adding Hot Water Radiators to the basement

Dan_5

I recently purchased a home with hot water hydronic heating(gravity feed). I have found out that 30-40 years ago two of the original radiators were removed, i am assuming the reason was to increase the useable space. The basement of the house has never had any radiators in it and gets pretty cold in the winter and I use it alot. Since I know that the house originally had two more radiators I would like to put two more radiators back into the heating system BUT PUT THEM IN THE BASEMENT. Here is my question: Will I have to use wall mounted radiators and keep the radiator high on the wall and above the level of the boiler. Or can I use floor radiators?? I don't know if floor radiators on the basement level (same as the boiler) would mess up the gravity feed flow of the water.
Any responses would be appreciated!!

Joe_30

Put in a circulator. Then put radiators where you want to. It's not a big deal.

Garth

rad on the CEILING

I have a rad on the CEILING (flush to the ceiling)of my basement rec room. but i have gravity STEAM vapor/vac system. On my system, Rad must be higher than the boiler.

hot water likely different if you have circulator (but i don't know much)

Garth

Steamhead

Adding radiators to the basement

is relatively easy. You will need a circulator for the main house (go to http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=125 to see what size circ you need) and one for the basement, plus a circ relay, thermostat and flow-check for each. The piping around the boiler will also need to be modified and an air separator added.

Since your existing system works by gravity, circulating the hot water to radiators below the main may be difficult. An overhead diverter-tee (a.k.a. Monoflo) loop will work well for those basement radiators. You will need two Monoflo tees for each radiator.

Size the basement rads by doing a heat-loss calculation, then size your pipes and circ from that.

If this sounds like a lot, it is- but if done right it will work perfectly. Go to the Find a Contractor page of this site to locate someone who can handle the work.



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Steamhead

You're right, Garth

and you have what was the Cadillac of heating in its day!

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