Your home basement can be a cozy home away from (or underneath) home if it’s properly maintained. However, during colder weather, it’s common for basements to miss out on the benefits of home heating systems. While this can be great in during the summer months, it’s not ideal for when you’re heating your home on the coldest winter nights. Whether you have a tenant staying in your basement or simply want to make the space less chilly and more livable, it helps to find better ways to turn your below-ground space into a warm, comfortable environment to beat that damp winter chill. It doesn’t matter how your home is heated or cooled overall. Your basement doesn’t have to suffer from moisture issues and unreliable temperature control. If you want to learn how to turn your basement into a perfectly-heated space, visit this website or read on for some helpful tips.
Fix Up Your Ducts
While you might be resigned to the idea of having a freezing cold basement during the winter, there’s a fair chance that extending your ducts could create more even distribution for your below-ground area. Most homes come equipped with a central heating system that distributes its hot air through a series of ducts that are plainly visible. By extending these ducts, you can get some of your heat down to the basement easily. The only catch is that you may have to hire a contractor to help you out. Since ductwork isn’t the easiest to fix by hand, you’ll want to call in a professional to make sure you’re not totally screwing up your home’s entire heating and cooling system. You also might want to think about whether your current system can actually handle heating another room without watering down the current temperature. If your home is more drafty to begin with, this may not be the option for you.
Use Creative Permanent Heating Solutions
There are tons of ways that you can easily heat your basement without rewiring your whole house. One of the simplest ways is to install an electric baseboard heater. These heaters are large units that you can install to channel heat to a specific area. If you’re dealing with a damp patch, a particularly chilly area, or a smaller basement that can be easily heated with a centrally-installed unit, baseboard heaters could be a great solution. However, if you think a more localized solution won’t be enough to give a larger basement the toastiness it needs, you might want to get a bit more creative.
Try Moveable Heaters
Since they have to stay in one place, baseboard heaters usually require a professional to set them up properly. Heaters that are portable or movable, however, as extremely easy to set up and can flexibly heat larger basement areas depending on different factors. If your basement is less predictable in terms of where it gets chilly or damp, movable heaters, such as baseboards that can be plugged in, can be a great option. These are essentially gigantic space heaters that cover a lot of ground. As a result, they tend to be clunky and inelegant to look at. Still, if you’re not too worried about how things look and you want to be able to move them around in a pinch, they’re an ideal option.
Use Space Heaters or Stoves
When you need to heat up a small room quickly, there’s no simpler solution than to bring in a space heater. These units are cheap, reliable, and easily portable from one room to another. The downside? They tend to be quite small, and can only heat up a tinier portion of a large room. If you’re placing a small space heater in a large area, chances are you’re not going to get an amazing result. That’s why it’s best to only use space heaters in areas where there’s a closing door or an easy way to trap the hot air in. Another drawback is that space heaters should always be supervised. While it’s possible to sleep with a space heater going, it’s not generally advised. Smaller heaters could easily tip over in the night and become a fire hazard, so if you’re worried about safety, you might want to go with a more sturdy option such as a plug-in or permanent baseboard. If you’re worried about energy efficiency, you could also add a small wood-burning stove, which can be fed with wood pellets and easily create a source of non-electrical heat in a smaller space.