cold basement

mid787

Help, I have a 2.5 story brick home in Pennsylvania, built in the 1920's. No insulation in walls except for attic floor. I have steam heat a one pipe system. The mains are all insulated. My problem is the basement temperture is around 55-58 degrees in the winter. My first floor temperture at the floor level is about 58-62 degrees. Although the heat is working fine and the temperture at the thermostat level says 70 degrees. My family feels cold, especially the kids when they are playing on the floor. I had an insulation company rep come out to my property and he thought that it would not help to insulate the basement ceiling, since it had no heat down there. One of my contractor friends suggested that i put heat in the basement so that it would heat up my first floor. I really could use some suggestions here.
thank you for any advice.
John Wilson

Al Letellier_9

heating basement

There are all kinds of options available to heat your basement. Depending on the size and configuration of your existing system, you could install rads or a unit heater, or use a space heater. Don't remove the insulation from the piping, which seems to always be the choice of the "penny wise and pound foolish". Use the find a pro section on this site and get a good heating pro to evaluate your situation and make recommendations. Too much info and visual missing to make a determination over the web.

Steamhead (in transit)

Where in PA

ate you located?

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Jack

Rinnai Energysaver

This is an excellent application for an Energysaver. Leave your properly functioning current system alone and add the Rinnai. High efficiency, modulating, Set-back t'stat on some models. Simple installation. Versatile venting options. I represent Rinnai, but I have heated my basement with one very satisfactorily. www.ductlessheating.com

zeke

What is it ? And how does it work?

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Why heat the basement?

Unless you spend some time down there. There is a lot of heat loss through your foundation walls. Put some radiant heat under your first floor, then insulate. You could run the radiant right off you existing steam boiler. Bob Gagnon

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Christian Egli_2

Don't go for the obvious... less is more

No mention of upstairs floors being cold along with the fact the home is multistoried makes me think of screaming air infiltration. Hot air takes the road to the heavens, buoyancy makes it float upstairs and then out the roof and up and up and up.

While all this is happening, frozen stiff cold air squeezes itself into your home. Being cold, it fills your rooms from the bottom up - like you would fill a pool, even though the cold air might not be entering the home from the bottom.

Some infiltration in the home is vital, normal infiltration should not be perceptible and too much causes the effects you describe.

Rather than go for more heat which seems hardly ever necessary in a 1920's home that was probably well endowed boiler wise to begin with, here's what I'd try first.

Limit air flow between house levels. Keep floor doors closed. Keep all room doors closed - upstairs and downstairs. If you have open stairs, consider installing either a door or some heavy drapes at a convenient point. Doors to basement and attic should be sealed like we do doors to the outside. Skylights to the heated indoors, if applicable, should be kept closed very tight. Whole house ceiling exhaust fans are a huge problem in the winter - make sure you seal them off with plastic and tape, the automatic louvers are just not up to it. Also prevent too much air infiltration into your basement.

If a new window budget is not available, try first sealing the windows for the winter season with the plastic sheets. Possibly, install new windows first in the rooms where it is too hot... this may seem counterintuitive, but be advised that air infiltration is best fought first where the air leaks out. It is not as noticeable and yet it's in the upstairs hot air leaks that the pressure gradient is biggest to force the biggest leaking draughts. One single upstairs window crack that doesn't shut is a nasty disaster.

Once that is occurring, cold air will seep in anywhere else and fall to the downstairs floor until it warms up and is ready for the big ride.

Heating the birds is not the goal of home heating. What's worse, adding more heat to your current set up might very well cause more of this air change problem and more colder downstairs floors. I've worked one such case that was plain horrible, 1951 home, 3 floors, basement, new insulation, lower floor radiant heat plus new panel rads and modcon, and now the occupant's legs would freeze off on the ground floor living room... open stair shaft and really leaky third floor windows... but it wasn't ever cold up there, ahem, why fuss about those windows? yeah. By then, they had three times upgraded the heat system, insulated the walls and replaced some windows and fuel bills were eating them alive.

Of course, make sure your steam heat is working just right. Luckily, steam radiators are very well suited for heating leaky draughty old homes with the greatest economy.

Otherwise, playing out in the cold was considered vivifying for the kids at one time - it clearly seems to me that playing out in the cold snow is never a problem. Funny how it all changes when the job is about shoveling the snow.