Does anyone have any experience with the fan coil units that fit under the bathroom vanity? I want to clear up some baseboard space (and get rid of the ugly baseboard unit) in my spare bath. I currently have 1″ pipe for the baseboard heating. The zone that heats the bathroom is a continuous loop, and includes a bedroom and living room, if that makes sense. Will the unit come with 1″ pipe and coil, or will I need to install a “bypass” and throttle the flow to avoid screwing up the rest of the zone? Do these units include blowers? I guess I will then need to call for heat, prove that the coil is hot, then activate the blower. It looks like I will need two thermostats-one for coil temp. and one for room temp. Thanks.
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Replies
These seem to be rare. I am putting one in my own house for the same reasons. I have a hydronic system for general heat, but I am putting an electric (1500W) kickspace heater under the vanity. It will have a timer for an on/off switch. It's just for temporarily heating the bath up to a warm temp. The vanity I bought, though, is a Mission style oak cabinet that has an oak board over the kickspace! I will have to drill holes or cut out an opening for the heat to come out. The heaters are available through Graingers.
I put in one of what I think you are describing in a kitchen several (10???) years ago. Best I could remember it had some sort of control for the fan only. It had a control (thermostat) that was on the unit itself. You basically set it and left it alone.
The one thing I really remember was the plumbing connection. My hydronic loop was 3/4 copper and the heat exchanger was 1/2 copper. I wanted to install regular old 3/4,1/2,3/4 tees but my plumbing supplier strongly discouraged that. They said that the water flow would be badly dimished to the unit. (fluid will take the path of least resistance.....) . Instead they sold me what looked like a regular tee on the outside , but it had a baffle on the inside directing the water up the 1/2 leg. And heres the real kicker. Instead of being a regular old 75cent tee, it cost something like 12 bucks.
Never had any problems with the unit , worked great.
Timh, thanks, I think I got it now. If I understand, you have a loop to the unit, but your "main" line "bypasses", for lack of a better word, the unit and takes the path similar to what it took before installing the unit? The $12 won't hurt too much. I think I'll have $5000 in the room even doing the labor myself. My wife has developed expesive taste over the years, I don't know how she ended up with a poor slob like myself. Must be love eh?