"Dan Espen" wrote in message
...
nahcr writes:

responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...nt-316736-.htm
nahcr wrote:
I live in a smallish older townhome near Washington DC. There are 4
connected units so that the total basement (part basement but mostly
crawl
space) is about 8700 cubic feet. The basement is about half underground
and
there are no divisions between the units. The above ground area has some
kind of foam type insulation. It is cement floored with concrete block
walls
and a cement ceiling. The basement is not heated or cooled but the water
pipes have not frozen in the 12 years I have been here and I have never
heard anyone complain that their pipes freeze. There is also a radon
system
in the basement because of a mild radon problem (less than 10 pci)
The area that I want to heat and cool is about 17000 cubic feet. The
primary
heat source for about half that area would be radiant floor heating.
The basement is not and cannot be used for anything except water heaters,
water pipes and telephone utilities.
Under those circumstances would putting a heat pump or two heat pumps in
the
basement make sense? I would like to do it for aesthetic reasons
primarily,
but also because it seems to me that even if the heat pumps cool the
basement in the winter or heat it in the summer it doesnt matter since
the
space cant be used, and because of the large volume of basement space,
the
air going to the heat exchanger would at least be somewhat warmer than
the
exterior air in winter and cooler in the summer). My only concern would
be
if somehow the heat pumps could make the area go below freezing. Also,
during the summer, there could be some condensate which would have to be
removed.

No good.

I'm not a heating specialist, but I can figure out that there's not
enough of a heat sink in the basement air to accomplish anything.

Heat pumps are done with long lengths of tubing underground because of
the huge thermal mass of the ground.

There are other types of heat pumps, such as water cooled and air cooled.
But a basement would not have enough heat to warm a house before it was
cooled below the heat pumps ability to extract heat.