I am wondering if anyone has ever put electric radiant heat coils on a wall. I have an exterior corner wall that gets very cold. The rest of the room is warm. I was thinking about [slightly] building out the wall with the radiant heat coils sandwiched between 2 5/8-inch pieces of plywood, then overlay 1/4-inch bead-board to finish. The applique would be applied from the floor up the wall about 2/3.
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Interesting idea.
On TOH they installed HW radiant built into the wall for, IIRC, a mud room where there was not enough floor space for radiant floor heating.
I haven't done that so cannot comment on it's overall effectivness. But, my first thought is you should first be certain that your outside walls are well insulated and you have a good air infiltration barrier. If you don't have good insulation, you will heat the outside far more than the inside of the house.
I agree on the outside insulation.
Also it is recommended not to go up more than 1/3 or so up the walls or so to make sure nobody ever puts a nail/screw into it. Don't forget this will be there 50+ years from now.
Look at the BTU output overall for the Mat. Some (all?)of the consumer products are designed to warm the floor rather than heat the room. You may be better off with an electric radiator or making adjustments to your current system - more baseboard, booster fan, dialing back other ducts, better insulation, underfloor insulation, etc.
You will need to thermostat it appropriately to come on lower than the other heat, if it is set too high it will always be on which will cost you big.
make sure you are not nailing the beadboard, glue it. Drywall will work fine too.
Edited 11/15/2006 7:00 pm ET by cvandoren
thanks for the information. I appreciate everyones points and ideas. I'm pretty sure this is the way I will go...
The house is forced-air, the room is plenty warm, it's the wall that gets cold. I just want to take the chill off the wall, the kids beds are against it and this easier to get 'approved' then re-arrange the furniture.
Cheers