Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My house has mostly forced-hot-air for heating (and I love it -- I know a lot of people don't, but that's not my question). Two bedrooms that were added on in the late '70s have radiant heat in the ceiling (electric) and their own thermostats. I am not back in those bedrooms too often, but when I am, they are actually pretty comfortable without their own heat turned on due to a forced-air heating vent in the hall that leads to them; as long as I leave their doors open, heat gets back there (I have not turned on their thermostats at all this entire winter).
However, three rooms -- 2 bedrooms and a TV room -- have SUPPLEMENTAL baseboard heat (each with its own thermostat). Here are the set-ups:
- TV room, added in the late '70s: has 2 forced-air floor vents plus a low-profile forced-air vent underneath a large window. (This vent looks kind of like a baseboard unit but it's only about 2-2.5' wide -- nowhere near as wide as most baseboard units are.) All 3 of these vents work fine. For some reason a previous owner added baseboard heat along the wall shared with the garage -- the baseboard unit is something like 9-10' wide and is, as usual, hideous, in addition to taking up most of the wall space on that wall (the wall is 17'6" but 5' of that is taken up with a closet). That baseboard unit has its own thermostat. I think this one is hot-water run off propane. I have NEVER used the baseboard heater as it is (a) not needed and (b) I need the wall space where that hideous baseboard unit was installed.
- Bedroom #2, original to the house: has a forced-air vent PLUS an electric baseboard on the window wall (this is the only bedroom that has only 1 window) with its own thermostat. The forced-air vent works GREAT -- this is the room I use as the guest room and if its door is closed, it gets very warm very quickly. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the baseboard heat was added. It is hideous and takes up an entire wall.
- Bedroom #3, original to the house: the forced-air vent that was in this bedroom is now the hall vent -- 3' of this bedroom's floor space was borrowed to make a hallway to the new back bedrooms when they were added in the late '70s. I put a little fan in the doorway and that works fine for bringing the warm air in from the hall to this bedroom; I use this room as my home office so I am in here a LOT and am very rarely uncomfortable (maybe for the first hour after getting up while the house is heating up, but that's it). This bedroom had a baseboard unit added that takes up ALL the wall space on one wall (11' I think); it has its own thermostat. I have NEVER used this baseboard heat, and I seriously doubt I ever will, although at least I can kind of understand why this one was added since this room doesn't have a forced-air vent any more.
I am seriously thinking of having the baseboard units in bedroom #2 and the TV room removed since I can't imagine EVER using them -- if I really need supplemental heat, which I can't imagine will ever be the case in those rooms, I can always use an oil-filled radiator. Any idea how large a project this is and how much it would cost?
Sorry for the long post -- I tend to over-explain! Thanks in advance!
Should I move it to the New Hampshire forum? I think here in New England we have a LOT more houses with baseboard heat than in other areas of the country ... love living in New England but I hate hate hate baseboard heat ...
I keep wondering if it isn't the baseboard that's the original heat? I don't really know. It doesn't make sense for there to be baseboards in rooms original to the house otherwise; I could understand them in additions if they didn't add to the forced air system. It would also be very strange for there to be one as hot water and others as electric. I suppose stranger things have happened but why there would be a single hot water baseboard unit. Doesn't seem like that would be useful. Are you sure it's hot water? Maybe it's just a different manufacturer of electric?
Anyway, removing them is probably fine. Removing electric should be simple: disconnect wiring and you have an issue with wall refinishing behind the unit itself and where the thermostat is, probably some holes to fill, and a piece of baseboard molding to add. This last means more likely having to replace it all in those rooms, unless you don't mind it mismatching. You could choose to make it a little easier to put them back by leaving maybe a plate on the wall where the thermostat goes and some kind of plate where the wire comes out by the baseboard. If there really is water involved you have pipes and then decisions to make as far as whether to leave that usable again or not. The pipes could (probably not likely in this case though) go through the floor which is another issue.
