We don't live in quite as cold a climate, but we have a separate zone for our lower level and it works well for us as it is well insulated and rarely used, so we fundamentally don't heat or cool it at all unless necessary. So that separate zone saves us a lot.

We are in New England and went the same route as Annie. The cost for radiant was a lot more than adding a zone. With the multi-zone approach, you can keep both levels at whatever temperature you prefer. And as Annie said, you can shut it off downstairs when you are not using it. You can't do that with Radiant...its needs to on all the time to work effectively as it doesn't have a 'fast heating' option.

This post was edited by nepool on Mon, Oct 27, 14 at 21:03

Current Home (2 story, finished walkout) has the same issue - temps vary widely on the various floors. I too have been looking at zoning for a build (3200 Main Floor, 2200 Walkout Basement, 600 Bonus over Garage).

Debating pricing of zoning vs just a complete 2nd system on a new build. First quote was over $5K for zoned system, and while more for complete 2nd system, it it worked better I'd easily do that.

Mind sharing what brand HVAC you went with and how many zones you have?

Our 10 yr old one level home has 3500 on first floor and 3000 finished in south walkout basement. We have geothermal with 5 zones. No issues with heating or cooling.

One unit on each end of the house.

No question - zoned can be just fine. And by shutting down when you don't use it, can really help with heating bills.

Always hard to look at old houses and compare. But insulate, insulate, insulate - that is the key to comfort and low bills.

Insulate under the slab. Over insulate for $3-5k rather than the $10k for radiant.

+1 on insulation! We re-did our basement with 2" of continuous rigid foam plus a 2x4 stud wall with fiberglass batts between the studs and spray foam to seal the rim joists. In a colder climate (we're in MA) I would up the rigid foam to 4". It's made a huge difference in both heating bills and comfort. We have zoned hot air, which works well for us.

INSULATE the basement (sub slab and exterior to the concrete wall ideally).

Zoning will help, but if you have open doorway to the upstairs there is a HUGE chimney effect in the wintertime.

We had a three story (including walk out basement) and in winter the lower level zone would run intermittently and all levels exact temp, but if we left door to basement open, there would be a large movement of air up the stairway.

Very tight home, blower tested.

Zoning helps tremendously.

Just met with the builder again... his first description of the multi zone HVAC was a "manual" system where each zone just has a main trunk coming out of the furnace. Dampers are set to control how much goes to each zone. That didn't seem like nearly as good of a solution as a thermostat in each zone that could call for heating/cooling for that zone only.

Sounds like between a REAL multi zone system and the best insulation, I could be ok here. Given the fact that he quoted out over $30k for in floor heat in the basement alone, I may have no other choice. We could also rough it in for $6k and add the boiler down the road.

That GC is giving you prices thru the ROOF!!!!! 6k JUST to put pex in the concrete???? Pex is cheap! How big is your house?

4500 finished. Only looking to do Infloor heat in the lower level. We haven't selected the builder yet and this is one of several cases where it felt like they were overpricing. These have all been spitball prices, but may the final nail in the coffin if I feel like they are fleecing me.

This GC is fleecing you! Have you thought about being an O/B?
Is the basement going to be used all the time or just once and awhile? ditto....what everyone said about zoned. That's the best way to do it as long as your HVAC contractor knows what they are doing.

I couldn't do the owner/builder route... Just don't have the time or knowledge to do it right.

We are in the basement every day. Home office, rec room, theatre, etc... It's a space that is heavily used.

Calls to new GC's starting today!

Have you considered geothermal?

Our basement is heavily used as well and we love it.

5 zones in our house with 5 thermostats.

No chimney effect in our open stairway that I can tell.

You will do yourself a disservice if you don't at least look into it :-)

Talk to to a good geothermal contractor for more information, not a GC.