Attic HVAC; no airflow in basement

As y'all may know, we just moved into our new house in VA. The HVAC system here is in the attic, which I'm not super fond of, but it is brand new, works fine, etc.

Meanwhile....there's no active airflow in the basement, and as such, it smells somewhat musty. Nothing unsafe going on or anything - and believe me, we have done every test out there (that I can think of)...it just smells musty. I do know we have one of those basement drainage systems (drain tile underneath the perimeter of the basement leading to two sealed sump pump pits).

Aside from a mini-split or something, what would be a decent solution to keeping it somewhat ventilated and the like? If this one ever craps out, at that time I'll likely have one installed but in the basement - it'll mean some work (cutting floor vents and the like) but it'll also likely be a bit more efficient. But for now, brand new house, brand new roof, brand new HVAC unit, so I'm not going to tear it up. LOL

 

You could always do the old janky method of putting a box fan in one window and open another basement window across the house to create a little draft. As long as you don't mind a little water and rodent infiltration lol. Is there no existing ductwork in the basement at all?

 

Finished?

 

Nope, completely unfinished.

 

Nope. When they had the house built in 1973 the HVAC was put in the attic for some odd reason. There's one or two fans built into the floor (think floor vent with a fan) for, I assume, the purpose of circulating air throughout the house...but that method to me is kinda janky, and I'd think there'd be a better way. As I mentioned above, long term, when the current HVAC craps out, I'll likely have the new one installed in the basement, but I'm not in a huge ass hurry to do that. LOL

 

Is there enough room overhead for a ceiling fan? I have a finished basement mostly below grade that suffers the same as you do. We never use the space except for the laundry room. A dehumidifier in the laundry room and two ceiling fans set on low cures my problem. We have central air but very seldom use it. In the woods surrounded by tall trees here

 

Yeah if there’s room for a fan that’s the ticket. Or if the ceiling of the basement is exposed and then you could pop a hole in the side of the house and duct through the joists to supply fresh air.

 

I always thought the rule of thumb was basically a unit per floor which doesn't really help you out. I know they have some newer units that are basically act like separate units (multizone or some shit). Your cheapest solution may be a mini split down there, depending on how the basement is laid out. Or if it's just musty smell, maybe an air purifier would help.

 

Oh yeah, plenty of room. And yeah, I was/am getting a dehumidifier.

Yep, ceiling of the basement is exposed.

Yeah, I was thinking about both of those. Short-term I think a ceiling fan (or something similar) plus a dehumdifier is the ticket; long term, either a mini-split or relocating the HVAC to the basement.

 

I suggest Hisense brand of dehums.. I’ve got 4 different brands and the Hisense sucks water like a vacuum. The other brands will stop once they hit 40 degrees relative, but the Hisense will go down into the 30s. They do have a wifi option also

 

Slap a big dehumidifier down there and call it a day.

 

Get the kind you can attach a drain hose and place it close to a floor drain. Beats forgetting to MT the bucket.

 

Yep, we have two sump pumps, and I can easily feed the hose down one of the access ports for those.

 

This may be a good time to replace the water hoses to the washer. Use one of the old hoses to connect to the dehumidifier drain.

Edit: if you do have floor drains the water in the P traps will evaporate over time and allow sewer gas to enter the house. I pour a quart or so of water down my laundry room drain after a few months when the dehumidifier isn't running

 

If you have access to a drain, put a large capacity dehumidifier down there and run a drain tube from the dehumidifier to the sump pit. After a few days you’ll be surprised how much it helps. Might have to remediate some of the mist with a good cleaning as well but that did wonders for us in a similar situation

 

Newish to VA from the desert. First place with a basement I’ve ever had. It has a sump pump, was more or less finished(flooring needed to be done). Former HVAC guy here, but in so cal.
I put in a very quiet fart fan in the sump room, which also has heat pump air handler and water heater in it. I leave the fan on almost constantly, trying to vent it.
I have a portable dehumidifier that I have to empty 2x a day in the summer. I need to run a hose to sump. Dehumidifiers seem to be the key here.
It’s always cooler in summer/warmer in winter there. But always seems a little musty in summer time. Humidity sucks.

 

Is the problem not enough fresh air, or not enough cool air? Air conditioning the space won’t do anything about a lack of fresh air unless you actually ducted in outside air to the air handler. AC will just cool and dehumidify the space.

