Base board heat

[dumaspup]

So I went and put a deposit on a PB105 today. Tonight I am shopping for the base board heaters. I see that it does not matter what length the heater is they all have the same BTU out put. So my question is do I keep putting in heaters until I have the BTU out put that the house requires?
If not how does one decide on how many feet of base board heaters to install?

 

[maple1]

So I went and put a deposit on a PB105 today. Tonight I am shopping for the base board heaters. I see that it does not matter what length the heater is they all have the same BTU out put. So my question is do I keep putting in heaters until I have the BTU out put that the house requires?
If not how does one decide on how many feet of base board heaters to install?

Isn't that rated BTU output per foot? i.e. more feet of baseboard = more BTUs?

When I built my house 15 years ago, the heating install guy had a loss done by a heating pro & he knew exactly how much fin to have in each room, and they're all different. After 15 years, I'd say he got it right.

 

[dumaspup]

So if I have this right and that's by the foot. The calculator says this room needs 12760 BUT's or 22 feet of base board?

 

[heaterman]

So if I have this right and that's by the foot. The calculator says this room needs 12760 BUT's or 22 feet of base board?

Yep. You got it.

Typical BB will crank out about 500btu per active foot of fin tube unless it's something really special.
In order to accurately size it you need a room by room heat loss calculation.

 

[bpirger]

Keep in mind that the 500BTU/FT number is for a particular temp water, likely 180. If you want to be able to heat with cooler water, like 140-160, which would allow you to utilize storage a bit better (allowing you to use lower temp water), then you have to install more baseboad now...

Some here have done this and are very happy they did. I have all radiant, so I need water no warmer than 120...makes storage last a long time...

Just a thought.

 

[jebatty]

You might want to consider radiant panels for at least part of your radiant, rather than baseboard. Surface radiant may feel a lot warmer that convective radiant from baseboard.