Comment by adriand | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adriand | Hacker News Reader

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You can find heaters using the term "parabolic infrared heater". This is what I use for my basement studio, where I frequently produce music and thus do not want a heater with a fan (like many basements, it's quite a bit chillier than the rest of the house). Something like this [1], which appears to be a differently-branded identical unit to the one I actually purchased in Canada [2]. You can point this thing directly at yourself and you'll be perfectly comfortable even in a very chilly room, and it's noiseless.

Caveat emptor: in my experience, these things only last one or two seasons. But paying $25 or $50 to be comfortable for the winter is worth it. There are more expensive, presumably more durable wall-mounted options as well. [3]

I've also tried various methods like electric blankets and pads but I find the sensation of direct heat like that kind of annoying, plus I often end up with a warm butt and cold fingers, which is not ideal for music or coding.

1: https://www.homedepot.com/p/PROAIRA-700-Watt-1000-Watt-in-Bl...

2: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/living-zone-oscillating-rad...

3: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dr-Infrared-Heater-1500-Watt-Ele...

My basement tends to be colder than the rest of my house as well.

To solve this, I put a blower fan at the foot of the stairs blowing up. This takes the coldest air in the house and sends it to the middle of the house.

The 1 ~100 watt fan balances the heat of the basement far more than any supplemental heating systems ever would, and at 13 cents/kwh only costs me about $0.30/day to run.

Fans are very underrated. I've been heating 1700 sqft of living space using a 25k BTU mini split in Maine for 2 years now.

The hot air is moved with some repurposed computer fans up high in a few doorways, and a return cold air fan , like your case, blowing the lower colder air back to the room with the mini split.

The introduction of the fan moving the cold air into that room has a FAR larger impact on the house temp than just the fans moving the heat alone. (They obviously help as well but it's far more effective to move the cold air).

As a geek side note, I also have a few "in wall" fans that direct into 6" vent work, and come out floor registers for the second floor. There are enabled or disabled via esphome temp sensors -- when a differential greater than X is noted, the fan(s) turn on, more rapidly evening the temps upstairs and downstairs.

(To be fair, I also have an oil hot air furnace, and a wood stove, but the furnace has not been used for 2 winters, and the wood stove on the cold cold days in Jan/Feb when the heat pump isn't very happy)

Can I hire you to figure out how to cool my space? It's only 625 sqft, and it's all one room except the bathroom, which accounts for the middle third of one side of the house (kitchen is on one side of it and bed area on the other, but they're not separated from the other half of the house by anything.

The problem I have is that all my windows are narrow casement (crank out) windows, so the only AC I can use is a floor unit, with a plexi plug covering the rest of the window. They're too narrow for real window ACs. It's 14,000 BTU, ostensibly, and has a dual hose to avoid creating negative air pressure inside the house, but it can only really keep it 10-15° cooler inside than outside. That's fine until it's over 90°, which thankfully doesn't happen all that often. The AC has to be in the southeast corner, and there can only be one, because all the outlets near the windows are on the same circuit, and it's not able to power two. Oh, and the whole east wall is a giant double sliding glass door, which has a gorgeous view of the river, but gets hot first thing in the morning.

I'm mostly kidding, but man, any suggestions for how to improve this would be great!

I had a similar issue in my old apartment. You might consider the use of a thermal battery.

Cool the space at night (when it's cooler already) as much as possible. Then during the heat of the day, use thermal curtains to both block the heat out and to trap the cool in.

On days where that is simply not enough, cross breeze is underrated.

Get one of those magnetic mosquito door net things and set it up on your front door. Open the windows and the doors when it's too hot for the AC to help and get some air movement with a fan if necessary to push air from the shady side to the hot side.

At least I know I'm on the right track. I've been doing all those things!

Fortunately cross breeze often comes in off the river, which is cooler, and I'm far enough north that it doesn't break 100° more than once or twice a year, if that, so I guess maybe this is as good as it gets.

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