EcoRenovator - View Single Post - Anyone using their old baseboard hot water units with geo??

Ron342 · 02-09-17, 08:08 AM

My house and many older homes here on the mid to northern east coast have (or had) fuel oil or nat. gas fired hot water furnaces piped to a string of convection baseboard units in each room. They were and are great heat and kind of gurgled at nite.

A long time ago i wondered if they would work fed with 120 degree water from a geo heat pump condenser or even with 40 degree evap water.
So lowered the furnace temp from 180 to 120 and quickly found I'd freeze fast! Never tried cooling but t think that would be even worse.
Now i have an air ducted heat pump but the old system is still there as backup (we lose power often and the furnace will run on a small generator, not the heat pump)

This am i looked at AC's post in Actuario's thread on predictive weather inputs and saw a mini wattage muffin fan pumping air thru a finned convector and immediately thought about my base board units gathering dust. Then looked a the thread on using refriges as mini splits, maybe per room.

Muffins fans could fit at the end of each old baseboard unit and if you boxed off the bottom air input slot of the baseboard as a plenum for the muffin fan, you'd force feed the whole long finned unit, maybe enough to work with 120 degree water, maybe even cool with 40 degree water??

Anyone tried this or something close? ??

My wife loved the quiet baseboard heat and hates the heat pump air ducts but they are kind of in the way if i can't use them!

02-09-17, 08:08 AM	#1
Ron342 Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Maryland Posts: 120 Thanks: 26 Thanked 12 Times in 8 Posts	Anyone using their old baseboard hot water units with geo?? My house and many older homes here on the mid to northern east coast have (or had) fuel oil or nat. gas fired hot water furnaces piped to a string of convection baseboard units in each room. They were and are great heat and kind of gurgled at nite. A long time ago i wondered if they would work fed with 120 degree water from a geo heat pump condenser or even with 40 degree evap water. So lowered the furnace temp from 180 to 120 and quickly found I'd freeze fast! Never tried cooling but t think that would be even worse. Now i have an air ducted heat pump but the old system is still there as backup (we lose power often and the furnace will run on a small generator, not the heat pump) This am i looked at AC's post in Actuario's thread on predictive weather inputs and saw a mini wattage muffin fan pumping air thru a finned convector and immediately thought about my base board units gathering dust. Then looked a the thread on using refriges as mini splits, maybe per room. Muffins fans could fit at the end of each old baseboard unit and if you boxed off the bottom air input slot of the baseboard as a plenum for the muffin fan, you'd force feed the whole long finned unit, maybe enough to work with 120 degree water, maybe even cool with 40 degree water?? Anyone tried this or something close? ?? My wife loved the quiet baseboard heat and hates the heat pump air ducts but they are kind of in the way if i can't use them!