We want to finish the rest of our basement. It feels very cold, and
rarely heats above 65 in the winter. I thought perhaps we could install
a heating system in the floor, but we have a forced air furnace (2
years old)

Otherwise the other alternative is electric base board heaters. Is
installing a system in the floor, can that be done with my existing
furnace, or would there have to be a second unit to heat the floor.
Would that set up a moisture problem. The floor is concrete, pretty
level, and no apparent moisture, but would the temperature difference
create its own moisture problem?

The space to be finished is 12 x 15, 9 x 20

In article . com,
"andympls" wrote:

We want to finish the rest of our basement. It feels very cold, and
rarely heats above 65 in the winter. I thought perhaps we could install
a heating system in the floor, but we have a forced air furnace (2
years old)

Otherwise the other alternative is electric base board heaters. Is
installing a system in the floor, can that be done with my existing
furnace, or would there have to be a second unit to heat the floor.
Would that set up a moisture problem. The floor is concrete, pretty
level, and no apparent moisture, but would the temperature difference
create its own moisture problem?

I am afraid that electric base board is going to be very
expensive to run. The problem that you describe is very
common...my townhouse is the same way. I found that running
the furnace fan over time helps equalize things.

The big issue is that the building is code, so even after
you heat up the air, the building still radiates cold. You
have to warm up the building before it really feels comfortable.

Your best bet would be to give your power company a call.
Our local power company, Dakota Electric, has been advertising
this thing called a Comfort Floor, which is an electric floor
heat system. It runs off of off-peak power. In the rural
areas, you can sometimes get power for heat and hot water at
a big discount. In-slab systems are popular for new cabins.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

I finished off two basements in MN.

In the first one, I decided to use baseboard radiation. One zone was in
amusement room and another zone was in bedroom. That way, the bedroom
was controlled seperately from amusement room as amusement room was
used less than bedroom.

In the second, there was no bedroom, just large amusement room and
exercise room. Installed a 3 sided gas fireplace. Great setup and
cheaper than electric.

Never had any moisture problems.

"andympls" wrote in message
ups.com...
We want to finish the rest of our basement. It feels very cold, and
rarely heats above 65 in the winter. I thought perhaps we could install
a heating system in the floor, but we have a forced air furnace (2
years old)

Otherwise the other alternative is electric base board heaters.


Have you considered a wall-mount heater, something like a Rinnai?
http://www.rinnai.us/
We have a couple of these (LP based, but you can have them setup for natural
gas as well, I believe), and they work really well.

That looks interesting, the space is going to be chopped up into 3
rooms, a bath, family room, and a music practice space.
the Music space will be pretty small, but a gas fire place or the
hearth product would probably be a good idea, since it only needs
to run when people are in the room.

Air seal and insulate. It will be warm. Interior moisture is only a
problem when the air contacts a cold surface and condenses.