How do we live with you, baseboard heaters?
April 30, 2017 10:30 PM   Subscribe

Moving into an apartment with gas baseboard heaters. I have questions about furniture arrangement. Difficulty level: big bookcases and hundreds of books.

Having lived in places with hot water radiators and with electric baseboards, my understanding of the "rules" governing furniture placement with these two types of heat is that there are differences. You can burn your skin on both, but you could put, say, a side table above a hot water radiator without running the risk of burning down your house (though you'd sacrifice on convection)--unlike electric baseboards, which need several inches' clearance all around.

Our landlady tells us the heat in our new place is gas baseboard heat, which I'm assuming is hydronic? The baseboards in the apartment look exactly like ugly electric baseboards. This is a new one to me. This is a classic greystone with tall ceilings and big windows--we need this place to get warm in the winters.

So what do we do with furniture? Specifically, is it at all possible to put our Ikea Expedit bookcases and other pieces of furniture like, say, a buffet nearish/in front of these heaters, or will we be cutting ourselves off from heat and running the risk of fire?

Have we condemned ourselves to putting everything in the middle of the room?
posted by Miss T.Horn to Home & Garden (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I have the same heat (hydronic baseboards) and similar bookcases. I put them on 4x4 oak posts centered over the risers, and attached the cases to the wall. They're about 8 inches tall, so there is an airspace between the top of the baseboard and the bottom of the case.

You could look at these baseboard covers called Overboards, they are solid aluminum in addition to the posts.
posted by Marky at 11:07 PM on April 30, 2017


My couch is on a wall with a similar heater. I just leave a couple inches between the c0uch and the heater and the heat rises up. They don't get hot enough to b a fire risk. Most houses around here have similar heat and it doesn't affect the placement of furniture much, barring maybe tall bookcases as you describe.
posted by fshgrl at 12:13 AM on May 1, 2017


Best answer: I've lived in several houses with this kind of heat. My experience is that it's remarkably forgiving of furniture placement, and doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to be a fire risk. I wouldn't hesitate to put that bookcase an inch or two in front of the heater, if that's what you feel moved to do--unless your books are going to be both the full height of the shelves and really packed on there, there's probably plenty of airflow for heat transfer.
posted by mishafletch at 1:37 AM on May 1, 2017


Best answer: Just checked my living room bookcases and furniture, and they are all 1 inch or closer to the baseboards. One case is right flush against the baseboard's surface. (Oops. I will probably move that one.) We've been in our house for a winter with no problems (or excessive heat) to the books, and the hot water heat is pretty dry. I think you're safe if you leave a couple of inches' space. As for blocking heat, I would say we've shoved stufff in front of about 2/3 of our living room radiator lengths, and they still warm up the room pretty well. Maybe try a few different arrangements with empty bookcases, in case there's an efficiency issue I don't know about (i.e., blocking radiators makes the furnace have to work harder, whatever).
posted by pepper bird at 4:39 AM on May 1, 2017


(One thing to consider, especially if you live in an earthquake-prone area or have kids, is that you might still want the shelves close enough to the wall that you can fasten them to it.)
posted by trig at 5:27 AM on May 1, 2017


Hydronic baseboard heaters circulate air with natural convection. The hot water in the finned pipes heats the air, which rises up along the wall. This draws in cold air along the floor. It would be better if the bookcase you linked to was up on feet or blocks to allow air to circulate underneath.

This winter we rearranged our living room to block maybe 80% of our gas-hydronic baseboard heaters, and we did have to turn up our thermostat about 1°F to compensate. Our furniture does have feet which allow airflow underneath. I would say that all other things being equal, it's better to leave your heaters unblocked as much as possible, but it was not a huge effect.
posted by muddgirl at 5:41 AM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Just to be very clear about the fire risk: it is zero. The gas is burning in a boiler somewhere, not in those baseboard radiators. The heat is conveyed to the radiators as hot water, no hotter than 180 degrees. So there is no possibility of setting anything on fire, even if you piled, say, pillows up against them. Personally I would avoid putting books in close proximity to them to avoid drying out the bindings etc.
posted by beagle at 9:09 AM on May 1, 2017 [3 favorites]


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