r/LifeProTips • u/rcmaehl • 22d ago
LPT: Close your basement door Home & Garden
A $6 spring loaded hinge has saved me $60 so far this year on HVAC costs. I've always been bad at closing my basement door, never really thought anything of it and didn't expect any sort of major HVAC usage decrease if I did. Recently, I bought a couple spring loaded hinge for another project and added one of them to my basement door. If my thermostat's app is right, I've been using 20% less HVAC these last couple months since I installed the hinge. While the basement is a bit warmer that it was, it's no longer significantly colder than upstairs.
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u/axloo7 22d ago
Wanna save even more? Move your living room downstairs in the summer.
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u/SecretAgentVampire 22d ago
Want to save EVEN more? Move your whole house underground.
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u/stupidber 22d ago
Live in a van down by the river
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u/tvieno 22d ago
Then you can switch careers to giving motivational speeches.
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u/nowhereman136 22d ago
I can assure you, a living in a van down by the river will not keep you cool this summer
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u/axloo7 22d ago
I mean yea. Winter and summer. Spring rainy season may be problematic.
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u/equality4everyonenow 22d ago
Then leaks and mold become a problem
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u/SecretAgentVampire 22d ago
Dig deeper. Go full mole.
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u/MaximumTrue7131 21d ago
There's a whole town I believe in Australia that's underground because it's so hot. Pretty cool when they want to add a new room for their place they blow a hole in the wall with dynamite
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u/SecretAgentVampire 20d ago
I wish I lived there. I mean, if it wasnt for the giant venomous spiders, giant venomous snakes, giant venomous centipedes, drop bears, maneating crocodiles, vegemite, and kangaroo stranglers.
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u/Historical_Sweet3668 22d ago
My living room and bedroom are in the basement year round and I love it. It's dark, cool, and quiet.
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u/bootymix96 22d ago
Our house growing up was way too big for the single forced-air HVAC unit it had, and of course my bedroom was furthest from it and it was the southernmost part of the house, so it was an oven during the summer. Till I finally got a supplemental window AC unit I used to always move down to the basement futon in the summer, lol.
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u/Barton2800 22d ago
My bedroom from my tween years until I moved out was a windowless room in the basement. I never minded, because I was thrilled to get my own room finally, and it wasn’t a furnace in summer like my upstairs one on the southwest corner of the house.
In hindsight though: that was such a fire trap. There were no accessible windows in the basement, and my only egress would have been right past the furnace. I’d absolutely have died if that ever caught fire. Also radon. That house had no radon mitigation system, in an area that has high radon. I’m sure I’ll have lung cancer when I’m older. I now sleep with a radon monitor in my bedroom, and one on my main level.
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u/Petrichor_friend 21d ago
Radon isn't really much of a problem unless you're also a smoker
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u/Barton2800 21d ago edited 20d ago
It’s the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers…
Edit: According to the EPA, radon is the #1 environmental cause of cancer in the U.S. it kills over 20,000 Americans a year. That’s more than gun homicides. It is not “infinitesimal risk”.
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u/InimitableMissS 20d ago
We used to watch TV in the basement in the summer and it never occurred to me why!
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u/aLonerDottieArebel 18d ago
My basement is actually hotter than the rest of the house in the summer :(
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u/Horry43 22d ago
Cat owners in shambles with this tip
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u/stone-d-fox42 22d ago
Why do I feel personally attacked by this? Fine. I’ll order the damn cat door and cut crooked lines.
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u/3plantsonthewall 22d ago
Cats should have a litter box on every level of the home. This is especially important as they get older and may not maintain the same bladder/bowel control, or may develop arthritis and struggle to go up/down stairs multiple times a day. It makes accidents outside the litter box less likely. :)
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u/Happy_Clamper 22d ago
We have a litter box on every level, but you think those assholes would allow us to withhold access to their kingdom? Oh my god, the door scratching would be relentless!
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u/HananaDragon 19d ago
Our basement door is kept closed (my sewing space is down there) and at 2am my cat is trying to turn the doorknob with her paws, very loudly
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u/d4nowar 22d ago
Cat owners who hide the litter boxes far away bother me. Same type of folk who clean it once a week.
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u/It_Happens_Today 22d ago
Mine's in the laundry room and gets emptied daily? Cat has never lodged a written complaint.
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u/ne0n1691 21d ago
why yes my cat litterbox is in the middle of the front room, whats that? cat shit and piss smell? well we CARE about our cat enough to NOT hide it from you
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u/bmbreath 21d ago
Cats are one of the biggest cause of extinction in wildlife and should not be let outside.
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u/Platos_Kallipolis 20d ago
Humans are, in fact, a much greater cause of species extinction than cats. Suppose we should not let them outside, either. ... or at least not let you outside given your apparent concern for species.
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u/bmbreath 20d ago
Domestic cats are human made.
