In one room of our house I have an old style ho****er baseboard heater that
is encased in a heavy gauge metal cabinet that measures 6 feet wide, 30
inches high, and 6 inches deep. There are slotted cuts in the face of the
cabinet near the top to let the heated air out. There is about a 4" gap
under the cabinet to let cold air in at floor level in the front of the
cabinet. The cabinet covers a finned baseboard element about 6 inches deep
2 inches thick and 4 inches above the floor. I want to build a new cabinet
that is the 6 foot width but only about 1 foot high. Would I be losing a
tremendous amount of heating capacity. Thanks for any input.

"John F." wrote in message
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In one room of our house I have an old style ho****er baseboard heater
that is encased in a heavy gauge metal cabinet that measures 6 feet wide,
30 inches high, and 6 inches deep. There are slotted cuts in the face of
the cabinet near the top to let the heated air out. There is about a 4"
gap under the cabinet to let cold air in at floor level in the front of
the cabinet. The cabinet covers a finned baseboard element about 6
inches deep 2 inches thick and 4 inches above the floor. I want to build
a new cabinet that is the 6 foot width but only about 1 foot high. Would
I be losing a tremendous amount of heating capacity. Thanks for any
input.

You won't lose any capacity as long as you have the same amount of openings
both top and bottom, as you have now.

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
t...

"John F." wrote in message
news
In one room of our house I have an old style ho****er baseboard heater
that is encased in a heavy gauge metal cabinet that measures 6 feet wide,
30 inches high, and 6 inches deep. There are slotted cuts in the face of
the cabinet near the top to let the heated air out. There is about a 4"
gap under the cabinet to let cold air in at floor level in the front of
the cabinet. The cabinet covers a finned baseboard element about 6
inches deep 2 inches thick and 4 inches above the floor. I want to
build a new cabinet that is the 6 foot width but only about 1 foot high.
Would I be losing a tremendous amount of heating capacity. Thanks for
any input.

You won't lose any capacity as long as you have the same amount of
openings both top and bottom, as you have now.


Like this answer a lot. Thanks for the info. Any idea what the rationale
for such large cabinets was at the time these were designed? John

"John F." wrote in message

Like this answer a lot. Thanks for the info. Any idea what the rationale
for such large cabinets was at the time these were designed? John

Many years ago (in the 1960's) I worked for a company that made baseboard,
sil-line, cabinet heaters, etc. In many cases, the customer specified a
larger enclosure to match the other cabinets in a room. Most was commercial,
hospital, school classroom applications. I have to wonder if the original
installation at your house was what someone had that was cheap at the time.

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
news:VKkGg.4023$zS2.504@trndny01...

"John F." wrote in message

Like this answer a lot. Thanks for the info. Any idea what the rationale
for such large cabinets was at the time these were designed? John

Many years ago (in the 1960's) I worked for a company that made baseboard,
sil-line, cabinet heaters, etc. In many cases, the customer specified a
larger enclosure to match the other cabinets in a room. Most was
commercial, hospital, school classroom applications. I have to wonder if
the original installation at your house was what someone had that was
cheap at the time.


Actually this large metal cabinet and baseboard element was put into a
addition on the house and mixed with standard Slant Fin base board on the
other side of the room. Guess they may have thought the very large cabinet
would hold/radiate more heat than a similar length of standard baseboard.
And also could be as you noted the plumber had it. Thanks for the input.

We can increase the heat output of baseboard fin tube by increasing
the air velocity passing the fins. One way to do this is to mount
the fin tube near a slot at the bottom of a boxful of hot air, and
let the bouyancy of the hot air column increase the air velocity.

Nick