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Posted by HeatPro on September 03, 2008 at 09:29:17:
In Reply to: Baseboard option posted by Glen on September 03, 2008 at 08:02:24:
As your home has beat up baseboards, it is more likely a home built before 1990, when the insulation standards were improved to cut the heat losses in half. From that premise, unless you further improve the home's insulation, that limits what can be done with radiant, as you will be wasting half the heat and compensation by more heat radiation surface to heat it.
Radiant baseboard will require three times the baseboard length in comparison to baseboard of either copper tube or cast iron; look at the ratings at 180F of each to learn how much each gives off. That means that you would ring the rooms with radiant panel baseboard to make up for not enough outside wall that usual baseboard fills.
The alternative is not to buy that house; but buy a house that will cost you half the fuel for the future.
Cast iron is nice if you have extra money and plan to have kids that will run Tonka trucks into the wall, otherwise there isn't important output differences.