cast iron and copper on same loop?

chris_59

Hello-
I have a small (800sf) house undergoing extensive renovations. I just had a new Burnham boiler installed and now need to move several walls of cast iron baseboard to other walls to facilitate the new kitchen. The bathroom and bedroom (part of an addition in the late '70's) now have conventional copper fin baseboard, but the rest of the house has cast iron and I want to keep it. The plumber said there's no fittings to attach the cast iron baseboard with a copper system. Do I have any options? It seems irresponsible to throw away so much perfectly good baseboard. Thanks.
Chris

ScottMP

Chris

I am not sure what he means by not haviong any fittings. You can just about adapt anything.

The big problem here (why does this keep coming up? ), is having cast iron baseboard and copper fin baseboard on the same zone ! Some real experts cna make it work but for the common job it dosn't work. Copper finned has no mass, it retains no heat. It gives off its heat to the room and whne the thermostat is satisfied it shuts off. Cast iron baseboard has mass, it will retain heat and contiue to give off alittle after the TH is satisfied.

One room will be shut-off and the other will still get alittle heat. You'll have a balncing issuie and it will be really tough to keep the rooms evenly heated. Copper finned baseboard is a on/off style of heat, where the cast iron slower, gentler release of heat.

Short message : Don't do it unless you put these different material baseboards on seprate zones.

Does this make sense ?

Good Luck

Scott

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

chris_59

Hi Scott-

Now that I'm doing some research, (which I probably should have done before instead of listening to my plumber), I've come across several articles about the mass differences between cast and copper.

Since it's such a small house, I wonder if it would be better to change the bedroom and bathroom to CI?

I went to Burnham's website and they have something called Baseray that looks exactly like the baseboard I have. Would that be better than zoning off the BR and bath? Would I be able to use those Thermostatic Radiator Valves to zone off the BR if it's too expensive to replace the copper w/cast?

Thanks for your help.
Christie