Basement Living

[blufford]

How many people utilize their basements during hot spells for living rather than use air conditioning for cooling. What temperature does your basement stay during these times?

[MushCreek]

We don't have a basement yet, but will have in our next house in SC. My friend nearby said his basement stayed about 74 degrees most of the summer, but was humid. We keep our house in FL at 80, so 74 should be a piece of cake. His basement was in the mid 50's all winter, and I could live in that, too. Maybe I don't even need to build the rest of the house....

[Bonnie L]

We don't have a basement, but we do have an unfinished log house with a cement floor. It stays very cool & is a great place to spend the really hot days.

[Sand Flat Bob]

Originally Posted by MushCreek

We don't have a basement yet, but will have in our next house in SC. My friend nearby said his basement stayed about 74 degrees most of the summer, but was humid. We keep our house in FL at 80, so 74 should be a piece of cake. His basement was in the mid 50's all winter, and I could live in that, too. Maybe I don't even need to build the rest of the house....

Back in the 1940's many farmers in Western Kansas built what was called Basement houses. They had limited funds so they built the basement and put a flat roof over it. They lived in them for many years in some cases, then when they got the money, they built a house on top of the basement. My cousin grew up in a basement house. Now he has a very nice home with a basement and he spends lots of time in the basement, because he feels at home there.

Bob

[BaronsMom]

When my family first moved to the farm, we lived in a basement house. Had everything you needed. Only drawback was a few extra "critters" and one winter the snow blocked our door and we couldn't get out until the neighbor was able to get down the lane with a tractor. (Only 3 days - but pretty tight living conditions for 3 days with a bunch of kids).

I don't remember being uncomfortable with the temperature in the basement house - plenty of windows (no window wells), can't recall if there was a.c. or not. But as kids, probably spent most of our time outside anyway.

My folks eventually built on top of the basement house. There was an old house pulled on top of the basement and the folks remodeled and expanded it - put a stairway from the new section to the basement house.

Mom used the downstairs kitchen as her canning/freezing headquarters. Kept the rest of the house cooler, when most of the cooking was down downstairs. Really nice now when everyone goes "home" to visit.

[MariaAZ]

If we had a basement we'd certainly retreat there for the summer! In our land of 120+ degree summer weather, we are one of two houses in our neighborhood that are centrally cooled by evap coolers only; everyone else has air conditioners. The other house is next door, and it's currently abandoned so we're the only family living with evap cooling only. We have a portable A/C for the bedroom because DH can't sleep when it's very humid. Basements would make SO much sense here in the desert.

[MN Gardener]

We have a basement and it is always cold! I have told my husband when the kids grow up and move away we should have 2 bedrooms, one in the basement for the summer time and one on the main level in the winter. The previous owner lived in the basement for many years and the built the rest of the house later. The is a kitchen down there that I use for canning and on holidays so I can cook everything at once.

[CarolynRenee]

We were lucky to find a home with a finished basement, so in the summer months, we sleep downstairs in order to keep cooler & to avoid running the A/C. If we have company, or my older family members visit, I turn on the A/C as not to "cook" them.

With the electric bills getting higher & higher, we're going to see if we can make it through the entire summer without the A/C.

[Up North Louie]

I live in my basement. It's cool in the summer, and my bed is 20 feet from the stove in the winter. I have a shower and a head down here. I get east sun in the morning, although I'm always up before dawn.

It suits me just fine.

Don

[Jena]

My "new" house has a finished basement and I plan to sleep down there. It is very cool down there now...so cool, I want to open the windows to let in some warm air!

Jena

[halfpint]

We don't usually sleep in our basement, but in the summer when the power's out it's always comfortable, although gets a little humid. We normally run a dehumidifier in the summer, but when the power is out that's not possible. Even on days when it's over 100, it's still comfortable in the basement with no A/C.

Dawn

[Quint]

My basement is always comfortable. On the hottest days it is dramatically cooler. If I lived down there during the summer I don't know that I'd even need the A/C. It's not finished though and I just use it for storage for the most part.

[Phantomfyre]

We've been using the family room in our finished walk-out basement as our master bedroom since we moved in. Nice in the summer, but a bit chilly in the winter, LOL. We're not using the actual master bedroom because it's the size of a horse stall and we plan to remodel the upstairs. But even after we get the upstairs ready, I'm tempted to keep a bed down in the basement for summer sleeping!

[BetsyK in Mich]

The basement under the big farm house here is 9 feet deep and built with field stone. It is never above 55 down there. I don't live in or even use the basement. I have pulled the cover off the furnace and switched on the fan to draw the cool air upstairs on a couple hot days. Normally it has to get in the high 80's for several days before the big house heats up in the summer, then if the nights drop anywhere near 60 it will cool right off. Now if I could figure out how to make it hold heat in the winter a bit better . . .

[mtnest]

We are planning to build a log home with a full basement under so we will more than likely take advantage of the cooler basement in the summer. Don't know about doing more than sleeping and possibly canning there though since I like it warm when I'm awake and much cooler to sleep. We're looking to use the "heat rises" method for heating from a woodstove down there in the winter. Just a small fan to circulate the warmth throughout the house. Hoping it works as well as we'd like it to.

[ErinP]

So long as we leave the windows closed when it's hot our basement stays a pleasant 65 or so in the summer.
We use ours year round as our kids' bedrooms are down there as is our family room.

[Windy in Kansas]

Nope! Though several degrees cooler the humidity is much higher which actually makes it more uncomfortable after a few minutes than being in the hotter upstairs.

I hope to someday build a home with tubing loops in the floor or ceiling and run all of my irrigation water through it. Kind of like a spring house eh?

[Jenn]

Mom was just telling me (Asian) Indian folk with marble floors (ie palaces etc) would sleep on the floor in the heat of summer.