Hi, Hopefully I'm in the right place. I have an issue that doesn't seem very common that I'd like some input on.
I have a 1000 sq ft house with a partially finished basement. It has hot water heat and the previous owner installed central air conditioning entirely in the attic. I believe it's 1.5 ton. They put registers throughout the house in the ceiling of the main floor, but nothing goes into the basement. There is a single air return in the center of the house which goes right into the main air handler in the center of the house.
Now onto the issue. The basement gets VERY warm. It has two dehumidifiers, a 22cu ft fridge, and a mini fridge, plus the washer and dryer. Obviously a bunch of heat sources. Yesterday it was 90 degrees outside or so and the basement got to a balmy 76.3 degrees with the main floor set at 71 degrees. This is with the basement door open and a fan at the base of the stairs to try to get air flowing.
I tried putting a small duct fan through an old dryer outlet to exhaust some heat. There are no registers from the main floor into the basement at all. The fan did help somewhat but it is very small. On 80 degree days it went from 71 degrees in the morning to 73.5 degrees by sundown. Hot days like today however are no match for it. I could go around the basement and add more of these but I don't want a bunch of bandaids and am worried about radon.
This weekend we got a portable air conditioner from Costco and brought it downstairs. The Exhaust hose is 3 feet too short. I got some flexible metal duct from Home Depot and piped it through the old dryer duct. I had it running for 30 minutes and it didn't move the needle, but maybe that's because I now had this giant super-hot duct exposed. Super inefficient. I could pipe up some PVC and insulate it, but that's more money on bandaids.
Is there anything else I can try? I thought about trying to install a duct from the basement to the attic to create a natural draft to pull hot air out of the basement but I don't know if that would be enough. I was thinking I could cut some holes in the floor and add registers, but am worried about it not doing enough and also overworking the AC upstairs. The bullet is a mini-split AC for the basement, which would probably be at least $2000 plus electrical work.
Thanks!
I have a 1000 sq ft house with a partially finished basement. It has hot water heat and the previous owner installed central air conditioning entirely in the attic. I believe it's 1.5 ton. They put registers throughout the house in the ceiling of the main floor, but nothing goes into the basement. There is a single air return in the center of the house which goes right into the main air handler in the center of the house.
Now onto the issue. The basement gets VERY warm. It has two dehumidifiers, a 22cu ft fridge, and a mini fridge, plus the washer and dryer. Obviously a bunch of heat sources. Yesterday it was 90 degrees outside or so and the basement got to a balmy 76.3 degrees with the main floor set at 71 degrees. This is with the basement door open and a fan at the base of the stairs to try to get air flowing.
I tried putting a small duct fan through an old dryer outlet to exhaust some heat. There are no registers from the main floor into the basement at all. The fan did help somewhat but it is very small. On 80 degree days it went from 71 degrees in the morning to 73.5 degrees by sundown. Hot days like today however are no match for it. I could go around the basement and add more of these but I don't want a bunch of bandaids and am worried about radon.
This weekend we got a portable air conditioner from Costco and brought it downstairs. The Exhaust hose is 3 feet too short. I got some flexible metal duct from Home Depot and piped it through the old dryer duct. I had it running for 30 minutes and it didn't move the needle, but maybe that's because I now had this giant super-hot duct exposed. Super inefficient. I could pipe up some PVC and insulate it, but that's more money on bandaids.
Is there anything else I can try? I thought about trying to install a duct from the basement to the attic to create a natural draft to pull hot air out of the basement but I don't know if that would be enough. I was thinking I could cut some holes in the floor and add registers, but am worried about it not doing enough and also overworking the AC upstairs. The bullet is a mini-split AC for the basement, which would probably be at least $2000 plus electrical work.
Thanks!
