Beartums wrote:
My wife and I are having a discussion about radiator placement. We
are in the process of having our basement renovated. The rooms in
the basement have an 8-inch "shelf" about a foot and a half from the
floor along the outer walls of the building (part of the footing,
since we had to dig down to make the ceilings high enough).
Currently, our contractor has placed our hot-water radiators on the
shelf under windows. My wife is convinced that the radiators will
never properly heat the rooms since heat goes up. I believe that the
room is actually warmed by being filled with heat (otherwise, you
would need radiators on all walls and even in the middle of the room
to heat the floor).

While I believe the optimal placement of the radiator would be on the
floor, the sizing of the radiator is MUCH more important, and the
saving of floor space in this case is more important that the minimal
increase in heating efficiency.

Can anyone add any comments or guidance on this issue?

tia

Time will tell, but assuming you will heat full time, then I would guess
it will work. The deeper you go the more even temperature and better
insulated the wall. Need the floor you have almost 8 foot of soil as
insulation. The wall above and just below ground will be the coldest.

At worse you may want to add some sort of fan to mix the air. It can be
a ceiling fan or a floor fan. It would not need to be large.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math