Our home has a finished basement which we don't use that often. We really only use one room frequently down there. The house is well insulated and so is the basement. I have a heat pump with gas back up.
I keep the basement temperature set at 60 and it hardly ever heats down there, however it is chilly to be down there. The temp needs to be about 68-70 to actually feel comfortable. Would it be cheaper to run a space heater while we are using the room, or just turn the heat up?
Our electric bill was ridiculous last month so I'm trying to find ways to save on electric.
Space heater vs central heating for basement, which is cheaper?
byu/xandrew245x inFrugal
Posted by xandrew245x
6 Comments
If your house is properly sealed, any heat that is introduced into the basement should either remain there, or convect up into the rest of your house. This applies to mini splits and space heaters. The use of the heat pump, is wildly more efficient than an electric space heater.
The variable would be how often you are heating the space. Do you have zones? Can you lower the basement heat when not in use? How many hours/day are you in there?
If you can just turn up the heat pump when you’re down there, just do that.
Central. Space heaters are very inefficient.
A space heater will not cost less to run than a heat pump. If the basement is cold it may not have enough circulation from your central system, or it’s not as well insulated as you think.
This question comes up a lot and the answer is usually a resounding “it depends on your space.”
Heating just yourself will be the cheapest way (electric blankets, hoodies etc)
A heat pump is more efficient than a standard electric heater but if it needs to heat a much larger space that obviously can cancel out.
All standard electric heaters are just as efficient as each other, so efficiency on those comes down to how big of a space your heating and how insulated they are.
This depends on a lot of factors, where do you live? How cold is it outside vs inside? How much does electricity cost where you live? Is your heater gas or electric? How infrequent is your basement use? When you use it, is it during peak electricity times?
Where I lived in CO, electricity was half as expensive as where I am in CA, it also got significantly colder in CO so it made sense to run the heat more often. In CA the temperature in my place without the heat running is typically 65 degrees in the winter, it makes more sense to just run a space heater where I am rather the heater because CA electricity is insane. Oddly, my parents had a basement in CA when I was growing up and they would run the heater down there but my parents also had a different financial position than me and could afford it, also for all I know it was gas heat and that could be cheaper depending on the rates.
When the basement was finished, was a larger HVAC system put in to cover the extra square footage? It’s possible it can’t keep up with the extra square footage downstairs. Are there enough ducts and an air return for down there?
If it’s just a single room you use and it’s only occasionally, it seems like just heating that room would be better.