replace baseboard?


  #1  
Old 02-02-03, 11:14 PM
jonnat
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replace baseboard?

We bought our condo last winter and the place has baseboard heaters in each room. I don't mind them at all, except that I think we need to replace the thermostats, as they do not seem to keep the temperature constant (they don't switch off even when the room reaches what feels like 90 degrees!). Other than that, I'm a satisfied customer -- except in one area.

I want to put in a "wall-bed" in our home office so it can easily be converted to a guest bedroom, but the wall I want to put it on has a baseboard heater halfway across it!! There is no room to move it to the side to make room for the bed, and the bed will not fit on the other walls.

So, I guess my options are:
1. Replace the baseboard with some other type of heating in just that particular room or throughout the entire condo ;
2. Put the wall bed up against the baseboard heater (not recommended due to fire hazard, right??);
3. Not have a wall bed at all...

If I were to replace the baseboard heaters in our condo, does anyone know how much work this would entail and what we should get instead? Any idea of cost??

Here are some specifics (sorry I don't have more):
*There are 6 units per condo building -- our condo is on the "first" floor, with a common area garage below.
*Condos were built as apartments in the mid-80's and fully renovated into condos in 1995.
*We have 4 baseboard heaters in our condo -- 1 in living room, 1 in dining room, and one in each bedroom.
 
  #2  
Old 02-03-03, 08:21 AM
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Need a bit more info...

Where are you at? Northern or Southern States?

Do you have central air in your condo, or just a window/wall unit?

IF you have central air, you could take out the air handler and install a furnace, or a heat pump if your in the southern states.

By doing that, you can remove all of the baseboard heaters, and use the a/c system to do that.

If you don't have central air, you ust have to stay with the baseboard.

Replacing the baseboard, your not going to gain anything other than the "new" looks.

We have baseboard heat in our apt, and when we moved in, Yeah, the place had a pretty big temp swing!!

I brought ourslves 2 Electronic Line Voltage T-Stat for our lliving area, and main bed room.. We just kept the Sparebedroom off, since it don't need to be kept warm, and same with the kitchen.

http://www.cadetco.com/thermostats.htm


Ours is no longer made. but just as long you get a Electrionc models, you be MUCH more comfortable!

Our old t-stat had about a 10 degree swing! The new one is just 1 degree..

Also, with this new t-stat, we also save on our electric bill.


For the gust room.... Kinda hard to do.. This what I would reccmond..

Get a Wall mount fan heater, they take up less space.

http://www.cadetco.com/heating.htm

If your in a warmer area, where heating isn't a big demand, just take it out, and just get a space heater and use ONLY when you need to use it.
 
  #3  
Old 02-03-03, 10:27 AM
jonnat
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more info

I'm in Seattle, WA.

I don't think we have central air, just the wall units (which are located under the windows!).

It definitely sounds like we need to replace our thermostats -- I'll look into getting the electric ones for sure. Is it difficult to replace these?

You mentioned the wall mount fan heaters, and I looked at the link you provided (these look perfect!!), but what I'm not seeing is how hard they are to install. Does it require pulling apart the wall to get at the wiring, or if we remove the baseboard heater, will that wiring be re-configured to the new heater?

Let me know if you need more info and once again -- thanks for all the help!!
 
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Old 02-03-03, 11:03 AM
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When you remove your baseboard heater. make sure you turn OFF the power for it!

You will have a set of wires going in one side of the boasboard, and the wires are in the wall.

I have never installed one of these wall heaters, but I am sure they are pretty easy to install, and it should tell you pretty well on how ti install it.. If the power comes out in the area where you are not going to put the bed. put the heater in that area, and you won't hae to re do some wirings.

Hooking up the New T-stat are easy. WE had no problems with us. I had them in about 10 min.
 
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Old 02-03-03, 11:21 AM
jonnat
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I'll be sure to flip the breaker so to be sure that the power is off for the entire room (which is what I assume you mean)!!!

Thanks for your help in this matter -- have a great day...
 
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Old 02-03-03, 11:48 AM
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Lightbulb Don't want you in the dark!

You won't need to shut down the whole room for power.. Each baseboard in most cases has it's own breaker. So look in your breaker box and look for whatever room heater your going to work on..


If it just says heater. then just shut off all of the heater, and you can figure out later wich breaker is for what room's heater.
 
 

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