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Posted by Warm Canuck on January 12, 2006 at 14:48:41:
In Reply to: Re: Buderus/Air Handler short cycling posted by Heatpro on January 12, 2006 at 14:15:38:
: True, but the concept always amuses me. People put multi-zones on their system so they can set back areas where they aren't to save money. However setting back a basement, which is sometimes as big as the upstairs of a ranch, escapes that reason.
Agreed, but we use both floors. Also because of the design of the house, there is a big open spiral staircase going down to the "basement". Basement has 9 ft ceilings of whcih 4 ft is above grade, with lots of windows. There is no way to seal the basement off from the main floor, so the warm air from upstairs will cool and pool down there. Not much one can do about that but given that a 59,000 BTU output furnace runs at 125F at 50% duty cycle on a 14F day in a 4400 sq. ft. house, I'm not too worried about further energy savings although obviously we could do better if we could prevent that heat from going downstairs. All the basement vents are closed and when it's 70F upstairs it's 66 F downstairs. I suppose I could tape up a poly sheet and seal the opening and see what happens to the basement temps. The basement ceiling is unfinished and you don't want to suck heat from the main floor hardwood floor by making the basement too cold when it is unoccupied.