Heating your home in winter can be a costly endeavor especially when you live in a cold environment. Anything you can do to increase the efficiency of your heating can lower the money you spend. One thing you can do to accomplish this involves your basement and the door leading into it.
Closing your basement door in winter helps to keep cool air in the basement so it doesn’t affect the upper floor. Cellars tend to be cooler than other floors in the home so it makes sense to close the door leading to it, especially in an unfinished basement, when heating your home.
Below we’ll discuss how heating and cooling works in your basement and why you might want to leave your furnace door open if you have one while keeping the main basement door closed.
Why close your basement door in winter?
The basement is normally the coldest level in your home since it’s the lowest to the ground – underground in most cases – and also gets the least amount of sun. Since cold air sinks and hot air rises, it can get very chilly especially if you don’t heat your basement or direct the heat to the upper floors.
But even though cold air remains in the basement you can help keep it there by shutting your basement door when not in use to keep the cold downstairs and heat upstairs when the basement isn’t in use.
Should I keep my furnace door open or closed?
If your furnace is contained inside a small room in your basement with a door, it’s best to leave it open unless you have a reason to close it i.e. to keep children or a pet out. If you need to keep the door closed, you can get a vented door to allow proper airflow.
Your furnace needs consistent air flow and while you will most likely have several air registers on upper floors to draw fresh air to feed the furnace, having proper venting in your furnace room is important too. That way your furnace can draw air from the entire basement and from the registers in your home.
You should also not store anything in your furnace room especially items that are flammable or that can develop fumes when heated. So no chemicals, paint cans, fuel, kitty litter, paper, rubber or plastic.
The best thing to do is keep the furnace room completely empty with the furnace door open if possible or short of that, vented. Again, this is the furnace room door if your furnace is contained in its own separate room. Not the door leading to the basement which should be left closed to keep cool air in the basement.
Why is my basement cooler than the other floors of my house?
Basements are typically the coldest (and most humid) floor in the home for several reasons:
- Basements are built underground and cold air sinks so it stands to reason that the basement is the coldest floor.
- Warm air rises so heat from your furnace tends to move towards the upper floors especially if you leave your basement door open.
- Upper level floors get the benefit of more windows and thus more access to sun which naturally heats a home.
- People often close off vents in the basement to direct more air from a furnace to the higher levels of a home which lowers the basement temperature further.
Should I heat my basement or leave the vents closed?
If you live in a cold weather environment with sub zero temperatures during winter, you want to have some heat in your basement to avoid freezing temperatures that could impact pipes and anything you store in the basement.
Of course if you spend time in your basement during winter, it also makes sense to heat it to a minimum amount.
Most basements tend to have a small number of vents and while you can close them to direct more heat upstairs, you should have at least some heat remaining in the basement. Cracking each basement open slightly will heat the basement enough to make it comfortable to be in and will also promote air flow so that it doesn’t become stagnant.
If you have a cold room for storage in your basement, you know how chilly it gets during the winter since it typically isn’t insulated. It simply has unfinished concrete walls and can get very cold in winter. Which is why this room also has its own solid door to keep the cold air of that room inside. Clearly this door should also be closed during winter for that reason.