Radiant water heater baseboard up on the wall near ceiling?
longfieldl
| Posted in General Questions on
Hello,
I have a water baseboard that is in the way. Would it be possible to put it up on the wall? I am thinking that radiations would have less obstructions. Is there something against this? Surprisingly, I did not find much on this topic. I see ceiling mounted hydronic, but not much on baseboards up on the wall.
Thanks
Louis
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Replies
Baseboard heat that 'mericans are familiar with works by hot air rising drawing air from the bottom and flowing out the top. 'Convectors'. Probably not effective at the ceiling
I wonder if a radiant panel might work for you
Louis,
Radiant Cove Heaters (which are a variation of ordinary electric baseboards) are designed to be mounted close to the ceiling. I don't know why radiant water would be much different?
https://www.ouellet.com/en-us/products/orc-en.aspx
In the heyday of radiators, typical houses were built with levels of insulation and air sealing that would be considered somewhere between laughable and criminal today. It was considered important to put radiators close to sources of infiltration to try and blunt the cold. For example, it was considered good practice to put a radiator below every window.
Also, despite their name radiators disperse heat mostly through convection. Leaky houses tend to be highly temperature-stratified, so it was important to put radiators at floor level so the heat would rise and warm the room somewhat evenly.
In a house built to modern standards there is much less stratification and infiltration, the position of heat emitters doesn't matter so much.
So the answer depends on what kind of house you have.
Ok thanks. This is very helpful. I did get confused by the term radiator. My house was built in 2000ish upstate NY so it is quite well insulated so not much air movement. I guess that maybe at this point it is a matter of finding a system that would not look just like a baseboard hung up on the wall ;0) I will keep thinking about that. Thanks a lot.
Do a Google image search for "Vertical panel radiator."