Have ranch with full finished basement, central A/C. Utility room
with oil furnace & oil-fired water heater at rear corner. Ducts run
through basement ceiling to vents on main floor. No vents in basement,
thus, no heat, making recreation area unusable and home office
uncomfortable in winter. If I tap into ductwork and install vents in
basement ceiling to get some heat I will be taking heat away from main
floor, especially the den at corner farthest from the furnace.

Anyone have any suggestions to resolve this problem? How can I get
heat in the basement w/o losing heat on the main floor? Additional
heating system for basement? Cost-effective? Cost-prohibitive?

Thanks much for any and all input.

Sid Waine

Sid,

You need to find out if your heat and AC are large enough to handle the
basement. Ask your furnace guy about this.

Dave M.

The temperature upstairs is set by the thermostat, not by the ductwork.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

"Sid Waine" wrote in message
...
Have ranch with full finished basement, central A/C. Utility room
with oil furnace & oil-fired water heater at rear corner. Ducts run
through basement ceiling to vents on main floor. No vents in basement,
thus, no heat, making recreation area unusable and home office
uncomfortable in winter. If I tap into ductwork and install vents in
basement ceiling to get some heat I will be taking heat away from main
floor, especially the den at corner farthest from the furnace.

Anyone have any suggestions to resolve this problem? How can I get
heat in the basement w/o losing heat on the main floor? Additional
heating system for basement? Cost-effective? Cost-prohibitive?

Thanks much for any and all input.

Sid Waine

Yes and no. My parents had a home in Iowa with a similar situation. Yes
putting heat in the basement reduces what is forced upstairs. No the heat
rises eventually warming the rooms above. What we did was open the vents
when we were down there and closed them when we were not.
It really helped the heating/cooling bills for them when I insulated the
ducts.

You possibly could tap into the system. It depends if you have excess
capacity. How many hours a day does it run at your coldest time of
year? I tried tapping into my system, Its large enough as it only runs
8 hrs at -15. But when the sun is out I dont call for heat and the
basement gets cold again. For that reason im installing a secondary
furnace, only to heat it when i want to.
If it was my house and you were at your coldest outside temp and it
didnt run 18 hrs a day Id start cutting , its easy to put in ducts, and
easy to seal them off. Yes you will unbalance the upstairs, and take
heat away , First you need a basement return. and you could do the
supply easily by using insulated flex duct to get the heat where you
want it.
Perhaps you could get a bid to see what a pro wants and recomends. For
me it was DIY Sawsall, and flex.

The only way to find out if what you want to do is possible is to have
someone who knows how come out and take the measurements and do the math to
tell you.

You can get all kinds of stories where it worked and did not work.
Doing the math will tell you ahead of time if it will work for you and as a
bonus, they will be able to tell you the way to make it work best.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math


"Sid Waine" wrote in message
...
Have ranch with full finished basement, central A/C. Utility room
with oil furnace & oil-fired water heater at rear corner. Ducts run
through basement ceiling to vents on main floor. No vents in basement,
thus, no heat, making recreation area unusable and home office
uncomfortable in winter. If I tap into ductwork and install vents in
basement ceiling to get some heat I will be taking heat away from main
floor, especially the den at corner farthest from the furnace.

Anyone have any suggestions to resolve this problem? How can I get
heat in the basement w/o losing heat on the main floor? Additional
heating system for basement? Cost-effective? Cost-prohibitive?

Thanks much for any and all input.

Sid Waine

I use electric baseboard heaters in the basement. Since they are only on a
few hours a day it is quite economical. Cost here is 6cents/kwh so a 1500
watt heater will cost 9 cents/hour to run flat out, but they cycle so
figure on 5-7 cents/hour.