ᐅ Heating a rarely used basement space – underfloor heating? Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery?

Hello everyone,
what options are available if a basement room is only used occasionally (with permanent use possible in the future)?
Should the basement room be heated along with the underfloor heating?
Or should the underfloor heating in the basement not be connected yet, and another heating method used because the room is only occasionally used?
And if the room is later connected to the underfloor heating and then heated that way, would the hydraulic balancing need to be carried out again?
It is not yet clear whether to have individual room control or not.
New build KFW 55 or 40. Air-to-water heat pump.

Hello,

if the room will be used permanently in the future, I would include it in the underfloor heating system now.

The temperature can still be kept low for the time being. To quickly reach a comfortable temperature today, I would consider installing an infrared heating element on the wall.

This provides a rapid sensation of pleasant radiant heat.

Best regards,

Dirk

Without room thermostats, you will need to redo the entire balancing and reset everything. If suddenly an additional 25 m² (270 sq ft) is heated, using the shortest piping length (is the heating system located in the basement?), the parameters in all other rooms will change.

Does your heating system support two separate heating circuits with supply temperature control? Then you could have the underfloor heating connected later – or connect it immediately and simply switch off the second heating circuit for now.

Hello!
I’m not a construction expert, but we had a similar situation. We bought an existing house built in 1993. The previous owner had only equipped 2 out of the 4 basement rooms with heating, and during winter there were ALWAYS problems with condensation on the walls in the unheated rooms.
Fortunately, a basement renovation was due anyway, so I had all rooms fitted with heating accordingly. The result was as expected: no more problems, since there were no temperature differences between the rooms, which prevented unwanted condensation. In my opinion, it’s a false economy to skip heating here, so definitely equip all rooms with heating and maintain a consistent temperature throughout.
Best regards,
wolfgang.reitner

But I don’t necessarily want to heat the room where food is stored to 20–21°C (68–70°F) like the other room.

As already mentioned in the green forum, you need to provide heating to the room; otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. If the room is not heated, it will simply reduce the efficiency of your heat pump because it will draw the necessary energy from the adjacent rooms.

So, either use a second heating circuit controlled via the heat pump, or keep the first heating circuit permanently set to maintain around 16°C (61°F) in that room.

You can safely do without the ERR.