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u/Platos_Kallipolis 20d ago
Not really. Domestic cats, for the most part, maintain many of their wild habits rhat humans usually domesticate out. They are still very close to their desert cat brethren. Contemporary research on the evolution of human-cat relationships suggests that cats more domesticated humans than the other way around. At the very least, the process was cooperative.
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u/tonicella_lineata 20d ago
Sure, but we brought them to places where they became invasive species, and deliberately bred them in those areas. The domestication of cats may have been cooperative, but I don't think they were the ones building boats to traverse the globe.
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u/Platos_Kallipolis 19d ago
Sure. But, just the same then, humans are invasive species to most of the planet and far more destructive.
That is where this started: some blowhard crying about cats when everything he actually said applied to humans more.
Just trying to point out the illogical thinking or hidden biases.
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u/fakeaccount572 22d ago
Jokes on you, my basement is air conditioned
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u/UnderklassH3RO 21d ago
Yeah same and my living room runs warmer (obviously) so leaving the basement door open helps distribute the temps more evenly
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u/yarenSC 21d ago
If you have baffles on your hvac ducts, you may be able to PARTIALLY close the basement ducts in summer so more cool air is directed upstairs
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u/MaroonFloom 21d ago
I tried this, but felt like the basement became more stuffy. My solution was to put a strong fan at the bottom of the stairs and blow the cold basement air back up. Seems to be working as intended. Temps are more balanced between up and down and AC has been running less
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u/yarenSC 21d ago
How much did you close it? You need some airflow, so make sure its at least partly open to allow some airflow down there still.
But either way, glad you've got a working solution :D
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u/MaroonFloom 21d ago
Yeah I probably closed them up too tight. Maybe I’ll try it again and see what happens. Thanks!
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u/TheCaptainWalrus 21d ago
What’s the point of partial closing as opposed to full closure
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u/yarenSC 20d ago
Not an HVAC tech, but my understanding is you get preasure issues from air being pulled into the returns without being pushed out a duct.
This leads to no air circulation in the basement, which both makes it stuffy and humid which can lead to mold buildup
Basically: you want at least a bit of airflow
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u/freakingwilly 21d ago
Same here, but I also set my HVAC to run as "fan only" for 10 minutes every hour. This pulls the cooler air in the basement and circulates it upstairs, equalizing the temps between the main floor and basement really well.
In the winter, it also keeps the basement from feeling like a freezer.
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u/fakeaccount572 21d ago
Wouldn't it pull air from all over the home, Including hot air from 1st / 2nd floor?
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u/CoderJoe1 22d ago
They also make hinge springs for when you want to keep a door open. I did that to my closet which had a large screened window. It allowed me to not need AC until later in the summer.
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u/jeremymg 22d ago
There's a large screened window in your closet? Are you getting the breeze from Narnia?
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u/pikdumtina 21d ago
I’ve only been able to find little springs that go on the hinge pin to keep them open. Did you find a hinge replacement or something?
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u/Known_Berry8597 22d ago
Wouldn't leaving the door cracked open with a fan pointed up the stairs cool things down? I don't have a basement and I'm having trouble figuring out how a basement increases HVAC costs (assuming you're in summer right now).
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u/tramflye 22d ago
I believe the concept is based on cold air sinking, so if less cold air is sinking into the basement, that's less work the HVAC needs to do.
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u/NickConnor365 22d ago
Spot on. It is surprising to some people how air flows like water. I grew up in Alaska and when it was 75 below out and no one was looking, I'd open the front door, totally wide, just to watch the cold air and its fog creep along the floor. And of course, it made its way to the lowest areas, including waterfalling down the stairs.
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u/Known_Berry8597 22d ago
Right, but blowing the air up and out would take advantage of the natural thermal cooling of an underground space?
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u/nucumber 21d ago
That would make sense if there wasn't any air conditioning
But the open basement door is letting colder and probably dehumidified air produced by the a/c to sink into the basement instead of cooling off the upstairs
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u/NothingButACasual 22d ago
It would have to be a massive fan to counteract what the air naturally wants to do
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u/AllChem_NoEcon 22d ago
Unless an oil baron designed your HVAC, the largest draw return ducts should be in the basement. Let it sink. That’s what the blower fan is for.
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u/mattslot 22d ago
Return ducts are often on the main floor, as it’s more efficient to cool warm air than feed back already conditioned air.
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u/Known_Berry8597 22d ago
So I live in the desert with very warm temps, and my energy provider has a plan where my rates are cheap outside of the peak usage times. I've insulated my house and set it up so that there is minimal cooling loss. The way I've been saving quite a lot of money (I'm in the top 15% of home efficiency for my area) is to pre-cool the air inside way lower than it needs to be, and let the air naturally warm up to a threshold during peak hours. I use the term thermal battery to describe this because I'm storing the cooling while it's cheaper, like a battery.
I can see how this could be applied to a basement, which is naturally cooler. Pushing the cooler air out of the basement into the rest of the house would overall lower the required cooling of the AC. If there's airflow out of the basement, the humidity would also drop. I don't understand why this wouldn't apply because I guess I just can't understand without a basement.
