I need heat in my basement

Dan Thibert

Member
Messages
183
Location
Leominster Mass
My shop is in my unheated basement. It is fine right now in the mid 60's probably but gets dang cold during the winter. What would be the easiest and least expensive way to heat this area?

I have a oil Furnace int he basement and I could put another zone on it if I had to?
I have gas available so I could add a gas heater?
I have electricity so I could add an electric heater?
I have tried a propane heater when working on my motorcycle in the garage, but after hours of use the air gets fairly bad.

The only thing I do not have is $$$$:rofl:

What would be my best options?
Any other ideas I have not thought about?

Thanks
Dan
 
In the order I would consider: (After I insulated at least a little)
1 - Electric is safe, and very cheap to install. You could probably pick up a few baseboard units and the local Habitat store or on Craig's List for very little $$.
2 - An additional zone on the oil - why duplicate what is already there? (this is only #2 because of cost)
3 - Gas - a viable alternative. Can be expensive to install and you need to be very careful if you use solvent based finished - especially if you spray.
4 - Propane - ugh. stinks.
 
I would go with Rennie's suggestions.
I don't agree with the problems stated about propane. That is what I use. No stink, no muss or fuss. Except, it is very expensive. My catalytic burners will go through a 20 lb. bottle in 4 to 5 hours of use. Depending on current prices that is $30.00 to $40.00, or more for half a day in the shop.
 
Invest in thermal underwear.
Actually, what is the heat system in your house? You say oil fired - i'm assuming it's forced air? If so, you probably have a supply grill somewhere in the basement to keep it from freezing down there. You may be able to direct a heat source to where you would use it more with some circullar duct. It all depends on how the basement lays out, but you may get lucky.
What we did in the house grew up in was to insulate the basement walls, redirect the air grill, and add a single electric baseboard unit. It worked really well.
I agree with Rennie - if you need to add heat sources, electric is likely the cheapest way to go if there's power where you need it OR you still have some room in your electrical panel for another circuit.
For such a small space, i'd think it's cost prohibitive to put in a dedicated gas unit.
If you're anywhere near a Restore (selling used construction / home building materials and run by Habitat for Humanity - a great place to check out), you might find just what you need for not much cash.
Good luck with it.
paulh
 
What is a habitat store:dunno:

I picked up a couple of oil filled electric units but they really could not put a dent into the area, of course I was looking for immediate satisfaction :rofl:

Maybe if I put them on hours before I needed them they would have worked better.

The gas is expensive and installation is a pain since I would have to get a plumber in.
Oil would be better since I have a friend who is a oil guy but still would be expensive for the unit itself and cutting in a new zone.

I sort of like the electric route for its simplicity, are there any type of baseboards or heaters that are more efficient?

Thanks
Dan
 
I would also look into insulation. I don't what your basement looks like, but if you don't minimize your heat loss, heating that space becomes very expensive. Insulation is a very inexpensive compared to electricity, propane or oil costs.
 
Bill,
I have done as much insulation as I can without emptying the basement. The basement is full of build in cabinets and there really is very little wall space open to work with.
 
Actually, what is the heat system in your house? You say oil fired - i'm assuming it's forced air? If so, you probably have a supply grill somewhere in the basement to keep it from freezing down there. You may be able to direct a heat source to where you would use it more with some circullar duct. It all depends on how the basement lays out, but you may get lucky.

This.

If you currently have a forced-air system I would be really surprised that there were no grills into the basement. How old is the installation? Mine is from 1984 and I've got 4 grills, IIRC.

I had a furnace tech in my house once checking out the furnance and he gave some really good advice: In the basement you want the supply air to be at the ceiling, and the cold-air return grills to be at floor level, so that it sucks up the cold floor-level air and puts it into circulation.

(on the second floor it's really important to keep the bedroom doors closed, to keep the conditioned air from just falling down the stairs, but that's a summertime thing.)

Insulating the floor would probably help a lot with how things feel underfoot. You could look into something like Delta-FL or Dricore.

best wishes,
...art
 
This.

If you currently have a forced-air system I would be really surprised that there were no grills into the basement. How old is the installation? Mine is from 1984 and I've got 4 grills, IIRC.
Hmmm. I assumed that it was either steam or hot water because of the mention of zones. Not too many residential installations have zones for forced hot air.
 
My home is a hybred at this piont :D

Oil furnace with hot water, not air

I also have two gas heaters one in the kitchen and one in the living room so I can sort of have zones and heat the areas we actually live in during the day. The oil furnace is one zone and takes forever to heat the house up. it is only 5 years old. I woudl have to cut into the water infeed and outfeed of the furnace and put a junction for a seperate zone. Then get a heater that would be hot water feed.

Dan
 
Well - electric is easy and cheap "to install" - but MAN will you ever KEEP paying for it, from that point forward. I don't know about Leominster - but my area electric is wicked expensive.

I would put in a zone valve and a thermostat for the shop. You will find that there is VERY LITTLE additional heat used to heat the cellar shop. Don't need a permit either.

One thing you MUST do in winter is to put extra effort to block out - seal - insulate that bulkhead door.

I had a small franklin woodstove in the cellar shop, and I burned scrapwood. That was plenty.

I did find that sealing the bulkhead door made a HUGE difference and the shop was not so bad. Hardly ever got below 50. And that was with no heat.

I built a couple of rooms in the "other" half of the cellar - insulated - ran an additional zone from the furnace - hot water baseboard - and kept it at about 70 with the kids bedrooms there. Didn't notice any differenct is oil usage. It is very easy to heat.

Don't use propane - just don't!
 
Electric baseboard heat with programable thermostats would be my choice. It is inexpensive way to heat an area. Figure about 10 watts of heat per 1 square foot of floor space. As others have stated. You need to cut down your heat loss no matter what type of heat you choose.
 
I use a 30,000 btu vent free propane heater to heat my 24 x 24 shop. One 20 lb bottle will last about a month cause the heater is thermostaticly controlled and I only turn it all the way up to get the chill out of the shop then turn it back down on low to maintain. Takes about 20 minutes to raise the temp from 40 degrees to 65. As far as smell, there is none. If you smell something then it isn't burning right.
 
I haven,t had a problem yet. I would run it on highlong enough to bring the temp up and then turn it down till the heater turned off and then slowly turn the thermostat back up till it turned back on and leave it set there. We even use a propane vent free fireplace in the house for our heat and the carbonmonoxide detector has never even registered or went off in the house.
 
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