We are in the process of finishing half our below grade basement in New Hampshire. Walls were just framed and we got a price for spray foaming the walls all the way to the floor which we will do. I'm curious what you guys think makes the most sense for a heating solution. Currently we have an oil boiler and a separate pellet boiler that used forced hot water and copper baseboard elements with three zones. I don't have the exact square footage on the finished area but probably somewhere around 500. I've started reading about mini split systems? Are they just heat pumps? Would they be able to heat my basement adequately in the brutal New England winters? Would it make more sense to add another zone and run copper baseboard? What do you think would be best?
I would lean toward another zone off the boiler and run the baseboard. That’s what I did years ago, but the mini split wasn’t an option. I think the baseboard will make for a more comfortable heat. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It really depends on if the basement floor is also insulated. Concrete has an R value of 1. And takes hundreds and thousands of BTUs just to get it to warm up. If you add a separate Zone on your furnace you can always set that thermostat to a temperature just above freezing and call it good.
I think I'd lean strongly toward adding a zone and some more baseboard...unless you were up for adding another wood or pellet stove down there...that would probably help heat the main floor some too.
We split our boiler on our 800'sq ft' house into 3 zones that covered 2000' sq ft after the addition, it couldn't keep up by itself but we never froze, and worked just fine in conjunction with the wood stove. Since you already burn pellets maybe consider an additional pellet stove down there? Blast it for a bit to warm the floor and the walls then turn it down, and simply shut if off when your done?
In my house, the lower level is 3 ft. below grade on three sides and above grand on one end. Our floor is the uninsulated concrete floor, with 100% covered in ceramic tile. I put down two area carpets in the winter and take them up during the summer. I heat the area 26x40 with my Harman pellet stove. I have hot water baseboards installed but they seldom ever are on. My inside temp. runs 76 t0 80 F on average. Wife can't stand cold. We are both seniors and very much enjoy our set up. The second floor is heated by Hot Water baseboard and what ever heat makes it way up. The two area are kept shut off by closed doors. My son and his family live upstairs. I also have a sun porch that has the door open to it 24/7 and doesn't go below 70F. Our heating is simple. We burn about a bag of pellets each day during the heating season.
What are you doing with the other half of your basement for insulation? Will you insulate that too or will there be insulation between the finished and unfinished portions? What side is the boiler on? Having one half uninsulated will make the other half more difficult to heat. There will be thermal bridging in the concrete floor that will wick heat to the other side. You might need an insulated door between the two. Have you considered insulating outside the foundation? This makes the foundation a heat sink to maintain a more steady heat. If the space is only heated intermittently, however, it will take longer to bring up to temperature when the heat is turned up... I’m partial to old fashioned cast iron radiators converted for FHW. You can come in from the cold and place hat,gloves and boots on top to dry out after moving snow around... A stove in the basement could make the first floor floors nice and toasty.. let us know what you decide...
I think I'm leaning toward another zone and baseboard after reading some of these posts and talking to some people. The other half of the basement that will remain unfinished is not insulated and we're gong to use batts on the walls facing that and spray foam only on the exterior facing walls. I'm not too concerned about heat loss through the concrete floor. I walk around in socks and the floor doesn't get that cold. The basement doesn't get terribly cold. even in the winter the coldest it gets down there is in the mid 50's.
