Circulating air down to the basement

[Wicked Mainah]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum so please bear with me.

I have a medium sized open concept ranch with a walkout basement which I built last year. The stove is in the living room which is on the first floor. On any given winter day, the first floor is about 75 degrees of hot dry air, and the basement is about 45 degrees of cool damp air. I have a dehumidifier in the basement which runs daily. Eventually I plan to install a heat exchanger to help with the moisture problem in the basement, but it probably wont happen for a couple years. For the time being, I was planning on cutting a register into one of the first floor interior walls and running an insulated duct down to the basement floor with a 250-300 CFM fan to pull the air into the basement. I was then going to install another register in the floor on the first floor for a cold air return. Here's my question: should I put the warm air register close to the wood stove to draw the warmest possible air down to the basement and the cold air return on the other end of the house? Or do I draw moderately warm air from the opposite end of the house down to the basement and have the cold air return next to the stove? I fully understand that this will not be sufficient to heat the basement. The two goals I'd like to achieve are: 1. provide dry air to the basement to keep the dehumidifier running at a minimum and 2. help circulate air on the first floor so the heat is more evenly dispersed. I'm leaning towards the second air intake placement that I mentioned, but I appreciate any feedback and input.

Thanks!

 

[DAKSY]

I think I would install thru-the-floor vents near the outside walls of the house in a couple of different locations.
Those walls tend to be colder than the interior walls, so any air movement would be DOWNWARDS, by natural convection.
The problem will be in getting the air OUT of the basement. Maybe leaving a basement door open would allow the convection
to flow & the moist air to come up into the living area.

 

[saydinli]

Is your walkout basement insulated?
Do you currently have a central heating system ?



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[peakbagger]

FYI, you can run a heat pump hot water heater in your basement and get free de-humidification to boot

 

[begreen]

FYI, you can run a heat pump hot water heater in your basement and get free de-humidification to boot

Won't that remove heat from the basement?

 

[peakbagger]

Yes it will but it will dry things out.

 

[Wicked Mainah]

Is your walkout basement insulated?
Do you currently have a central heating system ?

Yes, the daylight walls have R21. I do have radiant heat in the first floor, but no heat source in the basement yet.

FYI, you can run a heat pump hot water heater in your basement and get free de-humidification to boot

Thanks, but being a brand new house, I also have a brand new boiler and indirect water heater, so I'm not ready to scrap those just yet.

In a few years, I plan to finish off the basement, and at that point I will install a heat source for the basement. In doing so, I understand that it will help immensely with my moisture issue. But for now, I'd like to keep costs down and simply try to get air moving between the two floors.

I think I would install thru-the-floor vents near the outside walls of the house in a couple of different locations.
Those walls tend to be colder than the interior walls, so any air movement would be DOWNWARDS, by natural convection.
The problem will be in getting the air OUT of the basement. Maybe leaving a basement door open would allow the convection
to flow & the moist air to come up into the living area.

Thank you. My father also has mentioned natural convection in the past. However, for what I'm trying to do, I'm not sure the results would be as dramatic as I'd like. A friend of mine did something similar with ducting and a fan off his wood stove insert. It works great. But, his insert has ductwork which comes directly off the unit, where as I have to start from scratch.

 

[saydinli]

Yes, the daylight walls have R21. I do have radiant heat in the first floor, but no heat source in the basement yet.

What about the non-daylight walls? Do you have any insulation on them or are they bare concrete? I ask because no matter how much heat you can get to move to the basement , it'll be futile if the concrete walls are exposed.

 

[Wicked Mainah]

The foundation walls are uninsulated. I agree, it is far less than desirable, however it'll be a few years before I insulate and I'm just trying help with the moisture and air flow.