Where to Route Hydronic Heat

hydronicdude

Hello,

I'm wondering if you can help me figure something out. We have hydronic baseboard heat in a small bedroom. I want to install a Murphy bed to save space, but the heater is right where we need to install it.

I was thinking about running a section of the hydronic heat under the floor where the bed will be, but I'm concerned about heat build-up, especially when the bed is folded up, so I'm looking for some advice on how to handle this situation. 

I have attached a photo.

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!

hot_rod

Is that fin tube on two walls? Outside walls with no windows?
That could be a bit more fin tube than you need. Start with a load calculation for the room to determine what you actually need for heat output in the room.

www.slantfin.com has a free load calculation program for you to run some numbers.

Jamie Hall

By running under the floor do I presume you mean running a feed and return pipe under the floor? Or are you referring to putting radiant heat under the floor? Very different problems. The first is not to worry -- the pipes don't generate enough heat by themselves to make a difference. The latter... um, not so much.

EdTheHeaterMan

I believe you mean that you want to cut the baseboard element section a few inches before the bed location, then use elbows to turn the copper down below the floor. In the room below (basement, crawlspace, or between ceiling joists) you should just run copper pipe without element (the aluminum fins) for the 6 or 7 feet to connect the sections.

If the load calculation of the room requires that 6 of 7 feet of the missing element, you can add that to the other end(s) of the baseboard as needed. The heat load calculation of the room will determine if you can eliminate some, or all of the element removed. An easy way to tell if any of the element is unnecessary is to remember if the room overheated previously compared to the rest of the home. Or was the damper previously closed to reduce the heating output of the heating element in that room.

Agree with @Jamie Hall about the amount of heating in a room "if that are both outside walls with no windows." But that makes assumptions that the room is not very large and that those walls are outside walls and that is why Jamie qualified these assumptions with the need for a load calculation.

I hope this helps with your project.


Yours truly,
Mr.Ed