flow in the open vents... so those 4 basement vents, being the shortest runs should have hot air BLOWING into the basement, if it's beyond comfortable temperature wise, and the noise is too much then maybe open up a couple more vents on the other floors... key to warming up the house though is to keep the thermostat room as cool as possible. Also if the room with the thermostat is where you spend most of your time (perhaps family room with a big tv and home theatre) all that heat generated by the equipment and the bodies will make the rest of your home cooler than you want and moving it to a less used room might also be beneficial

Edit: also lighting choices could help too.. if you have pot lights that give off tons of heat and you often have them on in that room... that's going to really raise the temperature in that room too... I am kind of leaning towards the excess heat in the thermostat room from your comments on your original experience on vent management

[speedog]

Originally posted by rage2
My house used to have that problem too but I fixed it using my described method.


» Click image for larger version

Using an Ecobee thermostat with 3 remote sensors. The Follow Me feature is awesome because it detects which rooms are active and uses those sensors in an average to determine what temperature the thermostat uses to run the furnace/AC.

You, sir, are the ultimate nerd (meant as a compliment).

[rage2]

Just a problem solver.

[Tik-Tok]

No, you're a electronics nerd I solved the same problem with a $20 relay.

[speedog]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
No, you're a electronics nerd I solved the same problem with a $20 relay.

Agreed, nerd. Shit, rage2 probably has some fancy Bluetooth/wifi toilet paper dispenser that automatically dispenses the appropriate amount of squares based upon the mess it detects as needing to be wiped away. Hell, there's the wifi lights, the remote blinds, the 100% LED lighting - shit, reading rage2's nerd boy posts is like reading the Popular Science magazines when I was a kid. Good on him though but he really needs to fully embrace his nerdiness, it ain't a badge of dishonor rage2, really it isn't - I'm a nerd at heart too but the couch is often too inviting and I just say fuck it. Case in point, who else but a nerd would have 2.5 ounces of mercury displayed in a small glass bottle on their entertainment center?

[botox]

We don't use our basement very often and we have baseboard heaters that take like 10 minutes to get to a decent temp. I also have a dyson hot/cold fan that works amazingly well to heat up the area quickly.

Originally posted by rage2
My house used to have that problem too but I fixed it using my described method.


» Click image for larger version

Using an Ecobee thermostat with 3 remote sensors. The Follow Me feature is awesome because it detects which rooms are active and uses those sensors in an average to determine what temperature the thermostat uses to run the furnace/AC.

Does this mean your furnace is blowing hot air more often since the basement would cool off quicker and require more heat to stay at your desired temp? Any noticeable increase in heating costs?

[pheoxs]

Just to clarify when you said you closed the vents on the top floor, you meant like 75% closed right, not completely blocked them?

I found I needed to balance all my vents to get my house happy. In winter it was basically: basement full open, main floor maybe a little less than half, and top floor like a quarter open to still get a bit of airflow.