Got an icebox where my basement should be....
Updated: Feb 21, 2019
So, the basement is basically done, but there's been one problem with the room. Despite it being one of the nicest (if not THE nicest) rooms in the house, it's only got one tiny vent register in the ceiling for 215 square feet of room, and the vent is not even in the center of the room. In the summer, it doesn't even matter because the basement is a comfortable temperature when it's hot out, but in winter...not so much. It's COLD, y'all. It's manageable when you're doing work down there because you're working, but when you just wanna sit it's not very nice. So we really really needed to find a solution for this that was 1) going to provide enough heat, 2) not going to take up a lot of space, 3) wasn't going to burn us or the house, and 4) was not fugly.
We had looked up a heater about a year ago that fit the bill (we saw it on an episode of this old house), but it had some strange reviews where people were talking about it malfunctioning, and I wrote it off. I decided to go back and look at it to see if the issues were as bad as the reviews seemed, and to my pleasant surprise I learned that they've released a 2nd gen version that fixed the issue with the first one, and I was SOLD. We are now the owners of an Envi high-efficiency whole room panel heater!
This thing literally took about 5 min to install (the box it comes in is the template for drilling holes in the wall), stays cool to the touch, makes no noise, and is doing a great job heating the whole room. It's also only 2 inches thick and doesn't look terrible. It can be hardwired if you want, but I have no desire to punch holes in the wall I just built to do that, so plug in is totally fine with me. It's also a lot more efficient than other kinds of space heaters, which is a huge plus. Mr. Handy is so happy with it that he basically ordered one for his office immediately (it feels like a walk in freezer in there during the winter). Now that we have the heater, we've been camped out in the basement most evenings enjoying our new non-icebox space!
Things we love:
Envi High-Efficiency Whole Room Electric Panel Wall Heater (they aren't paying me to promote their heater, but you can get 20% off--and I earn store credit--if you follow this link.)