You are giving up backup heat if the furnace goes down, of course, but most of us don't have that sort of backup heat so it's not a big argument.
Another thing you might ask yourself is how likely it is you will sell the house soon. Because maybe you would be making it less useful to the next buyer this way. If not soon, or you are planning on doing more work to the forced air system or something, then it shouldn't matter.
I assume the key issue is that the units are ugly. There is nothing wrong with putting stuff right in front of them, etc. Heck we placed many things within a few inches of them even when they were in use. I grew up with electric baseboards.
My dad lives in a house with baseboard where he added a forced air system with heat pump (no gas available). He didn't remove the baseboards, and they still provide him with heat in the event of a power outage. Huh? Well, he has a generator, not strong enough to start and run the heat pump, but he can run a couple baseboards off it no problem, as well as the lights and fridge and stuff you'd want to keep running.
Note if you decide to cover the box for the thermostat with wallboard rather than just a blanking plate, you have to disconnect the wire between the breaker box and the thermostat too; you can't leave live wires in an inaccessible junction box.
All, the baseboard heat is definitely SUPPLEMENTAL heat, NOT original to the house (see next paragraph) Hopes, I mentioned the heat source for the back, added bedrooms in the first paragraph (you're right, not sure why I did that ... must have made sense to me at the time!), but then went into detail about the 2 bedrooms and TV room that have the supplemental baseboard heat that I want to remove. Sorry if that was somehow unclear.
The house was built in 1960 with 3 bedrooms and forced-hot-air heat vents in all of them. In the late 1970s when the 2nd owner lived there (I am only the 3rd owner of this house), an addition was put on that included 2 back bedrooms on the 2nd floor (both with their own heat source -- no info needed on those), plus a 3rd garage bay and a room that I use as a TV room on the 1st floor. At the same time, baseboard heat was added to original bedroom #2 (cannot figure this out -- it has a forced-hot-air vent and is always the warmest room in the house, the cats love it!!) and bedroom #3 (I understand this, since the vent that was in this bedroom is now in the hall leading to the back bedrooms/closet/bath). I was originally thinking that the baseboard in the TV room was original to the addition and thus added in the late 1970s too, but having moved furniture around in that room recently and having seen that the baseboard partially covers a 2nd forced-hot-air floor vent, I realize that that room originally had only forced-hot-air like the other first-floor rooms, and then later still (maybe some time in the 1980s or 1990s?) the 2nd owners added the baseboard unit. This would explain why (a) it partially covers the 2nd vent and (b) it runs off propane instead of being electric like the 2 upstairs. I remember asking the seller (2nd owner's son, spent his teenage years in the house) about the baseboard in the TV room and he said often most family members were in that room, so they could turn down the main thermostat and turn UP the thermostat in the TV room.
Hopes, I understand your point about all bedrooms needing their own heat source. I guess I will leave the baseboard in bedroom #3 (even though I will never use it), even though that room gets quite warm from the hall heat with its little doorway fan going. OR I could call it a home office (that's what I use it for!) and call it a 4-bedroom house with an extra room instead of a 5-bedroom one (I understand that 4-bedroom houses are easier to sell than 5-bedroom houses anyway!).
GregW, yes, part of it is that I think baseboard heat is absolutely hideous (I cringe whenever I see these gorgeous houses for sale in NH with big beautiful living rooms -- and 2 entire walls taken up by these baseboard heaters!!), but it also takes up at least 4" of floor space on walls. I will never understand why this became popular. I would even prefer RADIATORS instead of these hideous units -- radiators take up MUCH less space.
I plan to be in this house for the next 20 years or so, longer if I stay in NH after retirement, so I'm not really concerned about resale value. So I think the only room that must keep the baseboard unit is bedroom #3; I wish they had added a forced-hot-air vent to that bedroom when they did the addition, but alas, they didn't. Oh, well.
