Baseboard Water Heating Cost to Install

[morabito]

I am curious as to how much it would cost to have a plumber intall a 5 section of baseboard water heat. Need not be cast iron, can be copper. Will replace existing radiator.

[John VoyackParticipant]

Do you realize that if you are replacing a cast iron rad with copper baseboard you may have heating or comfort problems. First off a 5 piece of copper baseboard puts out about 2500 to 2750 btus. Thats not much. Next, if the copper baseboard is hooked into a zone with still existing cast iron rads, the rads will hold there heat for a very long time after the stat shuts down (since they are high mass and hold alot of water) while the copper will cool quickly (since they have no mass and hold virtually no water). But if you are going to do it, lets make some assumptions. Gotta drain the whole system. Assume pipes are accessible underneath. Assume they currently dont have valves. It probably would be an all day affair for a crew. Over the phone I would budget someone 500 to 600. In all fairness though, we are a high end hydronics firm and you could probably do better.

[John VoyackParticipant]

Do you realize that if you are replacing a cast iron rad with copper baseboard you may have heating or comfort problems. First off a 5 piece of copper baseboard puts out about 2500 to 2750 btus. Thats not much. Next, if the copper baseboard is hooked into a zone with still existing cast iron rads, the rads will hold there heat for a very long time after the stat shuts down (since they are high mass and hold alot of water) while the copper will cool quickly (since they have no mass and hold virtually no water). But if you are going to do it, lets make some assumptions. Gotta drain the whole system. Assume pipes are accessible underneath. Assume they currently dont have valves. It probably would be an all day affair for a crew. Over the phone I would budget someone 500 to 600. In all fairness though, we are a high end hydronics firm and you could probably do better.

[John VoyackParticipant]

: Do you realize that if you are replacing a cast iron rad with copper baseboard you may have heating or comfort problems. First off a 5 piece of copper baseboard puts out about 2500 to 2750 btus. Thats not much. Next, if the copper baseboard is hooked into a zone with still existing cast iron rads, the rads will hold there heat for a very long time after the stat shuts down (since they are high mass and hold alot of water) while the copper will cool quickly (since they have no mass and hold virtually no water). But if you are going to do it, lets make some assumptions. Gotta drain the whole system. Assume pipes are accessible underneath. Assume they currently dont have valves. It probably would be an all day affair for a crew. Over the phone I would budget someone 500 to 600. In all fairness though, we are a high end hydronics firm and you could probably do better.Do not mix two different styles of radiator as stated above. Not only will the copper rad lose its heat quickly it can also take most of the heat out of a loop and effect the other rads on that loop and cause many problems.As far as pricing you should have someone take a look many if not most places offer free estimated. Jobs like this can be very easy or very difficult.

[John VoyackParticipant]

: Do you realize that if you are replacing a cast iron rad with copper baseboard you may have heating or comfort problems. First off a 5 piece of copper baseboard puts out about 2500 to 2750 btus. Thats not much. Next, if the copper baseboard is hooked into a zone with still existing cast iron rads, the rads will hold there heat for a very long time after the stat shuts down (since they are high mass and hold alot of water) while the copper will cool quickly (since they have no mass and hold virtually no water). But if you are going to do it, lets make some assumptions. Gotta drain the whole system. Assume pipes are accessible underneath. Assume they currently dont have valves. It probably would be an all day affair for a crew. Over the phone I would budget someone 500 to 600. In all fairness though, we are a high end hydronics firm and you could probably do better.Do not mix two different styles of radiator as stated above. Not only will the copper rad lose its heat quickly it can also take most of the heat out of a loop and effect the other rads on that loop and cause many problems.As far as pricing you should have someone take a look many if not most places offer free estimated. Jobs like this can be very easy or very difficult.

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