Babies room?

[HatCityIAFF]

OK guys, its inevitable that a baby will be coming into our lives sometime. What are you guys doing about heat for that room?

We live in a 1700sq ft raised ranch (split level). 1700sqft total, 300 downstairs were the insert is. Built in '88, nicely insulated. The upstairs hallway is a typical ranch layout. Walk down the hallway, bathroom on right, followed by 3 bedrooms. One at the end, one on your left, and one on your right. The master bedroom is on the right. The only thermostat for the forced hot air for the whole house is in the middle of the hallway, across from the bathroom This is around 65 when we go to bed, 62ish when we wake up, and this is my stove running full bore. Our room is a touch colder, and we have a fan on low blowing out into the hallway. The other two rooms are always closed, and it gets pretty cold in there, i would say low 50s.

When a little one arrives, we will be closing the door to that room. Even if we left it open, it would be low 60's which is way to cold. We do have elec. baseboard in each room also that i guess we could turn on in just that rroom, but we've never used that before. I guess we might be going back to the oil forced hot air, helped along a little bit by the insert.

 

[Blue Vomit]

We keep small, safe, plastic space heaters controlled by a thermostat in the little ones rooms. We keep the doors open during the day and the heat creeps in. When the little ones go to bed we plug in the space heaters.
Works great for our setup. Our Oslo is a bit undersized for our sq ftage and is at the opposite end of the house from the kids rooms.

 

[mellow]

Can you install a heat pump into your existing system? I have to run mine for the bedrooms upstairs to keep them at 68 as per the better half.

 

[Waulie]

Since you already have electric baseboard, I would would just verify that is safe and functional and use that. There are more efficient systems available, but it won't take much electric for one small room with the door closed. Babies have a way of growing really, really fast. After a couple years, cozy blankets and comforter will be sufficent just like for us big people.

 

[chris5150]

Space heater with a thermostat on it.

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm with Waulie . . . thinking that if you have electric there already it probably wouldn't take too much to just run that at night as long as it is safe and good to go.

 

[moburns]

If adding duct work is a possibility there are pellets furnaces and direct vent gas fireplaces that can be ducted to other rooms. Both of these option are effective but big bucks. Even if you don't have gas you can a direct vent fireplace off of LP gas. They even make high efficiency wood fireplaces that can be ducted into other rooms.

 

[BrotherBart]

Forty bucks for an electric radiator heater and it's done. Safe even heat.

 

[Waulie]

Or, zero bucks. He already has one.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah but there appears to be hesitation about using the baseboards.

 

[HatCityIAFF]

Thanks gang....Waulie thats the route i will probably end up going. Not really "hesitation", but i know how much damage can be done with using elec baseboards in terms of fire if you're not careful. (Baby wakes up and throws blanket out of crib, lands on baseboard...etc etc). Never really run the baseboard before for a while so unsure of energy consumption, but it can't be much like you guys are saying if its just in one little room.

 

[rdust]

I use a small space heater with a thermostat in the babies room. I did the same with my son when he was a baby, now he's three he gets to use a blanket like the rest of us. The rooms are usually mid 60's, when you only a need few degree rise in the room the heaters don't run too much.

 

[kattpound]

We have a similar layout and heat issues. It took some convincing on my part but we now leave the little ones doors open all night and i close them around 5:30 when i get up. I turn on a space heater with a thermostat in my daughter's room which is the coldest. Works for us.

 

[begreen]

Not sure why the question. If the baseboard electric already in the room is in good working order, use it. Note that babies are not as fragile as one might think. The room doesn't have to be much warmer than mid-60s for sleeping. If the door is closed be sure you have a baby monitor.

 

[Waulie]

With our first, we were in between houses and living at my dad's house for his first winter. Same issue as you with colder back bedrooms. We used the baseboard he had back there that hadn't been run since (well I think since installation in 1980). Funny thing is that it was my room growing up and I wasn't ever allowed to used it.

Anyway, it worked great and didn't cost much at all to run. Obviously, safety first, but you'll probably only need to run it on low and babies take a while to get decent throwing arms.

