Ok.... I have a completely finished basement consisting of 3 rooms - Office, TV Room, and Heater Room. The total basement is approx. 650 sqft. with a walk out basement door. Approx. 70% of the basement is exposed the outside with the other 30% underground. The exposed outside wall is Stucco. I'm having a problem keeping the TV area of the basement warm. All walls have a R-13 Kraft-Face insulation except the heater room area with at this time is unfinished -Cinderblock wall, not carpeting. THe interior walls from the heater room have R-13. The Ceiling also insulated has R-11. I also have put in 2 ceiling diffusers for additional heat from my Heat Pump system to this TV Room, it helps a little but the basement still remains below 60 degress.
QUESTION: Basement still remains COLD? Why?? I have electric baseboard heat, but hate to crank it up for it gets expensive. Is this Heater Room area causing the rest of my basement to remain cold? The exposed cinderblock wall in that area is 16x12.
(PS) My ceiling height from floor to joists is 9 ft.
Any suggestions ???

 

My guess is that most of your problem can be explained by one simple phenominon: heat rises. You just need to add more heat to the basement.

 

Heat does rise, I agree, but in this case, I don't think it's making the temperature fluctuation to the degree I have. In fact, theirs a draft coming from under my 1st floor basement door towards the basement. So the air flow is down towards the basement as opposed to the heat blowing upwards.

 

You say you have two diffusers from the heating system into the TV room. Do you have a cold air return from the TV room back into the heating system?

 

mikewu99: Thanks for the response, Yes, I do have a Return in the heater room approx. 8ft. away from the TV Room. I'm still questioning how large of a Return I need. The 2 ceiling diffusers are 6 in. type. The Return is a 4"x12" but I've only cut the open about 4"x6" - wasn't sure how much air return I needed for the (2) 6" diffusers. Plus, I didn't want too much air returning to my H.P system because it's a much colder air returning.

 

Yes, it's a much colder air returning - but that is precisely the air that you want to heat up! If your basement is to be heated, at some point the system must pull the cold air out and replace it with warm air.

Is the heater room open to the TV room or is there a door in between? In my previous house I had several rooms that did not have their own cold air return; if the door to one of those rooms was left closed, the room would be much colder (or hotter in AC season) than the rest of the house.

 

That make sense, I didn't think that you want to return the cold air so your heater would recirculate warm air.

Second point, Yes, my basement is open to the TV Room - it's basicially 3 individual rooms, the Office Room 10x15 w/ 1 door, Heater Room is 16x12 w/two doors separating it from the TV Room. TV Room is 12x24.

Last point, I suppose I should cut that return vent in the Heater Room all the way to a 4" x 12" opening?
Under the 2 Heater Room doors air does draw to the Return vent. Also, I could leave one door open.

Thanks again, for any suggestions !

 

A cheap test: try leaving one of the heater room doors open and see if the temperature in the TV room improves. If it does, then you may want to replace the door with a louvered door to allow the air to return freely.

If the temperature improves but not enough then you may want to try increasing the cutout for the return vent.

Also, since you have air returning through your heater room, you are heating that room as well as the TV room. You might want to consider insulating the heater room (or running a cold air return directly from the TV room).

 

Thanks, I try the door idea for a few days. Unfortunately, the way these Heat Pump systems work, the air is at best a warm air, unlike fossil fuel furnaces that produce a hot air. The warm air the Heat Pump is pushing through these basement diffusers just may not be enough warmth to offset a basement.
I've consider insulating the CinderBlock wall in the Heater Room, I was looking into that foam board Celotex product. The 1/2" Celotex gives a R4 or R5 rating if installed properly with 1x2 furring strips, but I heard the stuff is flamable. Do you think it's a good idea to be used in the Heater Room? My system is a good 4 feet from the outside walls, plus it's not a fossil fuel system producing any heat. Would this product even help with my issues?