If your “finished basement” is not quite finished and the walls and/or floor are still visible concrete, the cold thermal mass of this concrete is cooling your body. Insulated walls and a carpet below are the long terms solutions. You can utilize a portable heater during the time you are in the basement, but you may never achieve true cozy until you invest in some additional “finish”.
Comfort Tips:
If your basement is fully finished but is still too cold, here are some tips to help:
Make sure all the heating registers are open. Many times they are closed during the air conditioning season and need to be reopened for winter. Look around. Did you miss any?
Closing basement doors can keep your finished basement more comfortable
Closing basement doors can keep your finished basement more comfortable. Do you have a door between the basement and upstairs? This could be at the top or the bottom of the stairs. Keep this door closed. An open stairwell to the basement is a giant whirlpool of cool air. This cooler heavier air from the floor above settles into and pools at the lowest point, the finished basement!
Run your furnace fan in the “On” position. Now the air is always circulating and mixing throughout your home. This is especially important if you do not have a door to the basement as I mention above.
Bump the temperature for a treat! It’s not a bad thing to occasionally ask your furnace or heat pump to do what it is designed to do. That is… provide comfort. What if I told you you would only spend another one or two dollars for an evening of comfort? Just think how much you still saved by not going to the theater and popping your own corn!
If you use your finished basement very frequently and you need more comfort, we can always investigate adding more heating supply registers to the most important areas. Especially for a basement that is in the process of being finished, this could be an easy task.
As a last resort do what the generations before you did. If you do not use those massive comforters on a cold movie night, when else will you ever use them?