Hydronic baseboard heat

showcrop

Well-known Member
I need to get some baseboard heat added to a room at my church. After three remodeling jobs where we lost some length each time, it is difficult to get the room warm when it is cold out. A contractor recommended 15 feet of either "high output" or "high efficiency", I can't remember which, and replacing all of the existing BB. It will be all one zone. I am good with replacing all of the old stuff because the housings are beat up and you can't get a deal on housing without fin tube anyway. What I am wondering is that I can't find anything but just plain old baseboard with fin tube. Is there really something out there that gives off more heat per foot?
 
I don't know if there is anything out there now or not.We used a supply house in Manchester that is gone now.I still
do some work with a plumbing.heating guy that was on the Raymond-Chester line.His dad was a real old timer,and
showed me some interesting tricks that have worked out well from time to time.If the room just needs a little help
you can run the return pipe right back across the finned pipe.You will feel that difference just laying your hand on
the register,then laying your hand on one plumbed normally.What works great in a cold or remote room,or one you want
to heat up fast is to run another complete register setup on top of the other one.Run the water through the bottom
one,then up to return through the top.Works great to heat up a room faster too.Pretty much the cost difference is
the price of the materials.
 
There are several ways to change the heat/ BTU per foot. You can change the temperature of the water, change the size of tubing and fins, or change the speed of the water to name a few.
 
If you can run a small fan over the heater it will make a big difference and less cost and work. Dad has a baseboard heat in his house and one room has a lot of the heater covered with the desk and a cabinet in front of it. Mom was always cold, and I said just put a fan to blow along it to get more heat from it. I was told I was nuts till I put the fan there and left it run for a bit. Mom said it helped and now dad will use it in the winter now also.
 
Sorry, I did not post this all in one post I was having technical difficulties posting my full response. We sell Slant Fin baseboards where I work they have several different types and sizes. You can check their website or maybe contact them ? The first thing you are going to be asked (just like you get asked if you have a manual when you ask a question on this site) is, did you do a heat loss calculation ? Once you have that, it should be fairly straight forward to size your baseboard needs. I suggest you check out heatinghelp.com website. That is a excellent resource for radiant and steam heat. I wish you luck with your project.
 
The output of common 3/4 residential hydronic baseboard starts at around 400 - 600 BTU per foot with 180 water flowing a gallon per minute.

The high-output stuff was a larger profile (a bit wider and taller) and is rated at 800+ BTU's per foot, IIRC.

Below are two examples from Slant Fin.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/manuals/1304950418118/55872_PROD_FILE.pdf



https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/product_files/Multipak80Brochure1.pdf


RIDICULOUSLY hard to get this past the nanny filter for some reason, hence the non-clickable links.)

This post was edited by wore out on 05/22/2022 at 12:56 pm.
 
(quoted from post at 12:54:31 05/22/22) The output of common 3/4 residential hydronic baseboard starts at around 400 - 600 BTU per foot with 180 water flowing a gallon per minute.

The high-output stuff was a larger profile (a bit wider and taller) and is rated at 800+ BTU's per foot, IIRC.

Below are two examples from Slant Fin.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/manuals/1304950418118/55872_PROD_FILE.pdf


Thanks guys! That has to be it. I had never heard of one or one and a quarter fin tube. I am already set on how much I am going to add, and some of it has a return in the housing already in order to get past a obstacle under the floor.



https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/product_files/Multipak80Brochure1.pdf


RIDICULOUSLY hard to get this past the nanny filter for some reason, hence the non-clickable links.)

This post was edited by wore out on 05/22/2022 at 12:56 pm.
 
Depending on your floor type, you might be able to add some underfloor heat by extending the piping and using the staple up heat exchangers.
cvphoto126362.jpg
 
If the room is its own zone, it shouldn't be that hard to get it warm enough. That is, unless that zone is dependent on another zone. Let me explain: Our basement originally had a separate zone with no thermostat, just a manual valve. I installed a mechanical thermostat in the basement, so now the basement has heat, but only when one of the other zones is operating. If your room has a mechanical thermostat, it could be it has no way to turn on the circulating pump. Or it may not be getting enough flow because most of the water is going to other zones. If either of these is true, increasing the baseboard size may not help. You can't extract more heat from the water that's already cool. The solution might be to replace the mechanical thermostat with an electric one that can activate the circulating pump. Or, if it's just not getting enough flow, a zone circulating pump could be added to force water through the zone.

It's difficult to heat kitchens with baseboard heat because cabinets take up most of the walls, leaving little room for baseboards. What I did for our kitchen was to re-route the copper piping in the basement so it runs back between the floor joists, warming the floor. This made a big improvement in the comfort of our kitchen. When we remodeled, I added a 'toekick heater', which is a small radiator under one of the base cabinets that has a fan to blow warm air out the toekick. The fan comes on anytime hot water is flowing through the radiator.
 
(quoted from post at 03:31:24 05/23/22) If the room is its own zone, it shouldn't be that hard to get it warm enough. That is, unless that zone is dependent on another zone. Let me explain: Our basement originally had a separate zone with no thermostat, just a manual valve. I installed a mechanical thermostat in the basement, so now the basement has heat, but only when one of the other zones is operating. If your room has a mechanical thermostat, it could be it has no way to turn on the circulating pump. Or it may not be getting enough flow because most of the water is going to other zones. If either of these is true, increasing the baseboard size may not help. You can't extract more heat from the water that's already cool. The solution might be to replace the mechanical thermostat with an electric one that can activate the circulating pump. Or, if it's just not getting enough flow, a zone circulating pump could be added to force water through the zone.

It's difficult to heat kitchens with baseboard heat because cabinets take up most of the walls, leaving little room for baseboards. What I did for our kitchen was to re-route the copper piping in the basement so it runs back between the floor joists, warming the floor. This made a big improvement in the comfort of our kitchen. When we remodeled, I added a 'toekick heater', which is a small radiator under one of the base cabinets that has a fan to blow warm air out the toekick. The fan comes on anytime hot water is flowing through the radiator.


Thanks Mark, as I posted in the OP we know that the reason for slow heat is the loss of a number of feet of baseboard during three different remodeling jobs over the years.
 

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