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gwenoco · Nov 9, 2007, 11:41 AM

I have electric baseboard heat. The heat concentrates more at going up the wall instead of into the room. I have tried heat deflectors, but the heat melted the plastic. Is something wrong with them or is there something I can use to deflect the heat into the room. We try to keep the temp down to minimal levels. It's discoloring the walls above them and I'm worried that it can become an unsafe fire hazard.

hvac1000 · Nov 9, 2007, 04:20 PM

Turn water temp down.
Adjust louver on BB heater to deflect air towards room.

mechpe · Nov 9, 2007, 07:59 PM

Are there rugs or carpet under the baseboard? I used to have electric baseboards in some rental apartments, and one of my tenants took it upon herself to replace the carpet in the living room with ultra-plush high pile and extra thick padding. The new carpet was crammed under the baseboard, and interfered with the airflow in the bottom, resulting in "scorch marks" at the top. I cut the carpet back to the edge of the baseboard, and it solved the problem.

gwenoco · Nov 10, 2007, 08:37 AM

Underneath is tile or berber. I adjusted the louver but it doesn't seem to help much relieve the heat going up the wall. There is no water to it, its electric. The baseboard heaters are in 4 ft and 5 ft lengths--is there a deflector made that long that can be put over it and who would carry it. Looked online and the biggest I've seen is 25 inches expanded. Would it be advisable to get someone out to look at it.

hvac1000 · Nov 10, 2007, 08:42 AM

Might be a voltage problem.

mechpe · Nov 10, 2007, 10:18 AM

Never hurts to check voltage (both the voltage at the mains and the voltage of the baseboard to make sure the correct equipment was installed), but it may be that these are older heaters that were designed to run hotter than today's modern ones (250 watts per foot, or 1kW on a 4 foot heater). If you do call an electrician, maybe you would want to have one of the heaters replaced with a new one to see if this solves the wall discoloration problem.

Keep in mind that baseboards have very low velocity airflow, and this is always going to travel upward. Poor wall insulation, bad windows, and cold air drafts can all make it worse in older buildings. Deflectors aren't going to be able to get the air out into the room very much - to do that you need a fan. When I lived in a baseboard heated apartment, I was always running small fans on low speed to "mix up" the air in the winter. That's why many people are going with the fan-forced wall mounted heaters.