Author Topic: Hot water baseboard heat  (Read 1580 times)

anotherAlias

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Hot water baseboard heat
« on: May 18, 2015, 06:32:07 PM »
I just started house hunting and have a short list of houses that I want to check out in person.  A few of them have hot water baseboards heat which I really don't know much about.  I used to own a home with a forced air furnace and I've rented apartments with hot water heat.  So I know the difference in how they heat but ive never had to maintain a hot water baseboard heat system.  So when I'm looking at these houses, is there anything I should keep a look out for or make sure I ask about?  Are there any problems that these systems have that I need to careful of? 

MDM

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Re: Hot water baseboard heat
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2015, 06:52:21 PM »
If properly sized, or designed for condensing flue gases (i.e., high end metallurgy for the exchanger), these provide very comfortable heat.  One drawback: lack of a central humidification point, so you may want/need a separate humidifier in winter.

If undersized and the exchanger is regular steel or cast iron, cold returning water can cause the H2O in the flue gas to condense, dissolving some of the CO2 to form acidic condensate and thus premature exchanger failure.

NoNonsenseLandlord

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Re: Hot water baseboard heat
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2015, 07:06:08 PM »
Generally, hot water heat homes do not have central A/C, unless they have a separate system.  You cannot just add central A/C easily.