Best Temperature to Keep a Finished Basement

[teddy1971]

I will be heating with a pellet stove for the first time this winter. I have three zones of heat in my house. One for the finished basement and One for each floor above. I placed the stove on the main floor to heat the top two floors. I used to just keep the boiler room door open in my basement and that would usually heat the basement to about 65 degrees without the zone ever coming on unless I raise the therm to 68. Since I will not be using my furnace for anything but hot water, what do you guys consider to be an appropriate temperature to keep the basement so I don't have to worry about the pipes freezing. The basement is about 1100 sqft of which 800 sqft is finished. Thanks for your help

 

[rap69ri]

I kept the heat off on my basement zone, and the temp hovered in the low 50's all winter. On the really cold nights I would run my oil heat for 20 min or so to make sure the water circulated okay.

 

[Joey Jones]

Ya, 55 here

 

[bostonbaked]

I've never seen it get colder then 55 or so. That's with no heat. Never had any frozen pipes.

 

[Joey Jones]

OH, Boston...Right on RED SOX

 

[srjtr7]

I just finished my basement last year and put my pellet stove down there.

When it is off, it stays 60+ in the winter.

When running....75+ and the heat rises to my first floor of my ranch house.

 

[imacman]

As mentioned above, I set my basement zone to 55, and have yet to see it go on more than 3-4 times during the entire winter. Even the un-heated part never seems to get below 45. The extra heat from the oil fired H2O heater seems to keep the area around 60 (I leave the door to the boiler room open).

Only issue you might have in an unfinished area would be a pipe that runs really close to a window.

 

[j00fek]

id insulate those pipes

 

[ssupercoolss]

i am in the same situation, never a problem in the basement, but make sure someone hasnt run water pipes through an unheated crawlspace, and up the inside of an exterior wall. at about 17 degrees with a good wind hitting that side of the house, they will freeze. take my word for it. not a bad idea to run the circulator every now and again too.

 

[teddy1971]

i am in the same situation, never a problem in the basement, but make sure someone hasnt run water pipes through an unheated crawlspace, and up the inside of an exterior wall. at about 17 degrees with a good wind hitting that side of the house, they will freeze. take my word for it. not a bad idea to run the circulator every now and again too.

The walls of the finished basement are poured concrete (no seems) with 1 inch foam boards against the wall. Then wall studs with insulation. The pipes from the third zone of heat run through the studs near the floor boards. The parts of the basement that are unfinshed are the boiler room (which is always warm even in the summer), and another storage room that is not heated and is cool in the summer and cold in the winter. I've deceided to keep the thermostat at 55 in the basement and just leave the basement boiler room door open. I have 250 gallons of oil in my take right now and am hoping that it will last me all season.

 

[bridgerman]

Hi Guys,

You might look at ThermGuard (www.bearmountaindesign.com). It connects to the thermostat in the basement zone and runs hot water through the heating zone periodically. I have mine set to call for hot water for 5 minutes every 2 hours. The pipes ran through an unheated section of my garage and would freeze in a cold snap. Now I leave the thermostat off, ThermGuard running, open the door to my boiler room and the pipes never freeze even with the wind howling at -20F outside.

Cheers,
John Walsh

 

[johnchap]

trying a little something different here

I use-my finished basement way more in the winter - my GF makes jewelery down there and I do art work so we put in another pellet stove to avoid oil heat (except hot water)

run the stove low during day and crank it up to about 68 later afternoons for a few hours -- so far so good (hell we are just starting this season)

I did crank the heat up during the breakin period of this stove (lennox montage) and enjoyed some 83 degree weather !

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Sorry we have such a big mileage difference between us but if you were buying pellets from Kinsman Stoves, Painesville Pellet, or Brookfield Stoves I would suggest a nice moderate temp of 82 to 86 degrees. If you can get it slightly warmer, why not. Pellets are meant to be burned.

Pellet Pigs unite and keep the chill out of basements.

Eric