vertualbernie, may be too late to help (or you may have tried this anyway). When switching from heat to air and vice versa, did you go around and change all the vents? Hot air rises, so in winter you want all the vents on lower floors open and all the vents on the top floor closed. Cold air sinks, so in summer you want to close all the vents on the lower floors and open the vents on the top floor. We have to do that or we would have the same problem you had.

Believe it or not I use my swing arm lamp. It's the kind that you bolt onto a table and it swings in all directions. I swing it around and set it about 2 feet from my back and the 75 watt bulb warms me up in no time. I don't need a heater, it's not that cold.
Syl

I have one of those oil radiators in my sewing room during the winter. I keep it on the low setting and set the thermostat in about the middle and it keeps this room nice and warm.

The portable oil radiators are great! One will heat a large room and no flame or electric glowing wires.

Hi,

I also sew in my basement....love my sewing room! I do get some heat from the furnace in my room, my husband put in an extra vent as I am next to the furnace room, but in a MN winter it isn't enough...believe me! I have a small electric heater, bought it at WalMart, and I have it about 3-4 ft. from my sewing table blowing at me. I usually go down and turn it on half an hour before I plan on going down and it's just perfect down there. I also have a fleece shirt I keep on my sewing chair. I don't run it on high speed or temp, just enough to get the major chill out. Works well for me.

In the summer I close my two vents or I freeze from the central air. Spring and fall are great! :)

Bev

I sew in an unheated/unairconditioned room. In the winter I use one of those little round body heaters, not a space heater and it really keeps me warm. I think it is a haolgen heater. In the summer I turn the air con in our apartment down to 71 and put a fan to blow the cool air to me across the hall to where I sew.

I agree. I have two of these, and they come in handy in the wintertime, here or there. The radiant heat is very cozy. Just don't leave any electric heater turned on or even plugged in if you are not there. Also, make sure you keep the dust off any parts which get hot, (which on these is the tops and bottoms of each of those metal loops which hold the oil).

I also sew in the basement -- be weary of the little box heaters...they're expensive to run!! A couple years ago over Christmas break, I spent almost 2 weeks solid(about 80 hrs) in the basement sewing and it doubled my electric bill - or about $50 for those 2 weeks of heat!!

I am getting ready to buy a couple of those oil heaters. They have a thermostat on them. I do hear you have to turn them on before you go down there to warm up the space - but have read great reviews. The Honeywell at Home Depot has a 3 yr warranty on it.

Wish I had a basement to spread out my stuff but unfortunately the water table is too high in our area so houses don't have basements! I continue to squeeze all my sewing things into a corner of the office!

If you do go with a portable heater, plug the heater and a lamp into the same surge strip and use the toggle on the strip to turn them both on/off. This way you can tell at a glance if the heater has been left on.