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Baseboard hot water heat

tez24
tez24 Member Posts: 7
in Radiant Heating
I have baseboard hot water heat with a gas boiler, when I bought my house 10 years ago some of the pipes in the basement right under the joistes had fins on them. My father in law advised me to cut the fins off thinking I was just wasting heat so I did. Now I'm thinking they where put there to warm the floors. I probably removed about 30 ft of fins. Should I consider putting fins back down there?  The house just always seems cold no matter the temp. Thanks for any help

Comments

  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    Maybe

    can you post a picture of the pipes and the surrounding woodwork?
  • tez24
    tez24 Member Posts: 7
    pics

    I have all my pipes in the basement wrapped in pipe insulation also
  • tez24
    tez24 Member Posts: 7
    pics

    i hope these pics are ok
  • RobG
    RobG Member Posts: 1,850
    Pics

    Can you post pics of the boiler and piping coming off it? Do you know what the aquastat temperature setting on the boiler is? Some people turn down the boiler temp setting to save on fuel. Allot of times it does more harm than good. Turn the thermostat up so that the boiler kicks on and let it run for about 15 minutes and take a picture off the boiler gauge as well.

    Thanks

    Rob
  • tez24
    tez24 Member Posts: 7
    edited January 2014
    boiler

    The boiler is set at 180 degrees, I just had a new one installed and am really happy with it, I am just wondering if I screwed up by cutting the fins off, I completely forgot to ask the installer about it. I dont know if people ever have fins in the top of thier basement. Is it smart to wrap the pipes?
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,547
    Basement

    Are you trying to heat the basement? Removing fins and insulating the pipes is gonna prevent heat transferring to the basement. Are there any radiators down there?
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
  • tez24
    tez24 Member Posts: 7
    fins

    I do not want to heat the basement, I just thought mabye the original installers put the fins down there to warm  the floors upstairs, didnt know if anyone ever heard of doing that.
  • kcopp
    kcopp Member Posts: 4,472
    Plenty of....

    people have done that to heat up the floors.... Not the most energy conscious way to do that. You are better off having the floors insulated w/ some batt insulation and or insulating your basement walls. w/ Styrofoam.
  • tez24
    tez24 Member Posts: 7
    fins

    So I shoud probably just leave my pipes downstairs insulated and keep the fins removed from the basement pipes
  • RobG
    RobG Member Posts: 1,850
    Baseboard

    If your boiler is at 180 degrees, and your house is still cold, you are probably under radiated. You need to do a room by room heat loss and see if you have enough baseboard to handle the load.

    Rob
  • tez24
    tez24 Member Posts: 7
    heat loss

    I did remove a 12ft baseboard from the dining room to instal a patio door years ago, probably did not help

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