Heat Above - From Below

[Trex18]

Hey All,


First post here and have been finding some great info on the site. Little background. My wife and I purchased our house a few months ago and it has a gorgeous sunroom overlooking our town upstairs. Room is probably 15 by 15.....the windows are all sliding glass doors and tile floor. It must have been added on from original becuase, its bigger than room below, it has no heat or vents to it either. Anyway it gets chilly in winter.


The room directly below is probably 12 by 12 and looks to be an original mudroom. It has no heat to it either and gets very cold. This mudroom is entered trhough our basement by a sliding glass door. This mudroom also has a gas hook up on the wall.

My question is ......and it could be an easy one but.....If I put a NG wall heater , like a 10 to 20btu in mudroom below, and cut in mudroom celing 4 vents.......will that heat rise enough to heat tile floor of sunroom and maybe heat up sunroom?


Thanks.


Tye

 

[Trex18]

Mainly- Is a 10,000 -15,000 going to do it? and do I need a blower on them. ?

 

[DAKSY]

The problem you are going to have is getting the cold air OUT of your sunroom.
If your vents are cut thru the floor adjacent to the exterior walls, that SHOULD allow cold
air to drop to the room below, since exterior walls tend to be the coldest.
Vents adjacent to INTERIOR walls, should help with getting the heat INTO the sunroom.
Whether or not you need to HELP move that air to get the convection going, won't
be known until you actually start heating the mudroom...
In order to get BOTH rooms heated, you're probably gonna need something larger.
I would install a 30K BTU unit...Maybe more...

 

[Trex18]

So you are saying to cut cold air vents in the sunroom in the walls. These vents would be on the bottom of the walls.

There are going to be no vents cut in the tile.


The top and the bottom walls or studs do not connect. The top has all Sliding glass doors for walls. So even in the small area of a cutting a cold air vent to let cold air push itself down......I think the rooms are seperated and sealed on the sides of the walls. The ceiling of the basement mudroom is the only connecting thing between sundroom and mudroom. I get what you are saying by allowing the cold air to push itself down by allowing circulation.

 

[wooduser]

What is your existing central heating?

I'd think about adding those rooms to the central heating system if it has the capacity to heat them. Central heating is usually higher quality heating than spot heating and perhaps more efficient, depending on your furnace.

 

[Trex18]

Oh my furnace has the capacity to do it. Forced hot air would heat it up easily. Just getting the vents to that sunroom above would be a major pain and mess.

 

[k0wtz]

I think i would be thinking an independant heating source for this room. I have a 24x26 family room addition and am now using a vermont castings gas stove for heat. for air i installed a split a/c system no furnace. Getting air and heat to this room was going to involve a lot of furnace and ducting work finally cheaper and works better with what i have done!

 

[Trex18]

IF I were to cut 4 vents whatever size round or square almost like cold air return vents, in the popcorn cieling which is below the sun room. and add a 20,000 btu gas Dyna Flo-MrHeeter gas wall heater. Would that be enough to heat the thick tile in the floor above the popcorn ceiling(basement Mudroom) to the Sunroom Floor(room above mudroom) . That is really my main question. I know that I have to get that cold air out of that space above.....so would those 4 vents do that? or would I want to put those 4 vents pretty far apart in the mudroom ceiling below to pusht the cold air out....

 

[sportbikerider78]

You have NG. NG is awesome. Use it.
How much do you use this room? If you are heating it occasionally in the winter...just know, you're going to run into condensation on the windows.

If it was me, I'd put in a nice little gas fireplace or gas stove in that sunroom. It would really make it feel nice.


$500 at Lowes 30k BTUs

 

[Trex18]

I have a natural gas fireplace in the basement already. The sunroom and patio room are closed off by sliding doors. but the sunroom is connected to the livign room upstairs also closed off by sliding glass door. If i open the living room sliding door to sunroom it just heats the room but the floor is freezing. I wanted to heat the floor some.

 

[k0wtz]

I put on an addition to our house I tiled the bathroom completely sad mistake. the bathroom is on the end of the house hard to get enough forced air heat to heat and enough heat. I put an el. heater in there it runs constanty to keep the tile warm at 68d if I don't you cant stand it in there. Also the bathroom is at the corner of the house so I have 2 outside walls covered with tile it looks great but cold. I havent done it yet but I am thinking for a more refined look is to add an el.baseboard heater. Its much easier to run some copper wire than more forced air I plan on keeping the forced are running to the bathroom.

In your situation heat of any sort will help with your upper floor. Once you get the lower room heated up you will get relief in my opinion! I would do this first before cutting holes in the upper floor!

remember the KISS principle?