 

[ailanthus]

Baseboard with a smoke detector in the room for 1 winter and after that they'll be less temperature sensitive than an adult. Our kids run around barefoot all winter and, believe me, it's not THAT warm.

 

[Ehouse]

I really like the oil filled electric rads myself, but just as an alternative if you're worried about the electric, some water heaters are rated for auxilliary space heating and you could run a radiator loop up to the room. Veha has some eurostyle slim lines that are inexpensive. You might even put in a couple, sounds like you could use some extra heat upstairs.

Another thought; run a small electric DWH off your upstairs bathroom plumbing to feed the rads.

Ehouse

 

[Slow1]

We made no special arrangements heat wise for our kids (now 10/9/7/3) and they have done well. The only exception was our premie who came home at 3.5lbs (no that is not a misprint) and we did put a microwaved warming pad in the crib with her for the first few weeks until she put some more meat on her bones. We generally kept the house around 65* and none of the kids had any issues - blanket sleepers are great (zip up bags with holes for the head and sleeves basically) as they can't kick them off.

I believe that babies are much tougher than most give credit for. As to closing the door - if you are doing this for noise abatement you may want to consider allowing your baby (babies) to hear normal house noises - including conversations etc as it may actually help them to sleep better both in the short term and long term. I've had friends who do the whole "tiptoe around when baby is sleeping" and it drives them crazy as the kid(s) wake up at the slightest noise.

Anyway - not much to do with heating, but some ideas for thought. I know nothing in particular about the baseboard heaters in terms of safety etc, but I don't think that kids toss blankets out of cribs for quite some time after you bring them home

 

[MasterMech]

With our first, we were in between houses and living at my dad's house for his first winter. Same issue as you with colder back bedrooms. We used the baseboard he had back there that hadn't been run since (well I think since installation in 1980). Funny thing is that it was my room growing up and I wasn't ever allowed to used it.

Anyway, it worked great and didn't cost much at all to run. Obviously, safety first, but you'll probably only need to run it on low and babies take a while to get decent throwing arms.

My guess is oil/prpane was cheap back then and electric was not. My how things have changed.

 

[osagebow]

Baseboard with a smoke detector in the room for 1 winter and after that they'll be less temperature sensitive than an adult. Our kids run around barefoot all winter and, believe me, it's not THAT warm.

+1 - and that's what you want. Not going to the Spartan extreme, but it's wonderful having low maintenance children. We also made sure the kiddos could sleep with a normal level of noise about. Good luck with your young'uns, Hatcity!

 

[jebatty]

*!%amn Eskimos had the same problem. Igloo temp was 20F by the blubber lamp, and -45F in the corner where the baby slept. Nothing like a seal fur comforter. Lots of adult Eskimos around, so at least a few of those little ones survived. Cheers!

 

[Swedishchef]

We have 2 kids. The oldest is a little over 2 years old and the youngest is 2 months old. We have electric baseboards in their rooms controlled with digital thermostats. At night I turn the house heat do 17C and the youngest ones room is partially open with the thermostat set to 20C. A pediatrician told me one time that a baby doesn't need extreme heat. They would rather be in a cool room swaddled. That way they don't get stuffy (so he said...).


Andrew

 

[firefighterjake]

Something else that no one mentioned . . . last I knew one suggestion to possibly reduce the chance of SIDS is to have the room temp on the cooler side.

 

[SlyFerret]

I run a radiator space heater in our boy's room. I set the temp dial and it does the rest. The low 600 watt setting is sufficient.

We keep the door shut to keep the temp consistent and also to keep the pets out.

-SF

 

[HatCityIAFF]

Thanks guys for all your reply's. Just wondering what everyone did. My thoughts are just about on par with everyone's here, electric baseboard turned up a bit. Not TOO much though b/c our baby is going to be a tough cookie when he/she gets older We'll probably leave the door cracked. All the guys I work with kids, and my wife's sisters kids, all are used to normal house sounds when they sleep. I like that because when we go over, we don't have to worry about being quiet after 7ish. I think we're actually louder than normal after a few libations and I don't even think twice about being quiet!