Heating
We did the obvious things. We insulated the walls. We used an underlayment
material, Delta FL
to create an air space between the plywood subfloor and the slab. We used
a wood floor instead of leaving the concrete slab exposed. There were a
couple other things we did.
- Our heating and cooling is done with forced air. For the three air
diffusers in the basement, we used
Acutherm Therma-Fuser Diffusers.
The vent opens and closes in response to supply air temperature and
room air temperature. They are "passive" in the sense that they don't
require electricity to operate. They have a small piston that opens
and closes the vent in response to changes in room air temperature.
- In the bathroom, we used a thermostatically controlled electric
heating mat embedded in lightweight concrete below the ceramic tile
so that the floor is warm when you walk on it. It uses 15 watts per
square foot. My experience so far is that it takes too long to warm
up (several hours) to a comfortable temperature. The system we used
included a wall mounted timer/thermostat and was made by
Warmly Yours.
- To keep the equipment closet where all of the audio/video equipment
resides cool we installed a duct hooked up to an exhaust fan in the
laundry area. When the equipment closet heats up, the fan kicks
on drawing cool air through the equipment rack.