They both operate on the same principle--conduct the heat of the water through the cast iron into the air. You're trading aesthetics off. One issue is that you need a fairly long run of baseboard to give the equivalent heating "power" (i.e., amount of heat given off by a unit) to equal one of those decent sized old radiators. A heating guy can do the calcs, but when we did a renovation we mostly reused the old radiators in part because we needed a lot of wall if we wanted to switch to baseboard.

mike_home - Thanks for your comments. I also had the idea of installing it without the additional zone and then determining whether its needed after I get into heating season. All the zone's new pipes would be in the basement, so they could be added later. fsq4cw - Your question also occurred to me, since that one toe kick would probably call for hot water more frequently. However, in my internet research I have not found homeowners with that complaint about a toe kick. Do you know of an alternate radiator type that would have similar characteristics to the old cast iron? All the new European-style ones appear to be much lighter weight, and I assume that affects heat retention characteristics. The existing radiator is short, but 7 rows deep. It worked okay under the old sink, but its design won't allow space for a garbage disposal. If I try to fit a radiator out in the kitchen under the side window it could be long (36") and tall (28"), but I'd like it as narrow as possible. Thanks, Bruce This post was edited by bcarlson78248 on Fri, Jul 26, 13 at 5:57

Runtal USA is pretty local to me so they get used quite a bit around here as an alternative to ordinary baseboard - in my previous house the plumber (plumbers mostly do the hot-water-based heating here, HVAC people are for forced hot air and AC) tried to talk me into a Runtal radiator/towel warmer for the bathroom. They just didn't have a style I liked. Buderus and Myson are also well known in the industry for good quality products; I've never heard of Veha and after getting into deep doodie with using a relatively unknown, bargain priced brand (Hudson-Reed) for the radiator/towel warmer in previous house's bathroom I'd personally stick with the big names. The bloody thing leaked nonstop and I canceled out the savings over a similar Myson by having the plumber back to tinker with it half a dozen times!

I have beautiful inlaid parquet floor in a large bedroom with a *beast* of a steam radiator sitting on it. The weigh literally caved in some of the flooring, crushing and destroying various parts of the decorative inlay that someone painstakingly put in 135 years ago. I'm paying a carpenter to rebuild that section of the floor and you can be damn sure something will go under those feet this time. Speaking as the person "100 years later", I definitely do care and wish they had done something to prevent this. In another room, I'm replacing a radiator. The flooring is only about 15 years old. Hardwood. It's already dented and burned from the radiator sitting directly on it.