Partial hydronic baseboard to radient floor conversion

Jeepsail

We are in the planning stages of a kitchen remodel. the house (circa 1960's) is all hot water baseboard heat. The first floor is solid masonary with no insulation. In the kitchen, the cabinets are on the exterior walls. The interior wall has the only heat source, a section of HW baseboard. We'd like to take down that wall but that would leave us with no heat in the kitchen so our thought is to replace the section of baseboard heat with radient floor heating.

The basic question/issue is this:

The first floor is one zone. The baseboards are in a single loop. There's a full basement under the kitchen but it's fully finished. Can we simply "drop-in" radient floor heating where the baseboard used to be? This would make the zone mostly baseboard with some radient flooring. What is the equivalent flooring needed to replace the section if baseboard? We don't want to unbalance the original system and have a hot (or cold) kitchen and the rest of the house be cold (or hot).

I would think that there should be a simple "x square feet of floor heat is equal to x linear feet of baseboard" but I can't seem to did that simple solution. Any help would be great.

SKIP4661

You have to consider that the infloor radiant runs at a cooler temp than the baseboards. If you run 180 degree water through the radiant you won't be able to walk on the floor. Typically a separate tempered zone is ran for radiant floor heat using a separate heat exchanger or tempered with return water using a mixing valve.

JohnH1

If you are putting in a new tile floor you may want to look into electric radiant under the tile. Just a idea.

Jeepsail

So there is no easy answer...
Now, I've seen a sketch of a system that just replaces a baseboard unit with a radiant system on the same loop. The radiant system is separates from the rest of the loop by a mix valve. Is the mix valve some thing that gets input from a thermostat or is it something that gets inatlled and 'buried' in a wall or floor? Would a circulator pump be needed in this sort of a setup? Did I image the sketch and a seperate zone is needed?

Thanks!

beenthere

Might have mistaken what you saw. And if you saw what you think you saw. It may not have worked.

A radiant loop can be piped parallel off a baseboard system. But, won't provide reliable heat, since its at the mercy of the central thermostat.