HEATING BASEMENT REC ROOMS
If you're house is like most, the rec room can get cold in the winter,
especially at the floor level. You've got a sub-floor, and maybe you've got
underlayment, some carpet and a couple of space heaters - and it's still cool down there!
Chances are, that most of your heat is collecting at the ceiling, and warming the floors
above, quite nicely!
A Couple of Suggestions
If you have electric heat, and enough head-space, you could install
a ceiling fan to help re-distribute this stratified air - or you could install a fan
upstairs to draw air up from the basement, which would be replaced by warmer air from
upstairs. If you have a forced-air system, you can direct your supply ducts from the
ceiling to the floor level. You might install a small to medium-sized grille in a
return duct, to help redirect some warm air from the ceilings back to the floor. (You
can't give a furnace too much return air... although you might affect the cold air
circulation in another part of the house.)
CAUTION: With a gas/oil or other combusting furnace, the return
grille should be no less than 10 feet from the furnace, and not within the furnace room,
to avoid drawing combustion air from the furnace.
DID YOU KNOW?
Wood was Canada's original heating fuel, used by its indigenous
people and earliest settlers to stay warm in this cold northern climate. Although the
number of homes heated with wood declined dramatically in the middle part of this century,
many homeowners turned to wood heating in the 1970's when there were concerns about the
price and security of supply of conventional heating fuels. Now, more than 400,000 or 6
percent of all single family dwellings in Canada use wood as the primary fuel for heating;
in addition, over 950,000, or 14 percent use it as a supplementary heating fuel. These
households have found wood burning to be an effective and economical way to heat their
homes.
For free information or a copy of this, or any other article
in the series, call Electrospec Home Inspection Services toll-free 1-888-394-6954 |
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