On Jan 7, 5:31*pm, ransley wrote:
On Jan 7, 3:45*pm, wrote:





On Jan 7, 4:02*pm, ransley wrote:

On Jan 7, 11:25*am, John wrote:

This is a rather big one, and I'm hoping I'll get a bit of discussion
going on this, as there's lots of angles to this, and I frankly am
curious to know what other people have come up with.

I have several rooms/zones in the house, which can be somewhat
independent from other areas in the house as far as heating goes, and
I'm wondering what my options are. *I was thinking, for example, if I
knew I was going to be in the basement all day, I could turn down the
main furnace to say 68, and then use a supplementary heater to bring
just the basement up to 72.

I should add, that my basement tends to be colder than the rest of the
house, so to get my basement to 72, I would have to crank the regular
thermostat to 75 or so (which I would never do), so I would need a
supplementary heater in the basement one way or another.

What I'm looking for is a comfortable solution, that is somewhat
energy efficient. *I have a high-efficiency gas furnace right now, but
I'm thinking adding electrical space heaters might actually reduce my
heating costs if I used them correctly.

Also, I don't want this to be a pain to manage. *That is, I don't want
to have to walk around the whole house and adjust the vents/
temperature guages each time I switch rooms. *So, what I need for that
would be some integrated smart controllers... *(Am I going to far
here?). *OK, while I'm dreaming, heating/cooling the zones based on
time of day, and days of the week would be nice...

I'm curious to hear what other people think / know about this

John

I have forced air and do similar, so I cut in a 3 big vents on my
600sq ft basement that I open only when i want heat. I also open an
additional return. Its all sealable so it works. Heat rises, , cutting
off the basement only saved me 15% with a R20 basement wall and im
Zone 5, to - 20f. So the comfort lost may not be worth the cost if the
basement is insulated and sealed. Or else use a wood stove or electric
heater in the basement. a wood stove would do it well- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If you want it automated and have good access to the ducts involved,
you could
consider installing a system with automatic zone dampers. *It won't be
cheap though.
And even with that, unless you go to motion detectors, it isn't going
to follow you
around and automatically adjust.

Other alternative is to use electric heater or heaters in the areas
you will be using.
How much it saves and whether it's worth it, obviously depends on a
host of factors
and is something you need to figure out.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Electric costs me near double per BTU of gas, Zone Dampers for
humidity? you usualy have great ideas, but I have found humidity
migrates very well , dont forget zone dampers will pull electricity
24x7 on the controll unit and at the cost have a long payback.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


I think you misread something along the way. I suggested zone
dampers
to adjust temperatures in various area, not humidity. I agree, that
for
humidity zoning isn't going to work.