Hi All..

I am finishing up my basement, and am making a built-in storage/shelving unit into one of the walls, aprox 4.5ft wide by 7ft tall. Lower half is cabinet doors, upper is open shelving.

There is one vent in the ceiling already, providing heat and air conditioning, but i'd like to add some additional heat without taking away from the rest of the house/adding new duct work.

Would it be safe for me to enclose an electric baseboard heater inside of the bottom of my built in cabinets (so think two cabinet doors, and beneath them would be a vent hole for intake and heat to flow out of).

I was thinking of using a sealed silicone heater, so there wouldn't be any glowing/semi dangerous heating elements. And as for an electric source, I'd simply install an outlet inside of the cabinet/heater space and connect it to a switch on the wall.

Is there anything dangerous about this situation, as long as i provide enough breathing room/ventilation holes for the heater to operate? The reason i'm doing this is just that it'd look a lot cleaner enclosed than having a heater sitting on the floor.

Thanks!!!!

-Eric

 

I think that is certainly a bad idea; change the design so the heater is not enclosed.

 

I agree, bad idea.

 

ok thanks! i'll just put in a new vent off the main duct instead.