Infrared heaters

freetown fred wrote: Even better, buy a nice fleece lined pair of slippers.

I enjoy your quick wit...I was thinking the same thing when I read the post. Santa left us all slippers, and my basement has become a meat locker since the furnace has been moth balled.

homecomfort wrote:coal generated heat will stratify to the ceiling quickly due to it's higher temp. I use a very low speed fan to circulate the warmer air from the ceiling to the floor.

Isn't that what heat does??? RISES???

Best Solution to warm up that cold floor:

My mother is old and was having a hard time walking on them cold tiles, so a buddy of mine, fixed us up with about the best way you guys can imagine, and we did not have to pay through the roof to get radiant heat, nor did we have to go through some kind of a program to qualify, our total cost is negligible both for up front cost on equipments and almost nothing extra on our electric bill:

He happened to find one of those pads used to heat a water bed, it's flat, thin, you can throw it under a rug, and best of all it's under 300 watts, oops, no I mean the really best of all, he got it from the Salvation Army for under 5 dollars, and told us "Merry Christmas " when we asked him how much we owe him for such a solution, I have never encountered such a comfort stepping out of the shower and onto a warm rug, he had the thermostat bulb right on top of it, and we had it plugged in , hidden from view, we even had couple of guest asking us how can we afford radiant heat "based on my disability check " we really had them going.
try it , you'll love it, from what I understand you can get these things on eBay.

Good luck !

Insulate the underside of the floors?

Yeah, what's wrong with R19 insulation stuck in between the floor joists?? Much cheaper way to go.......

Cyber36 wrote:Yeah, what's wrong with R19 insulation stuck in between the floor joists?? Much cheaper way to go.......

Been there, done that...it does little to change the feel of ceramic tile. My dad was so frustrated with their icy floors he ended up ripping all of the insulation out of his basement ceiling and adding it to the attic, then heating the basement.

If cheap is what you want, Fred's suggestion can't be beat.

"I do have a very nice field stone fire place down there but we all know how useless they are for heat"
You can't move the stove downstairs and vent it through the fireplace flue?

Rob R. wrote:

Cyber36 wrote:Yeah, what's wrong with R19 insulation stuck in between the floor joists?? Much cheaper way to go.......

Been there, done that...it does little to change the feel of ceramic tile.

I suggested the floor insulation, but I have to admit doing it in my house did not seem to make much difference. Except now when the mice eat poison they get above the Tyvek and into the fiberglas and die there and stink to high heaven! I have been thinking about ripping it out just for that reason. If I were going to do it again, I would consider spray foam on the underside of the floor boards.

mozz wrote:"I do have a very nice field stone fire place down there but we all know how useless they are for heat"
You can't move the stove downstairs and vent it through the fireplace flue?

Sure I could but then it presents other issues. Dragging 2-3 tons of coal through the house and down the stairs plus running up and down to load coal and remove ashes. We love the tiny stove in our living room where we spend most of our awake time and it gives plenty of heat to keep the living room warm and our bedroom a perfect 64 for sleeping.

I also have the floor insulated from below with 2 inch styro but the wood and tiles remain cold. I did run the ceiling fan as suggested and it does help to get the majority of heat off the main floor ceiling but not much for warming the floors. Electricity here is not an option since it is the most costly form of energy in this locale. I think the socks and slippers is our best option and this has been the only good one for a few years. It just sucks stepping out of a hot shower on to a freezing tile floor and sitting on the couch unless our feet are up.

I was trying to find some suggestions to help warm the floors but so far all that seems to work would be to run the oil furnace zone in the basement to warm the floors from below. That is a lot of dead space to heat and will run my oil bills through the roof. If I ever build another home it will have the heat in the floor and my little coal stove in the LR to take the chill away when the temps go down. 70-72 in the LR is great and 64 in the BR is perfect for us but our floors are right around 50 based on the oil furnace settings from below.

Gary L wrote:If I ever build another home it will have ....

Ain't that the truth. You live with a house 35 years like we have, you can come up with quite a list of things to do differently. And still you will miss some.

Sounds like a great topic for a new thread ....

rberq wrote:

Gary L wrote:If I ever build another home it will have ....

Ain't that the truth. You live with a house 35 years like we have, you can come up with quite a list of things to do differently. And still you will miss some.

Sounds like a great topic for a new thread ....

You nailed that Bob! The main problem I have is the "Love/Hate" relationship I am in. I love where I live out here in the rural part of NY and very close to the PA and NJ borders. I hate NY and I hate the outrageous cost of everything from taxes to basic services such as electric, internet, telephone, television and zero cell signal. I have two gorgeous and very large fire places, LR and basement and back in 1970 they were all the rage. We all know now how useless they are for heat. My list of Positives Vs Negatives does little more than cause stress.

Gary

rberq wrote:

Rob R. wrote:

Cyber36 wrote:Yeah, what's wrong with R19 insulation stuck in between the floor joists?? Much cheaper way to go.......

Been there, done that...it does little to change the feel of ceramic tile.

I suggested the floor insulation, but I have to admit doing it in my house did not seem to make much difference. Except now when the mice eat poison they get above the Tyvek and into the fiberglas and die there and stink to high heaven! I have been thinking about ripping it out just for that reason. If I were going to do it again, I would consider spray foam on the underside of the floor boards.

That was one of my projects this past summer. I took out all the fiberglass between the floor joists and sprayed foam. Huge improvement. No more mice, and maybe just wishful thinking, but the floors do seem noticeably warmer.

david78 wrote:That was one of my projects this past summer. I took out all the fiberglass between the floor joists and sprayed foam. Huge improvement. No more mice, and maybe just wishful thinking, but the floors do seem noticeably warmer.

Did you spray the foam yourself, or hire it done? There are sites on the Internet that will sell you a do-it-yourself kit, and they show the homeowner all wrapped up in a space suit and respirator to do the job. What was the cost (and for how much surface area)?

I bought one of the kits and did it myself. It's around $1/board foot (1"x12"x12"). Coverage depends on how thick you spray it on. I sprayed mine about an inch thick so it took two 602BF kits to do my house. The snazzy suit comes with the kit; you provide the respirator.

SMITTY wrote:

homecomfort wrote:coal generated heat will stratify to the ceiling quickly due to it's higher temp. I use a very low speed fan to circulate the warmer air from the ceiling to the floor.

Isn't that what heat does??? RISES??? :what:

No.

Hot air rises.