GregW, yes, part of it is that I think baseboard heat is absolutely hideous (I cringe whenever I see these gorgeous houses for sale in NH with big beautiful living rooms -- and 2 entire walls taken up by these baseboard heaters!!), but it also takes up at least 4" of floor space on walls. I will never understand why this became popular. I would even prefer RADIATORS instead of these hideous units -- radiators take up MUCH less space.
Because no matter where you go in house with hydronic baseboard heat it's the same temperature. You also need a certain length with baseboard per square footage or you pump is going to be running a lot.
You can make the baseboard low profile by installing it into the wall. We have cinder block walls so there is furring strips and at least 5/8 of plaster over that which gives us a lot more room than regular wall but the radiation is huge. The back of the baseboard sits right against the cinder block wall and there is a channel in the top for the furring strip and plaster.
When the cover is on this it only sticks out 2 inches and this cast iron baseboard is huge compared to the newer stuff. You'd probably be able to get it in the wall entirely if it were new stuff meant to be low profile. The only problem here is the heat loss but we were able to get some thin foam behind the radiation which is better than nothing.
Huh, interesting history. I can only figure that maybe bedroom #2 was used a lot and they used to turn the forced air OFF for some kind of conservation? That seems to be the way it was with the TV room. What is the fuel of the forced air? If it is oil or at least WAS oil originally (quite possible even if it isn't now), perhaps that explains it. Imagine having oil heat in the late 70s to early 80s. (Some of you reading probably don't have to imagine....)
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
I will never understand why this became popular.
This is strictly theory but I think electric baseboard is basically what you do, or did, if you didn't need A/C and didn't have access to natural gas utility, for a certain period of building at least. You could do propane, but to heat a whole house with propane you need a huge tank. You could do oil I guess in some places, but oil was on its way out for a while. You could do forced air with electric resistance in a box, maybe, if that existed. (It is what is used for emergency heat with heat pumps in colder areas if there is no fuel source, but not sure if such an "electric furnace" existed before then.) But ductwork is more expensive plus baseboard allows you to heat only the sections of the house you need to and regulate it on a room by room basis. The house I grew up in was built in 1972 and had baseboard. Now arguably a little A/C would have been nice there but it still wasn't so ubiquitous then as it is now at least in a lower-end house. All those houses built around that time in that development had baseboard heat. There's still not gas in that area and newer houses would just do heat pumps at this point with forced air. But rewind a few decades and there wasn't as much choice.
Now if you want to argue about why anyone would have done hot water baseboard with their fuel-fired boiler instead of radiators, well, that's probably entirely up to changing fashions. I can just about guarantee that we went through a period where baseboard was seen as new and modern and radiators old-fashioned and outdated. Now many like the quaint antique style of radiators better. Although now there are also modern, sleek slimline radiators, common in Europe and perhaps becoming common in some renovations here. I haven't seen too many reno projects in person but I have seen an addition and remodeling project where they switched all to modern radiators. A/C is not seen as needed in that area so forced air was not considered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
I plan to be in this house for the next 20 years or so, longer if I stay in NH after retirement, so I'm not really concerned about resale value. So I think the only room that must keep the baseboard unit is bedroom #3; I wish they had added a forced-hot-air vent to that bedroom when they did the addition, but alas, they didn't. Oh, well.
Yeah it probably would have been easier to do it then than it would be now! It's such a small thing to cut corner on, something must have made it prohibitive cost-wise. Or, maybe it was the timing with the fuel costs, just figured on electric being better? Anyway, if you're going to be there a while it doesn't matter. Take out the ones that are killing you so much.
Maybe the people sleeping in the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms had allergies or asthma, so they closed the vent to the forced air and used the baseboard. It wouldn't help them in the rest of the house, but maybe it made a difference.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, he has a generator, not strong enough to start and run the heat pump, but he can run a couple baseboards off it no problem, as well as the lights and fridge and stuff you'd want to keep running.
