Placement of wall/baseboard heaters
I’m wiring in five new rooms of an addition and wondering about placing the baseboard heaters or in wall heaters. I’ve often noticed in apartments over the years that they are placed UNDER the main window in the room. I never could understand why that would be other than perhaps the idea that that is the one place where one might be least inclined to put a permanent couch/sofa, and therefore that space would remain open and unobstructed. Does anyone here have any wisdom/experience to share on this?
Thanks –
nb
Replies
Electric heaters and also forced air registers are usually placed under windows for mainly two reasons. First, with heavy, cold air transmitting through the window it rolls down the wall to the floor so the heater is there to help warm the air before it reaches the occupants in the room. Second, with the warm dry air of a baseboard heater raising, it reduces the condensation which would form on the glass of the windows (depending on what the humidity levels are in the home). Electric heaters are sized based on the size of the room, number of windows and exterior doors and insulation in the walls. We take that calculation and size the heaters appropriately to the sizes of the windows.
Terrific answer -- THANK you!
So it's TRUE that these heaters are always/often under windows!
Thanks again ... this is a help.
n
Physics show that heat always goes to cold. ALWAYS. The faster heat leaves your body the colder you feel. Heat leaves you. Heat leaves the room. Room heat mostly leaves the room by the window which is colder than the walls. ( you are warmer than the room and the room is warmer than outside)
By putting heat at the coldest location you slow down the heat transfer at that location. Lots of heat from the heater or vent is being sucked out the cold window but as long as you have a big enough heater, the extra heat is transferred into the room.
In summary: by placing the heater at the window you are doing two things, slowing down the heat transfer AND heating the room. By only doing only one would not be cost effective.roger
Ok, trivia time.
On old houses that had gravity furnaces, the returns were often under the windows. Having the cold air fall into the heating system helped to speed up the rising hot air and captured the cold air before it could get into the room.
Placing baseboard heaters under windows reduces the condensation and potentially the mold that may occur. They are more susceptible than other parts of the building envelop because they have somewhere around a tenth the R value of most walls or roofs. This is particularly true of north facing windows which don't benefit from solar gain.
It is because the window is normally the coldest place in the room, so warming the air there keeps the majority of the room more well balanced so there is not a real cold spot near the window and a real hot spot across the room where the heater is working overtime trying to deal with the cold drat.
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excellent info .. thanks again everyone.
n