How to size toekick heaters in open floor plan kitchen?

15 years ago

Hi all-

Can someone point me in the right direction for figuring this out?

We have a small house (~1400 sf) and we are planning kitchen remodel that moves the kitchen from it;s current location and completely opens up the living area of the house into an open floor plan. I am trying to figure out how to size the toekick heaters -and for that matter all of the replacement/reconfigured baseboard radiators- without hiring an HVAC professional.

Husband is a marine systems technician and deals with mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems all day long, so he hopes to do all heating work (except burner replacement/service) himself.

The house is oil-fired hot water baseboard. Old cast iron ones in the 1956 part of the house, and 80's versions in the enclosed sunporch addition we're opening up to the main space. It is currently on 3 zones: the enclosed sunporch is on its own zone and clearly that will need to change.

I have downloaded the enormous heat-loss calc program and am going to try to do that this weekend. it looks daunting. After that, what is the best way to proceed? I have drawn in the existing baseboard units in the existing plan below, and shown you the new plan so you can see what we're hoping to do.

I understand that people love the old cast-iron baseboard units. Any problem trying to re-use them in different locations? We are on a VERY tight budget, so we want to minimize added expense as much as possible while still being efficient.

Here's the existing plan. Red lines are baseboard units.

and here;s the plan after opening the space up (and adding a partial wall to create mudroom area. The mudroom, front entry and bath registers are the only ones that remain in place. I figured we'd move at least one of the old baseboard units into the new dining nook. The other red markings indicate possible places to install toekick units ("T?") or new or re-used baseboard units.