To heat or not to heat. That is the question :-)
We just moved into a house that has a ground level, up 5 steps to bedroom/bath/kitchen/dining level. Then down to a "half" basement (full view windows). My question is, would you open the heat registers in the basement level or keep them closed for the most efficient heating costs. Some people say it's less expensive to not heat areas that are seldom used (keep them closed), others say it's better to keep them open. What do you think? BTW we have forced air heating. Thanks.
When I did large remodel in my home (added 960 sq feet) i went through the entire heating ...»
As an added measure we generally run the wood stove 24 /7 during the heating season and this prevents the furnace from kicking in until very early in the morn..with these back rooms isolated the available heat from the wood stove is not diluted into these other areas. Having these room cool is not a problem as there is no plumbing back there..when the rooms are used, they tend to be warmer than the other areas of the home due to better insulation and lack of big windows.
When people self zone their homes without the proper duct designs the rooms in the home become when treated as separate areas from the heating system mini-houses.
The interior walls that adjoin the turned off room see the colder wall from the room that is not heated. Overall this increases the requirements for that room to need more air to overcome the new heating requirement load that has been added. The result is that the heating system although appears to be heating the room correctly, its really running the heating system longer to overcome the loads from the rooms that are not heated. Add to that its running hotter and not delivering the heat out of the furnace thus converting that heat into stack temps, your in effect putting that savings up the chimney and not into the house.
Its fine to shut on grill down or perhaps two in a room that may be to warm, But once you begin to shut off other locations throughout the house in an effort to save money your only raising the cost of heating what rooms are left.
The home that you described is a split level. Heating these homes can be difficult with the large center located stair system. More often then not the heat from downstairs moves up to the upper levels of the house. Ideally ceiling fans should be used to push this extra heat back down, or have at least on central return on the upper level that will pull it back down to the lower level of the home.
The type of grills used also play a big part in comfort. The way they push the air out allows the air to mix and to be thrown farther into the room thus increasing comfort levels.
Yes, this is a sort of "split level" home but it differs from most splits around here in that ...»
Actually although this new house (well new to us...it was built in 1961) is quite a bit larger than our old one, it feels warmer with the thermostat set at 68 then the old one ever did! Better windows and probably better insulation too. There never seems to be an "apples to apples" comparison when we're talking about houses.
Thanks guys for your help, as always :-) If anyone else wants to chime in with their thoughts, feel free. Always a good idea to touch all the bases.
Lots of folks think this is way to expensive to do,. But the fact is that many retrofits end up costing less per month then the savings people see once the job is done. Add to that government programs and low cost loans to fix the house. You will end up being very happy once its all done..
Split level homes are difficult to heat and cool. And their very design begs for improvements of these very types. Recently did a split lever that had overhangs front and back. Owner saw close to a 50% savings on their energy bill. There overall monthly cost to heat their home has dropped $120 per month when they add the cost of the loan to this. And they are much more comfortable then they ever were.
Having just moved into this home, you could really benefit from the expert testing and advice.