Here's the deal: our house is cold. Even if I set the thermostat at 80 it would still feel cold in the winter. The reason has to do with our basement. Most of the house is surprisingly well insulated for a home built in 1909. It has it's drafts, like any older home, but at least the walls themselves have what appears to be decent insulation.
The basement, however, is not. There is about a 2 foot span where it extends above the ground that allows heat to exchange at an alarming rate. Additionally, the basement is not heated (which, considering it's insulation status, is probably a good thing given our budget).
The end result of this is that it tends to be very cold near the floor in the main level of the house, and that makes us all feel cold, even if it's really pretty warm inside. So, I'm looking for ideas that will help it be warmer nearer the floor, without having to heat up the rest of the room at well.
I have already done some work towards improving the situation in the basement, but I think I've found all the low-hanging fruit there- about the only thing left is to improve the situation near the windows.
One idea I'm considering is to put some insulation between the joists supporting the main level, but I'm not sure that will help much and might make it get dangerously cold in the basement where the plumbing is. Another idea is to put some kind of canopy over the vents, to force new warm air coming from the furnace to spread out more at a lower level (as well as slow it down, so it feels less like a draft).
I'm also open to any other suggestions. And no, raising the thermostat temperature really won't help much.