Add capacity to existing baseboard?

John Foley

Can anybody recommend any products to add capacity to an existing baseboard installation? Perhaps clamp-on fins?(I have plenty of shell and tube, just not enough capacity.)
This is a "Garden" (apartment-) style condo with nearly non-responsive management company, and non-isolated units will make this difficult to do correctly.

Alan_6

more heat

All I can think of is, increasing the boiler temp to 195, if the system is at 180.

kevin coppinger_4

is there dummy....

baseboard there...baseboard w/o fin? could add more in although it sounds like you can't do this...turn up the temp...although this has pluses and minuses...kpc

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Weezbo

in your apartment?

if you have no control over the boiler....and no way to isolate the baseboard to add more convectors....moving air across the base board will cause it to lose heat a little faster than simple convection. not much though....

Brad White_2

Try Spirotherm Speed Heat

which is a type of copper wire bristle radiation on copper tube. High output per foot. I have used this on some trouble-shooting jobs. I *think* that is the name and I hope it is still available...

The other thing that comes to mind is, what is upstream of you? Are you at the end of a run of piping with other units taking heat out first? Fin-tube can be fickle in terms of heat output versus hot water (it relies on convection versus radiation). Capacity can drop off rapidly with temperature drop of incoming water. To expand on this, I am suggesting that you may have to intercept your own supply of hot water if you are in series with other needier neighbors.

I did a troubleshooting job some years ago where the contractor over-extended the fin-tube (60 feet on one 3/4" run). The last piece was below a large curtainwall window. That space could not get above 60F and when it approached that, the bedroom went to 76F, way too warm for cool sleepers.
The curtain wall glass area should have been served first, but that would have shifted the discomfort more than solve it.

To solve the problem, I split the zone in two (Memo to King Solomon- this can work sometimes :^)> ) and used the Spirotherm Speed Heat for the large window. Owner was happy to get not only comfort finally, but had more control.

Might this type of thinking apply to you? Just a stretch but I thought it worth suggesting.

As for bad condo management, you could fire them. Or as a last resort, move :^)>

John Foley

Answers to your questions . . .


The existing baseboard is fin-tube, with what looks like an arbitrary number of fins . . . there is baseboard and tube along all outside walls, but fins only EXACTLY as wide as (and directly beneath) the windows.
The unit is on the first floor, quite near the boiler, and the tube is hotter than sin (have'nt measured it yet, though) at both the entry and exit points.
I understand that the units are all zoned independantly for in-unit control reasons, but I've been told there is about a 1 in 10 chance that there are isolation valves. I can't even get into the boiler room to check.
Given future non-response, I'm considering a "firemans entry" into the boiler room 8)


Thanks for your responses. I'll check out Spirotherm Speed Heat.

jackchips_2

This may

be a little off the wall (no pun) John, but how about making fins out of aluminum foil. Make them the same size as the fins on the element sections, double them up if necessary, cut a hole, make a small slit and slip them on.

Try spacing them just a little so air will move through them.

Just a thought, good luck.

Jeffrey Grunt

Clip-On Fins

I had an inquiry on this today! Does anyone know of a manufacturer that makes these anymore? Thanks in advance...JG

Mellow_2

What about

high out put baseboard. It will put out more btus per foot.

Mellow_2

What about

high out put baseboard. It will put out more btus per foot.