 

Outside air is the humid air. I’ll take 115 in AZ over 90 and humid any day.

Wait until October, all the humidity goes away and it gets nice.

 

Likely fresh air.

 

When the basement temperature is at or near the dew point of the outside air is when the problem becomes apparent. Either raise the temps in the basement or reduce the moisture in the air.

 

Gotcha; so yeah, will likely order a dehumidifier this evening.

 

Test your sump pump annually. If they quit they back up quick and it gets real expensive real fast

 

Humid Indiana here. I bought a house with a "finished" basement, but also no HVAC ran anywhere. This basement is newer and has an built in perimeter drain running into a sump pit, the sump pump runs at least once a day even in the dry summer! Monitored with a Pumpspy outlet for curiosity but they kinda suck. Step 1 was to clean out the sump pit (ground minerals collect) and install a new sump pump as well as a water powered backup sump pump. Now that I'm sure the ground water will be controlled I turned to the moisture in the air which is most likely your problem. Step 2 was to install a BIG dehumidifier with pump, the hose ran into the floor drain. It runs non-stop moving and drying air in the summer. In the winter when it's cold and dry enough down there naturally it only runs maybe once every few days.

 

Oh, I will; but they're good now. (They were tested when I bought the house, although I'll verify they still work probably every 2 or 3 months.)

 

Last house i bought they didn’t test during inspection and first heavy ran I’m down there shop vac one hole and pouring in floor drain in another hole all night trying to keep up

 

Oh yeah, believe me, when I saw they had sumps in the pictures (in-laws did the walk through for us as we were so @$#$ busy that we couldn't make it here to VA until a DAY before we closed on the house lol), I asked them to verify the sumps were in good working order.

One of the main reasons we bought the house, obvious stuff aside, is because whoever owned the house prior to us was super OCD anal about documentation. E.g.:

- they had ALL of the manuals for ALL of the systems in the house
- service contracts are current for HVAC, for the whole-house propane generator, etc.
- any and all filters have dates installed on them
- any installed systems have tags on them showing who holds the service contracts, and the #'s to call
- and so on

 

I wish I had bought like that.

I bought because we were living with my in laws for over a year with two kids (big story). I would have bought a tent at that point.

Our house needed sump pump, carpet replacement, main line replacement, hvac repair and egress window replacement within first 6 months. Prob dropped $25k total.

 

If your HVAC unit is in the attic and you want to relocate it to the basement, just know that you will have to relocate most, if not all the supply and return ducting. Huge, $$$, PITA job. I'd leave it where it is and run a dehumidifier in the basement like suggested.
I live directly east of lake Erie and directly south of lake Ontario. Constantly down wind of large bodies of water. It's humid year round and almost every residential structure here has a basement. A lot of old, musty basements here. I've had a small dehumidifier running in my current basement (24/7) for about the last 3 yrs and it made a huge improvement.
Unless it's a finished basement where the foundation has been completely sealed and everything is water tight, I wouldn't plug a basement into my HVAC system and have the damp, dusty air from the basement circulating throughout the rest of the home and duct work.
Dehumidifier will be the cheapest and most effective remedy for your situation in my opinion (check/clean the filter/screen regularly).
But, like I tell my wife: WTF do I know, I just work here.

 

Agreed 100%. With that said....unsure why, but the HVAC system (or parts) were replaced like 3x in the last 10 years or so. It's possible that they replaced them with crap parts or what have you, I dunno. If that's the reason, no big deal...if I have to replace stuff in the near future I'll simply ensure whatever I replace is done with quality stuff.

HOWEVER...if it was replaced 3x because the system's located in the attic, and it's taxing it more, blah blah BLAH..well, that was a cash outlay of $10K or so in the last 10 years. If moving it to the basement is more expensive BUT forestalls repeated HVAC issues and parts replacements, then it might be worth it.

 

There isn’t really anything inherently longer lasting about a system installed in the attic vs the basement. Not sure what was replaced that was high dollar items on your system. If it was the compressor, perhaps the failure was what is called a “burnout” where the compressor fails electrically and creates acid in the system that contaminates it. If the acid is not cleaned out of the system and addressed properly, it will continue to contaminate the oil and refrigerant with the newly installed compressor which eats the varnish off the electrical windings, causes another burnout and continues in a cycle causing thousands each time.