Baseboard covers do they decrease heat output

Bryan O'Neill

Remodeling a room in our old house. My wife wants me to put baseboard covers over our current fin tubes for asthetic purposes. Our house is already freezing in the winter. Will these covers further impair heat output. An an example of such covers can be found on the following link... www.radiantwraps.com

kevin coppinger_4

I don't think....

it will impair/reduce heat output...but if you are freezing in the winter I would have a pro get in there this summer to evaluate your entire system to see if you have enough baseboard in the rooms and that your boiler and zones are sized properly....kpc

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hr

Spent your money

on fixing the under heating problem first

Seriously though, if you decrease the air flow through the baseboard, you decrease the output.

Be interesting to calculate the free air space those checkerboard openings provide.

The Slant Fin guys, here, should have a good answers. Be tough to get to the dampers for fine tuning, also. This is one method of balancing rooms that are on the same zone. Damper down the warmer rooms to increase output in the cold rooms.

I had a customer build beautiful custom oak enclosures once. He forgot to leave an opening across the bottom and it shut down the output considerably. But they looked great! The carpenter had to remove all the faces and router lower openings slots!

hot rod

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Robert O'Connor_6

Call a pro and

Fix it once!!

the others have given you good advice

Regards


Robert

ME

Ted_9

hot rod , you must me from Massachusetts. Am I right?

Mark Eatherton1

Round btu's and square holes...

Think about it. The btu's are coming from a round pipe. Therefore they are round btu's. You're trying to force them through square holes...Do you see a problem?

I do, but then again, I see thing differently than most folks....

Ask the cover manufaturer for their output data as it relates to their cover over any given fin tube. THEY should have the answers...

Good luck in your ventures.

ME

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Weezbo

I had wood covers for twenty + years.

now i spun in some 3/8 5/16 10.5mm whatever for a radiant floor:) 5/8ths thick +/_1/16 " gonna put some vynil or pergo over the slab..tell you about the deal this winter:)i think more comfortable easier to clean the floors.. i dont own any furniture to speak of so i have no real concerns over load point over the tube.right now it seems to be able to respond faster than any slab i have ever installed and even faster than baseboard:) hey and the water temp max is like 80¡ãmax so cheaper maybe happening too:) sure we cant convince you to lose the base board and go low water temp radiant?

Bryan O'Neill

radiant.

> now i spun in some 3/8 5/16 10.5mm whatever for a

> radiant floor:) 5/8ths thick +/_1/16 " gonna put

> some vynil or pergo over the slab..tell you about

> the deal this winter:)i think more comfortable

> easier to clean the floors.. i dont own any

> furniture to speak of so i have no real concerns

> over load point over the tube.right now it seems

> to be able to respond faster than any slab i have

> ever installed and even faster than baseboard:)

> hey and the water temp max is like 80¡ãmax so

> cheaper maybe happening too:) sure we cant

> convince you to lose the base board and go low

> water temp radiant?

Bryan O'Neill

reply weezbo

Would love radiant heating but... I do not think it is an option.

It is an old house with wide pine wood floors. I guess I would have to apply the radiant heat under the current floor. The problem arises in the back half of the house.... the front Half of the house is over a basement and rear half is over a crawlspace. This crawl space is absolutely frigid. All the floors in that part of the house are ice cold. I was thinking about a toe kick fan convector under some a kitchen cabinet and bathroom vanity. But I do not know if they tie into my current heating system with out zones or other stuff like that. I currently have a 2 zone TACO hot water system.

DaveC

The cover / element combination is critical...

Mismatched components can hurt the output of the element. If you are using Slant/Fin matched residential elements and enclosures (which it looks like you are not), the output will be slightly higher or at least equal with the enclosure installed. Convective currents and the "chimney effect" within the enclosure account for this, when properly designed. Hope this helps.

Uni R

Hot rod I respectfully disagree...

Instead of fixing the under heating problem, I think the H.O. would be better off to trying to mitigate the excessive heat loss first off; that frigid crawlspace is one major example of improvement potential for the home heating envelope.

If the heat loss is sufficiently curtailed, there may be enough reserve left to handle the covers that may impede the output a bit, but will make Mrs. Important happy.

Weezbo

a little insulation even tacked on like a \"Skirting\" will do....

lay some visquine ( a roll of plastic sheeting)on the ground under the crawl space carry that up to the rim joyst and box beams....that will sorta make a giant air ballon under the crawl space where the heat can escape yet a little slower than in the past. that is like 40 50$ and some sweat equity:)insulation however is the next best cost effective means of Keeping the heat and holding against the cold:) adding heating components redistributes the heat ,perhaps more wisely , however cost being the first relavant thought suggest you dont want to redistribute the heat so it can heat up the outside in a more uniform and speedier way:) trust me the savings in the long run will more than pay for the insulation .

Matt Undy

My understanding is that insulationg the outside walls of the crawlspace is more effective than insulating the floor (and used less material). I don't remember why this is the case, but puting some rigid foam on the outside walls along with the vapor barier on the floor of the crawlspace is an effective way to insulate. I think there may be some issues with the exposed foam, possibly only if there is heating equipment down there?

Matt

Ken_8

Brian,

If you're suggesting you have exposed fin tube in no cabinet - you will not only improve the looks - but the heat output as well.

Bare fin-tube has nothing to create the "chimney effect" so critical to large air movement over the heated pipe and elements thereon.

Simply putting a stained or painted 1X6 board against the existing fin-tube will probably double the output. A 1X8 would be even better!

This assumes there is at least a 1" "slot" between the rug and/or floor and the bottom of this new "trim board."

A 1.5" air gap would be ideal.

You won't know yourself!

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Bryan O'Neill

The H.O.

Thanks everybody for your help...so the I stick with the current fin tube covers at this point.

To abate the warm air from esacaping into the crawl space I plan on:
1) Will remove old insulation in crawl space and reinsulate. I was thinking about the spray on foam...I a concerned that might drap moisterure.
2) I will apply the plastic visquine over that. Once again I have some oncerns of Moisture retention.
3) Will insulate the walls also. They are stone walls with minimal motar between stones. I wonder if the spray on foam would adhere to this.

Is this overkill?....If it does not help I will then try to add more baseboards and maybe attempt different covers.

Weezbo

You going the right direction

leave yourself a small door way to get in and out of the crawl space:) then while under there look around....If you see daylight nope it isnt insulated correctly ok?:)
also,if you do not insulate the floor...and you had a dollar, you could run something we call a staple up under the floor in some areas,then tack some foam board up:) i would be willing to bet that you could hook some pex up to the copper that feeds the baseboards,drop the temperature down and save $ and feel more comfortable..Hurray! :)we happy for you:)