Replacing Baseboard

Eric G

Hi! I recently rebuilt my living room. It included adding 6" in depth onto all the walls for insulation. The room had looped baseboard heaters with 3/4" copper fins. I had to remove them because the wall came out farther now. The boiler is only 3 years old and the cubic area in the room is 3024 cu ft. I live in Wisconsin so it gets cold. I want to replace the baseboard with a radiator system, like the Myson panel system. Can I just plug the new radiator into the old copper that already existed for the baseboard (after I move them 6" inward). Also, the panels appear to be 1/2" copper, should I just replace the whole loop with 1/2" copper? I'm good at sweating pipes.

Thanks!
Eric

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Most baseboard sytems are set up in a simple loop and the temperature of the water flowing through them gets progressively cooler.

You might be able to pipe panels in a series loop similarly BUT as you noticed the tapping are frequently smaller. You certainly won't want to reduce the loop to ½" as it most likely would not be able to carry enough heat; similarly the smaller tappings will reduce the carrying capacity somewhat as well.

The most straight-forward way is to use a diverter setup where the main loop stays ¾" with special tees that divert only a PORTION of the water through the smaller branch lines serving an INDIVIDUAL panel. Buderus (do a web search as I don't have the address here) has an excellent sizing manual available for download, "Design Manual Panel Radiators."

You could also convert everthing to a two-pipe setup, but this would add considerably to the complexity and expense of the project.

If you haven't done so already, an ACCURATE room-by-room heat loss is a MUST! HVAC-Calc has a downloadable single-use program available at very modest cost. Baseboard systems are frequently installed by the "put it on all the outside walls, run common space first, then bedrooms" method. This frequently works acceptably but for panels you REALLY need an accurate heat loss calculation!

If the space where you want to install the panels is on a DEDICATED zone, you only have to compute the heat loss for that space. If that loop also serves other areas be aware that mixing output sources of different characteristics on the same loop can get "hairy".

Dale

Being in Wisc.

You probably have an open basement, since you are willing to do the labor to sweat some pipe I would convert this area to a reverse return system, that way all would be balanced and you could control individual rads if you chose to. I don't know the myson delta P but I would find out from them what works and what they recommend, a one pipe conversion may give you more flow than you want and air removal could be a problem. As the other posts suggested a heat loss with the new walls is in order, you may need to do a pri/sec to get more than one water temp.