If my house didn't have a basement, both my heat load and cooling loads would be much higher. With having part of the house buried, it allows there to be less exposure to the sun, a geothermal cooling blanket in the summer and a space warmer than the outside in the winter. It was extremely helpful this summer, I could let the upstairs get to 85 degrees and then I could sleep on the level above the basement level at 76 while it was in the mid 80's outside and sunny. In the winter the house is getting geothermal heat when I'm not heating it beyond the soil temperature. Call me crazy but my November methane gas heating bill wasn't even $20 and I'm in Minnesota. Very little infiltration now with all of the retrofitting so humidity levels aren't really dropping even though I stopped boiling water for pasta and vent my bathroom until the mirror is clear after I take a shower. More heating with more temperature, pressure differential, and furnace make-up air would increase the fuel usage quite a lot. I'm comfy in the cold though. I'd imagine if I lived in the southern half of the country I'd probably never turn on the heat I was reading stories on hvac-talk where people in Virginia have estimated heating loads for a house smaller than mine having them install a furnace larger than the one I have in my much colder climate that came with my house and is over double the size it needs to be post-retrofit(or third the input if I put a 95% in).
Last edited by MN Renovator; 12-09-11 at 08:38 AM..
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