Any reason I can't use a hydronic kickspace heater in my basement joists to heat the space?

Jells

I was dinged by an insurance inspector for the ventless gas space heater that has heated my basement workspace problem free for decades (yes I have a CO detector in the room). So my 1st thought was to add a 10k btu Beacon Morris 'kickspace' hydronic blower unit in a surface mount box and heat the basement off my boiler. I've installed these successfully for small apartment heating in lieu of baseboard. But then I was looking at their line and saw a 'floor enclosure', and that got me thinking.

If it's fine to install these under a wooden cabinet over a wooden floor, why can't I just stick one between my basement joists and not even have it on the wall? Basically the reverse of the floor mount. Seems like the metal enclosure of the floor mount is superfluous, it's main point being the actual floor vent. The main unit has an enclosed electrical connection box so that's not an issue. The damn sheet metal box costs $300, more than the heater!

So, am I missing something important?

pecmsg

1st
Never
Ever
Use Unvented heaters in a enclosed space. 
2nd
tgat CO detector is vertically worthless at giving an alarm Before serious damage. It will not alarm until 70 PPM is maintained & exceeded for 1 to 4 hours. 

Jamie Hall

Your idea should work. Main benefit of the box is to control and direct the air flow, and I dare say you can figure out how to do that with some sheet metal flashing if need be.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Jells

I can't think of an issue other than maybe needing an enclosure to get the proper air flow or keeping the supply air from going right back into the return

Jells

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

@Jells

I can't think of an issue other than maybe needing an enclosure to get the proper air flow or keeping the supply air from going right back into the return

the way it's designed for kickspace installation they're right next to each other! Anything is better than that.

Jamie Hall said:

Your idea should work. Main benefit of the box is to control and direct the air flow, and I dare say you can figure out how to do that with some sheet metal flashing if need be.

It doesn't even do much of that, the unit mounts in at an angle so the blower sort of points out. I'll have to mount mine at an angle too to fit it in the joist bay.

Jamie Hall

With some ingenuity and some nice aluminium flashing from the Big Box, I'll bet you can arrange a more effective air flow...

AdamInEvergreen

One thing to check is the aquastat on the kickspace heater needs to be lower than your boiler temperature. Might be a problem on warmish days with the outdoor reset moving the set temp down low. 

Jells

AdamInEvergreen said:

One thing to check is the aquastat on the kickspace heater needs to be lower than your boiler temperature. Might be a problem on warmish days with the outdoor reset moving the set temp down low.

No outdoor reset here, we roll simple with a basic CGi boiler not a mod-con. It also feeds the indirect tank. I have mild concerns about having enough BTU's circulating to add another zone to the 4 already, but they're all small, the whole upstairs apt is 1200 ft and whatever goes into the basement ends up upstairs anyway.

Jells

Just thought I'd update this, the heater works like a charm keeping the basement 70. It's rated about 12k btus at 180, and cycles fairly often. I piped it with 3/4 pex and copper wide turn ells using SS clamps, I figured why not err on the side of less resistance. I even used a Schneider zone valve with a much bigger port than the basic Honeywell.

JakeCK

oxygen barrier pex correct?

Jells

JakeCK said:

oxygen barrier pex correct?

Yes, of course.