I live in a 1600 sq.ft. ranch, built in 1999. We currently have hot
water baseboard heat, set up in multiple zones: 1)the living
area/kitchen, 2)one for each of the three bedrooms, and 3) one zone for
the basement that doesn't have a thermostat connected, and is kept
inactive w/shut-off valves.

I'll be refinishing the basment this winter/spring. The builder hooked
up four radiatiors in the basement. I will probably end up moving them
a bit, and perhaps adding more.

I would eventually like to open up the stairwell that goes downstairs
(remove the basement door, creating almost a split-level ranch
situation, except with a longer, single stairwell.

I'm wondering how much of the heat will escape to the upstairs if I
open this up. We currently have a woodstove in the living room as
well, which gets the living area pretty warm. My fear is that the
boiler will be firing all of the time while the refinished basement is
60 deg. F and the living room is 90 F.

Is this a reasonable fear to have, or will there be a more gradual
temperature gradient between the first story and the basement, since it
will be quite open between the two floors?

Thanks in advance

In article .com,
"Conesus_Kid" wrote:

I'm wondering how much of the heat will escape to the upstairs if I
open this up. We currently have a woodstove in the living room as
well, which gets the living area pretty warm. My fear is that the
boiler will be firing all of the time while the refinished basement is
60 deg. F and the living room is 90 F.

Is this a reasonable fear to have, or will there be a more gradual
temperature gradient between the first story and the basement, since it
will be quite open between the two floors?

Heat goes up, the upstairs will be a bit warmer and the basement a bit
cooler. I have had my stairs open for 20 years and no problem, but I
like a cooler basement. You will not be able to heat the basement and
leave the upstairs cool, but the opposite works.

--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/

See what happens open the radiators, heat rises and your floors will be
warmer and better. If you dont like it look into putting a zone valve
and thermostat in the basement. You have thermostats upstairs, so how
will it get to 90.

m Ransley wrote:
See what happens open the radiators, heat rises and your floors will
be
warmer and better. If you dont like it look into putting a zone valve
and thermostat in the basement. You have thermostats upstairs, so how
will it get to 90.

My fear was based on the assumption that the heat from the basement
would rise. This coupled with the woodstove on the first floor gave me
visions of a sauna upstairs with a fridge downstairs, coupled with a
huge propane bill!

After giving it some more thought, I'm thinking that since the upstairs
will be quite a bit warmer than the downstairs (due to the woodstove),
the "less warm" air from the basement wouldn't likely move up to
replace the warmer (woodstove-heated) air.
I guess there's only one way to find out...