I live in the basement suite of a house my sister and I own together. I'm
single, she's got a family; thus why I'm the one stuck with the basement.
One of the problems of living in a basement suite in a house such as this
one with central forced-air heating, is I have no direct control over the
temperature in my living quarters. The thermostat responds to the heating
requirements of the upstairs only, while the basement is lucky to enjoy an
even, stable and comfortable temperature; being frequently tossed between
either too cool or too warm (e.g. depending on such factors as teenagers
leaving doors/windows wide open to the winter air as suits their unthinking
fancy).

Now the long term solution (other than moving out someday) will be to
replace the hot air ducts in the basement with my own thermostatically
controlled electric base heaters. However, in the mean time, I am
interested in finding out if there isn't a heat register on the market that
would be easier to adjust 'on the fly'?

What I've got now are standard heat registers where I have to stand on a
chair to reach the adjustment dial of each register. This is, of course,
highly inconvenient and not a very practical way of evening out my
temperature fluctuations. If only these vents could be actuated by a small
servo motor via remote switch placed within easy reach. Or better yet,
conceivably a system that could easily be linked directly to my home
computer, which then could control each vent in response to data from a
couple of thermostatic-sensor inputs processed by a simple-to-create
computer algorithm. ;-) But for now, I'll settle for anything that might
only be a tad better than the run-of-the-mill standard heat registers I've
got now.

Thanks in advance,
Ken