I live in a single-story house in Southern PA. The house was a spec house built in 2005. The house had a full unheated basement when we bought it. The home is typical of this area – 2X5 16″OC external walls sheathed with OSB and covered in Tyvek. Insulation is 6″ Fiberglass batts and 18″ in of blown-in cellulose the attic.
Since moving in we added a sunroom with blown-in cellulose.
After the sunroom was added we had the basement finished and the walls are insulated with foam panels and an inner 2X 4 fiberglass batt insulated stud bays.
The finished basement was “heated” by adding registers to existing ducts for the main living area. The total heated and cooled square footage is ~5000 square feet.
So to my dilemma, the basement is too cold in the summer. Since the house was originally built without a heated basement now it gets too cold in the summer.
It is OK in the winter but very cool in the summer – there is a 10 x 10 cold air return in the basement courtesy of the new heat pump install but what I think I need is some super-duper tight sealing registers/vents in the ceiling so that only the cold air that sinks in from the upper level is an issue.
Any brand of vents/registers that seal up tight that anyone knows about?
Thanks – Steve Renovo
Replies
If your register covers are magnetic (not aluminum) you can also consider magnetic register covers. Just have to put them someplace during heating season.
That sounds like what I should do/try.
Do you have a central return or returns on each floor? In my (limited) hvac experience adjusting the return location is more effective than the supply volume to balance seasonal changes in heating and cooling needs. In my house I have a return near the ceiling on the main floor and a return in the basement. I block about 1/2 of the main floor return in the summer and about 1/2 of the basement return in the winter.