If I heat my entire main floor with wood heat is it possible to blow enough heat to the basement, which is not used other to house the utilities, to keep pipes from freezing. just wondering if I may have to supply some other type of heat down there. when the gas furnace runs it will heat it enough but I hope to not run the furnace this year.
Making heat go down.
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https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/9307/
Try this thread.
I think that is the solution you are looking for, sending heat down is TOUGH
Try this thread.
I think that is the solution you are looking for, sending heat down is TOUGH
Heat doesn't like to go down, not even with blowers...
Maybe pipe insulation will keep the pipes warm enough? Are your sills insulated?
Running the water at a drip should keep the pipes at around 55 degrees. I do this regardless of the basement temperature on real cold nights.
Matt
Maybe pipe insulation will keep the pipes warm enough? Are your sills insulated?
Running the water at a drip should keep the pipes at around 55 degrees. I do this regardless of the basement temperature on real cold nights.
Matt
Heat can be blown down after all attic furnaces/ exchangers to feed the upstairs bedrooms blow heat down
I do not wan to promote cutting holes in floors Which I explained why many times.
But for pure discussions I would vent the heat encased with in a duct and within a foot of the floor have it exit.
The warm air above released at the ceiling level will never distribute Now released at floor level it will warm all the air it passes threw as it rises
Naturally a remote return at floor level is also needed to make it work Supply without return is fruitless
I do not wan to promote cutting holes in floors Which I explained why many times.
But for pure discussions I would vent the heat encased with in a duct and within a foot of the floor have it exit.
The warm air above released at the ceiling level will never distribute Now released at floor level it will warm all the air it passes threw as it rises
Naturally a remote return at floor level is also needed to make it work Supply without return is fruitless
We have a rental that has just been retro fitted with silicon heaters. Electric, supposedly low cost to run and low fire hazard. Can't say yet how they will work but it sounds good. if it goes well we will likely replace the baseboard electric heat in a couple other units.
insulate, insulate , insulate!!, and then remember , the tighter the structure is the better the envelope will hold heat , now, cold air settles and warm rises, that much is elemetary, but think about this, in a basement even though the heating unit is above it , if it holds heat will warm even with the heating element above it. heat (being energy) cannot be destroyed, only dissipated so if the air in the envelope (the house stucture itself) is warmed on a constant that is higher than the dissipation rate ( the rate at which heat escapes the house envelope) then even the air that is located below the heating unit will be heated. now it may not be "palm springs" down there but if the house traps enough heat then the temperature in the basment sould easily remain high enough that pipes will not freeze. ducting heat downward is possible , but it requires effort as you are fighting the natural tendancy of heat rising as well as the air being "lighter than the cold air it is looking to displace. cold air , being more dense will move faster (by volume) if assisted, therefore it is easier to "pull" cold air up to heat it, and the resulting vacuum effect will draw warm air toward the vacated space more readily. so , as wierd as this may seem , pulling cooler air up from the basment would actually be a more effective way to drag heat downstairs.this will have an effect of not allowing the upstairs to heat up as rapidly, but will heat the whole space more evenly.
that said, it is very important to remember the key, heat cannot be allowed to dissipate faster on an average than it is generated, hence the opening words in my post
that said, it is very important to remember the key, heat cannot be allowed to dissipate faster on an average than it is generated, hence the opening words in my post
My basement is not directly heated and I don't go to any great lengths to force heat down there. It stays in the mid to low 50's just from earth insulation and the little amount of heat that radiates through the floor. Maybe your winter conditions are more severe, though?
Here in relatively mild MD I don't currently use any sort of direct heating in the basement, and even though it's an uninsulated walkout I've never had it get cold enough to freeze. Generally sits in the 40's and 50's in the winter. But in colder climates I suspect an uninsulated, unheated walkout basement is a mistake. Growing up in much colder upper MI we had a below-grade basement that was unheated, and had no freezing problems that I recall. (Of course, "unheated" is a misnomer, because the pipes running from the boiler in the basement to the radiators were not wrapped. There were sections of tile floor on the first floor that were quite warm from pipes below, wonderful to stand on in the winter.)
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