I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this question, but it seemed right.
I'm in the planning process of finishing my basement, and haven't decided how I will heat it. I'm heating about 800 sq ft, two rooms total. The second room is much smaller, only about 170 sq ft, and will be the wife's workout room, so keeping it toasty is not necessary. I currently heat the rest of the house with an Englander 10-cpm pellet stove, and also have a propane furnace that I use as little as possible.
The basement will be well insulated, probably around R15 or so. Currently, without any insulation or heat source, the basement hangs around 55 in the winter. I want to be as low maintenance as possible. Both the wifey and I work full time and are on-call for our jobs a lot, so adding one more weekly task such as cleaning a pellet stove is unattractive.
As far as I can tell, my options are the following:
1. Pellet stove - like the low cost of operation, and I already have a good supply of pellets. Don't like the weekly maintenance and the start up cost of a stove and venting, etc.
2. Propane wall heater - like the ease of use, cheap to get started. Hate paying the propane guy. Paid 2.49/gallon this year.
3. Electric baseboard - like the ease of use, cheap to get started. Currently paying 6.43/Kwh according to my electric bill. I'm in a very windy area, and would like to add wind power in the future when the price comes down, and I like the idea of already doing some heating with electric, which saves converting later.
What would you do?
I'm in the planning process of finishing my basement, and haven't decided how I will heat it. I'm heating about 800 sq ft, two rooms total. The second room is much smaller, only about 170 sq ft, and will be the wife's workout room, so keeping it toasty is not necessary. I currently heat the rest of the house with an Englander 10-cpm pellet stove, and also have a propane furnace that I use as little as possible.
The basement will be well insulated, probably around R15 or so. Currently, without any insulation or heat source, the basement hangs around 55 in the winter. I want to be as low maintenance as possible. Both the wifey and I work full time and are on-call for our jobs a lot, so adding one more weekly task such as cleaning a pellet stove is unattractive.
As far as I can tell, my options are the following:
1. Pellet stove - like the low cost of operation, and I already have a good supply of pellets. Don't like the weekly maintenance and the start up cost of a stove and venting, etc.
2. Propane wall heater - like the ease of use, cheap to get started. Hate paying the propane guy. Paid 2.49/gallon this year.
3. Electric baseboard - like the ease of use, cheap to get started. Currently paying 6.43/Kwh according to my electric bill. I'm in a very windy area, and would like to add wind power in the future when the price comes down, and I like the idea of already doing some heating with electric, which saves converting later.
What would you do?