Ice Cold Basement

[Bagelboy]

The only way you can get freezing pipes in a below grade basement is leaks. Insulate the holes, cracks and places where air is coming in. Then either get a small heater or place a zone from your furnace in the basement. You also don't want your floors that cold with it warm upstairs!

 

[Berner]

On our thermostat, you set the system to off, instead of heat or cool, and then set the fan control to on. You can also, and this what I do, set the thermostat to a low temp, say 60, then "hold" then fan to on..

I do have a honeywell thermostat with two switches. One has three options of heat, cool and off. The other is for the fan which options are auto and on. Obviously the first switch turned to heat. The second is usually on Auto however when I turn it to on it doesn't kick the circulator on. I wonder if this an improper wiring job? The previous owners son was an aspiring electrician so I'm pretty sure he wired the whole house. When I trip a circuit in the basement the second floor bath lights go off. Electrical isn't my area of expertise but I know enough to hire someone to do it right!

 

[Berner]

I've run my furnace a bit over he past couple days for peace of mind. Most of the time in "normal" winter temps I have no worries. I have a couple cheap therms down there and monitor it. I also have a few 1/2 full water bottles placed around the foundation wall as a temp indicator. If they are sealed give them a shake now and then - a sealed bottle can get bellow freezing w/o freezing but any simple disturbance will freeze them solid in a couple seconds - it's kind of cool to see.

I'm going to have try this. Sounds like a fun experiment.

 

[Berner]

How quick is your heat loss in the basement? If you run the furnace up to temp how soon after it shuts dowm will the temp drop to an unacceptable level? If I never ran my furnace my basement would level off at 50 degrees or so. I ususally run the furnace in the morning while getting the 1st load going and I can maintain low 60s down there for the better part of the day. You can try to run just the furnace fan and see how it works for you but most here (me included) have not had any luck. I certainly can raise the basement temps but it is at the expense of lowering the upstairs temps substantially. I think you'd be amazed a what a can of foam and some foam board can do. Basements usually have negative pressure so any minute air leaks will suck air at a pretty good rate. So much so that it makes that walls seem as though air is just rushing through them. Get all the air leaks fixed and and I bet most of your problem will be solved.

When you say running the furnace fan didn't work for you what exactly do you mean? That the pipes froze anyways or you couldn't get the fan to turn on? The latter is the case for me.

The outside temperature is really the deciding factor on how cold the basement gets. It is very drafty so during this cold snap it is very cold down there. I would say around 40 but where the pipes run close to the drafty sill is where the freezing happens. When the furnace ran to keep my house warm it would help with this. The coldest it ever got was mid 50's. Now with the stove, mid 50's in the basement is unattainable. Since my freeze last weekend I've run the system 3 times daily. Knock on wood they continue to stay unfrozen.

 

[Berner]

If you hardly ever run your furnace can you just hook the circulation pump for the hot water baseboard up to a timer so it moves things around every so often? Should be really cheap to do, and doesn't require the furnace to run.

Do you have this setup for your house? If so how did you go about hooking up the circulator to a timer?

 

[Berner]

The only way you can get freezing pipes in a below grade basement is leaks. Insulate the holes, cracks and places where air is coming in. Then either get a small heater or place a zone from your furnace in the basement. You also don't want your floors that cold with it warm upstairs!

Not sure why cold floors with a warm upstairs would be bad?

 

[DougA]

My sister-in-law just called tonight and they had a frozen pipe in their house that was brand new 7 yrs. ago - with a finished basement too!! They are pretty cheap and keep their house very cool. Just goes to show, everyone needs to check out how things are doing in the basement these days. My cold room for overwintering plants is hovering at the freezing point but a dead plant is a lot easier to replace than a blown water pipe.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Not sure why cold floors with a warm upstairs would be bad?

Condensation.

 

[rwhite]

When you say running the furnace fan didn't work for you what exactly do you mean? That the pipes froze anyways or you couldn't get the fan to turn on? The latter is the case for me.

The outside temperature is really the deciding factor on how cold the basement gets. It is very drafty so during this cold snap it is very cold down there. I would say around 40 but where the pipes run close to the drafty sill is where the freezing happens. When the furnace ran to keep my house warm it would help with this. The coldest it ever got was mid 50's. Now with the stove, mid 50's in the basement is unattainable. Since my freeze last weekend I've run the system 3 times daily. Knock on wood they continue to stay unfrozen.

So I could have the upper floor in the 70's and the basement in the low 60's. Running the furnace fan managed to lower the upper floor temp dramatically while only raising the basement a few degrees. A furnace is taking very high temps and forcing it through the duct work and it onlycomes out at 70 or so degrees. Now imagine taking 70 degree air and forcing it just as fast through the ducts. You take that 70 degree air and make it 62. Eventually the entire house is 62.Your problem is not a heating problem. BAsements (especially drafty ones) are a cold air sink. Seal the drafts and I'll bet your temps will rise enough to keep things from freezing at least. Most thermostats have 2 switches (heat, cool, off and on, auto) if you turn the heat switch off and the fan switch to auto the fan should run without any heat. I'm not an HVAC guy but maybe you have an old 2 wire system that won't allow that.

 

[Berner]

So I could have the upper floor in the 70's and the basement in the low 60's. Running the furnace fan managed to lower the upper floor temp dramatically while only raising the basement a few degrees. A furnace is taking very high temps and forcing it through the duct work and it onlycomes out at 70 or so degrees. Now imagine taking 70 degree air and forcing it just as fast through the ducts. You take that 70 degree air and make it 62. Eventually the entire house is 62.Your problem is not a heating problem. BAsements (especially drafty ones) are a cold air sink. Seal the drafts and I'll bet your temps will rise enough to keep things from freezing at least. Most thermostats have 2 switches (heat, cool, off and on, auto) if you turn the heat switch off and the fan switch to auto the fan should run without any heat. I'm not an HVAC guy but maybe you yhave an old 2 wire system that won't allow that.

That would make sense because it is a really old house. I've got a list of electrical stuff that I need help with. Now I can add one more thing.