Escape from Cold! Basement Heating Ideas to Your Rescue

If you have recently renovated your basement into a living space, you must be looking at ways to make it comfortable for people to live inside it.

There are many ways of making it comfortable, like keeping the best furniture, painting it with the best colour shades, etc.

Regardless of what you include in your basement to make living comfortable, you will not succeed in your effort unless you have the correct heating equipment to keep the interior of your basement warmer during the winter season.

If the idea of including essential heating systems has not struck your mind yet, this article is the right one for you. It can help you understand why your basement cannot be comfortable without the proper heating facility and discover effective basement heating methods.

Since you have reached the stage of making your renovated basement comfortable to live in, you must have obtained the necessary permits, allowing you to undertake your basement renovation project.

Therefore, you know what permits are necessary for basement renovations and how to obtain them.

But, every person in Toronto wanting to renovate their basements might not know the need for a basement permit Toronto to get the green signal from the relevant authority to carry out the renovation.

If you are such a person, you should make efforts to understand the need for Toronto basement permits.

When is a Permit Necessary?

In the context of a basement renovation, you require a permit if the work involves:

• structural or material changes
• installing or changing heating or plumbing systems
• excavating or constructing foundations
• basement underpinning
• constructing a basement entrance
• adding a second part

When is a Permit Not Necessary?

Notably, not all types of basement renovations necessitate a permit. The renovation does not necessitate a permit if there is no:

• structural or material changes
• additional units to be constructed
• installation of new plumbing

Therefore, if you renovated your basement sometime back but have now decided to install heating systems, you must obtain a permit.

After obtaining a permit, you can install the essential heating systems in your basement.

Practical Heating Ideas for Your Basement

Here, we discuss some of the most impactful heating ideas for your basement heating.

Cold Air Return Facility

If you install an HVAC heating system in your basement, you will find the hot air registers on the basement ceiling.

But, this poses a problem. You are likely to overlook the cold air return facility.

The mechanism of HVAC heating involves hot air coming out of the registers to reach down, and after that, the hot air flows up to reach the upper half of the room.

Due to the mechanism, the heat inside the basement rises. But, there is a downside to the mechanism.

The bottom half of the room gets cooler, and cold increases as you get closer to the floor.

However, you can solve the problem by installing a cold air return in the basement. It will help remove the cold air around the bottom half of the room and heat the air to produce more heat.

But, installation of a cold air return entails an investment. You can get in touch with a supplier to get an estimate of the required expenditure.

Moreover, it is good to ask the supplier to send a technician to inspect your basement before providing an estimate. The system needs to be set up differently for different basements. As a result, there can be wide variations in installation costs.

Eletric Space Heater

One of the best ways of heating your basement without overspending is installing an electric space heater.

Usually, electric space heaters are not expensive. Their costs are relatively low to provide you with heating equipment at a reasonable expenditure.

With an electric space heater, you can adequately provide your basement heat to make people live in it comfortably.

There are different models of electric space heaters to choose from, so you can choose one that can fulfil your basement heating need. Even a moderately priced electric space heater can give a good performance.

The cost of running an electric space heater in your basement can depend on two factors. One, the watts your heater consumes. Two, the electricity charges you need to pay.

Typically, most electric space heaters work with about 1,500 watts. But, it may be slightly higher or lower depending on the model of your heater.

It will help if you convert watts into kilowatts because your electricity bill is based on kilowatts and not watts. Therefore, 1,500 watts will transform into 1.5 kilowatts of electricity.

Natural Gas Fireplace

A natural gas fireplace can be a dependable option to provide adequate heat to your basement interior.

Compared to a wood-burning fireplace, a natural gas fireplace is cleaner and more energy-efficient.

Typically, a standard natural gas fireplace can have a BTU rating within the range of 25,000 to 40,000 BTU/hour. And, it can be sufficient to heat your basement to the comfort levels with 70 – 85 per cent efficiency.

Hardwired Baseboard Heater

Another effective basement heating method can be the installation of a convection electric baseboard heater hardwired into a home electrical system.

Typically, baseboard heaters include long and prominent metal units that run along the baseboard of walls. And, there arises no need for running baseboard heaters along the entire length of the wall. But, running in some places of the wall will do.

You need to plan correctly before installing a baseboard heating system by considering how much heat you will provide in your basement.

Wood Pellet Stove

A wood pellet stove can be an alternative to a wood-burning stove. So, it can be a greener option for your basement heating.

The working mechanism of a wood pellet stove involves burning wood pellets and pushing out warm air with a small fan. The pellets act as a clean energy source that burns slowly.

The stoves also consume less electricity. They can work with a 110V plug-in outlet to run the motor that circulates hot air.

However, you need a precaution to use the stoves. They produce carbon monoxide, so you should provide an outlet to vent the air outside.

Radiant Floor Heater

Perhaps, the best option to provide adequate heat to your basement is installing a radiant floor heater. However, the heaters are expensive but effective. You need to install a radiant floor heater under your basement’s flooring.

As the basement floor is made of concrete slabs, cold transmits through the floor. But, using a radiant floor heater can restrict it because it conducts heat through the concrete slabs. As a result, the heat gets distributed evenly inside the basement to provide uniform heat throughout the basement.

The heat from the heaters goes up from the ground, resulting in a warm environment and dry floors.

You can get the most energy-efficient heating and better performance compared to a baseboard heater with the heater.

Moreover, the heater can help maintain a consistent temperature due to the below-floor installation.

Conclusion

The fact is that you cannot escape installing a heating mechanism for your basement because that can make the environment inside highly uncomfortable. But, you should study various heating methods to select the best option for your basement.