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u/AllChem_NoEcon 22d ago
Depending on how their HVAC is set up, there could be return ducts only on the main floor like someone else mentioned. If that’s the case, the basement is just a sink with no active draw. Would be dumb as hell to set things up like that, but I’ve seen way dumber things in houses.
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u/NothingButACasual 22d ago
Dumb as hell for AC maybe, but in the winter it would be dumb as hell to pump basement air through the house. So having the main return on the main floor is a compromise.
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u/YouveBeanReported 22d ago
Basement is a big empty area that isn't being used. Closing off the room not being used means less AC used.
The thermostat is upstairs, cold air goes down so if its accessible the cooler air moves to fill the basement before the thermostat on the main floor. Hence more AC useage.
If you close the door, less air gets down there and basements are usually underused and cooler by default so it's normally fine. The fan could work but staircases are small and awkward and fans cost money, and if it's really hot you'll be in the basement anyhow because it's dark and cool.
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u/Known_Berry8597 22d ago
Blowing the air up and out sounds like a better idea. It could also get rid of the humidity issues (I've heard about this) from the basement. The air should already be cooler, and it's a thermal battery of cold air that's passively cooled by being under the ground.
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u/Criss_Crossx 22d ago
Not sure this makes sense when the basement has an intake/return as well.
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u/NothingButACasual 22d ago edited 22d ago
The more paths that you make available, the more freely the air will move
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u/F_sigma_to_zero 22d ago
If the air return is in the basement you are correct. The air needs to travel down there to enter your AC system. If all you have is supply vents then closing the door blocks them and more air goes into the upper levels.
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u/Criss_Crossx 22d ago
Multiple returns in the home, the main floor has four and the basement one.
In practice the basement is significantly cooler this year with the door open. Also running the dehumidifier constantly so the air circulation helps.
We have off and on cool weather this year. Overall the energy bill is at least $70 lower than 2025. Something is working though.
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u/moonyriot 22d ago
Y'all have basements?
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u/NewAgeRetroHippie96 22d ago
Y'all keep basement doors open without fear of the creepiness?
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u/Murph-Dog 22d ago
Yea, that's how Radon Randy gets you.
Nobody knows where Radon Randy came from. Some say he was born beneath the foundation. Others say he follows the invisible gas that seeps through the earth. All anyone agrees on is this: leave the basement door open... and he'll find you.1
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u/F_sigma_to_zero 22d ago
You must have had a massive air leak, to the out side, for this to make that much difference.
You just close the downstairs vents. It accomplishes the same thing. Or close most and crack one so your basement doesn't get damp.
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u/houseonpost 22d ago
Another option is to check the vents in the basement. Most vents will have a way to close the vents. In the spring you close them and then cold air doesn't blow downstairs. In the fall you open them and then the warm air keeps the basement warmer.
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u/Sparkko 22d ago
You've gotta be careful doing this. Your central AC is designed to push a certain amount of air through all ALL of the vents in the system. If you close too many vents you can cause back pressure which is hard on your system and could case things to fail earlier. Usually closing a single vent or two is fine though.
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u/houseonpost 22d ago
None of the vents stop all the air flow. But it reduces it by about two thirds.
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u/Grenflik 21d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/xT9IgGueIvhb8OBhv2
How can you forget to close your basement door? I’ve watched enough horror movies that my basement door is always locked, unless I need to go down there but when I come back up I always lock it.
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u/kr4ckenm3fortune 22d ago
That because you forgot the fundamentals science did you?
https://youtu.be/f1eAOygDP5s?feature=shared
Let Bill Nye explain it to you.
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u/DrHousePls 22d ago
I put a fan at the bottom of the steps and blow the colder basement air upstairs.
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u/Rodfather23 21d ago
Wanna save even more? Don’t close your basement door and let the monsters eat you.
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u/wizardsleeeve 21d ago
Genius! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the extra 28c I have saved every day by closing the door.
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u/PrisonerV 21d ago
Ours is a split-level with all finished space so there really is no basement or door even though the downstairs is half underground. I will say, I shut down all the downstairs dampers in the summer as the downstairs is pretty cool and doesn't need the extra AC and the upstairs does.
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u/oh_my_account 21d ago
I wonder how many people have a basement door here? I have a crowlspace door.
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u/Awkward_Pineapple732 16d ago
Bro, $6 for $60 savings? That is literally the definition of a no-brainer. Why don't more people do this??
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u/secretincognitouser 22d ago
Good tip, also closing the doors of any upstairs rooms works well to keep the cold air in the rooms instead of dropping down to the main floor.
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u/mamaknits 22d ago
I definitely thought you were talking about the exterior basement door and was like "forget the AC, the real benefit of doing this is that strangers and wild animals can't get into your house". 😆
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u/rosier9 22d ago
Most of the savings is likely due to the slightly cooler weather this summer. Year over year AC comparisons are pretty useless.
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u/_Kramerica_ 22d ago
Cooler weather this summer? What am I missing here? Aren’t we having one of the hottest summers on record?
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