Baseboard heat in a condo

I live in a condo and my apartment has baseboard heaters. They are ugly and take up a lot of space. Also, one of them is currently malfunctioning. I am considering switching them out for Runtal baseboard heaters. Is there any advantage to switching to Runtal, other than aesthetics? I only want to spend the money to replace them if the Runtals will give off more heat than my current heaters. My apartment is very cold in the winter and I cannot control the heat, so if these will give off more heat, it seems like a good investment. I don’t know much about heating systems, so thank you for your help!

geekyfemme

in Heating 9 years and 8 months ago

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resident2 | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Trying to work this out with Condo Board to change a common service of the building, will be tricky. And if it is not tricky, I would sell as quickly as possible because what else are they lax on?

geekyfemme | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Wow, this is a lot to think about. Thank you for the advice!

Lurker | 9 years and 8 months ago

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You may also be interested in cast iron baseboard as another option. The pros will chime in, maybe contradict me, but my understanding is unlike lightweight fin/tube, cast iron will radiate its absorbed heat better/longer after the hot water has stopped circulating, unlike your current setup.

eman134 | 9 years and 8 months ago

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runtals are a stackable component… you can order them in a variety of heights to achieve the BTU output that you need for adequate room heat. As Gennedy pointed out get a heating professional to scope out the situation before you blindly order rads. You need a heat load calculation done contingent on room size, ceiling height, direction of exposure, insulation and winwow condition. You also need to take a look at the heating layout, since condo implies new construction which implies the cheapest system possible. My contact info is in my profile if you want me to take a look

Master Plvmber | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Baseboard, or fin-tube, heaters give off about 580 BTUs per square foot at 180° water temperature. You’d have to order your Runtal heater to match or exceed that output.

ellenlourie | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Runtals have more radiant component compared to baseboard. If you have unbalanced system,( very common), just changing with runtal will not solve your problem. Make sure that this room has adequate water flow. The problem with your baseboard might be with adjustments of flow in your neighbour’s baseboards (or lack of adjustment). New runtal must be sized to the room load. Make sure that sizing of new runtal is done by average water temperature, not inlet water temperature. This is very common mistake everybody makes, and even runtal tech support adds to confusion. Also another very common issue might be that your baseboards all connected in series, and this baseboard in question is last in the loop and gets cooler water, reducing its output.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 8 months ago

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1\. If youhave carpetting under the baseboard heaters, it impedes the flow of air and reduces their efficiency. 2\. In one of my houses, I have these baseboards (http://www.baseboardrads.com) that are indestinguishable from a regular wood baseboard. They are not that efficient and I wonder if Runtals are much better.