Hot water baseboard: convector vs radiant
Sublux
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I’m looking for opinions on the merit of the new(at least to me) radiant style baseboard heaters like those sold by Hydronic Alternatives or A.I.M. Slimline over the traditional ones like Slantfin that heat more by convection. It looks like the cost is higher for the “radiant” style but they sound intriguing. Has anyone used them? Are the manufactures claims overblown?
Replies
Note that a radiant heater generally requires a higher water temperature to be effective.
And the heat produced is roughly proportional to the outside dimensions of the unit -- the number of square inches of wall space it takes. You can't "fold up" a radiant unit like you can a convection unit and still have it produce the same heat.
The btu output obviously drops with decrease in water temp but, according to the Hydronic Alternatives site, a three degree drop in water temp saves 1% in heating fuel. The btu drop is balanced by increasing the length of the baseboard. using traditional baseboard, I might only need 8' of convector(580 btu@180deg/1ft) and 16' of "empty" baseboard vs 20' of radiant(200btu/ft) in a 12'x12' room. Perhaps the key is that your house must be tight/insulated enough that the available wall length is sufficient to provide the BTUs to offset the heat loss. By my calcs, it would work in my house but I couldn't go lower than 170deg on the boiler. What I'm wondering is if the pros(still air, even heat throughout the room, less dust circulation, slimmer profile, and supposed greater comfort at lower thermostat temps) are overhyped by the manufacturers. I dont know if the lack of info on the web is due to these being new or duds?