Replacing Base Board Heat - Yes, You Can!

There is a generation of housing that utilized the then popular base board heating system. The benefits were alluring, you could turn on or off each unit as you desire, there was no ductwork blowing dust around, and it was ‘clean’ energy, electricly run saving money on gas or oil heating systems. The thing that all homeowners with base board heat know is that it produces a black smoke stain on your wall and that you are not encouraged to put items directly in front of or too close to the unit for fear of starting a fire.

What to do? Options are:

a) Install a heat pump in every room/area (quite expensive but it does include air conditioning)

b) Install a furnace in the basement along with ductwork to bring heat to various rooms. Expensive to create ductwork, sometimes getting gas to the house is expensive and if your basement is finished you are ripping out the ceiling and having to refinish the ceiling after the ductwork is installed.

c) Install small electric radiators where your baseboard heat units are. Although safer than the baseboard heat, you still have an uninvited guest on your favorite wall where you wanted to put that buffet.

d) Install INFRARED HEAT PANELS! 1/2” thin rectangular (generally 2x4) panels that are installed on the ceiling. Installed with a thermostat for that room/area, they radiate heat on to you, furniture, and surfaces (think of heat from sunshine). TThey are warm, but not so hot to the touch as other radiant heaters. They are completely silent, DO NOT blow air and dust around. They are energy efficient and easily installed by an electrician (need to be hardwired). They come white but are PAINTABLE - painting them the same color as your ceiling will cause them to blend in and become unnoticeable. And one of my favorite features - you can place your furniture anywhere you want.

See below - infrared ceiling panels in dining and library.

Inspirations

As I build this new website, I am looking through decades of pictures of projects that I have designed for clients. Although my goal is to simplify the website showing the variety of scope of styles and project sizes, it is truly difficult to say that one project was more successful than another. My simple evaluation of a successful project is when the client first walks into the finished space. They take a deep breath and then they break out into a smile and thank me for the the work that we accomplished.

How can this happen with everyone? Doesn’t everyone have their own preferences? Yes, of course they do. I talk the clients through a comprehensive evaluation of their desires, ambitions, hobbies. We look at pictures showing different styles, colors, lifestyle images. And we do not forget the necessities, the NEEDS for the space, the challenges of the space and the limitations of the space. All of this information actually inspires me - it is like solving a puzzle - or like taking the NCIDQ test (National Council of Interior Design Qualifications) without a time limit!

I know - Interior Designers are a little weird. Earlier in my career I was on the National Board of ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) and every year we were required to take the Meyers Briggs Personality Test prior to the first Board meeting and then tell everyone what category we were and what our personality was. My symbol was INTJ which meant socially I was an introvert and that I always felt isloated in a group of people, feeling that I never fit in. (I’m the wallflower)

I was, of course, apprehensive about sharing my evaluation with the group. The REVELATION was that everyone was either an INTJ or an ENTJ with the ‘I’ meaning Introvert and the ‘E’ meaning Extravert. We all had the same qualities - and we all had to admit that although we all felt like misfits in society, we had found our ‘group!’

By the way, I discovered a way to showcase past projects without piling up pictures in the gallary - feature them in a Blog post! Each Client and Project has a story to tell and I would like to tell their story. :)

Chiao!