Electrician Talk banner

Mounting a baseboard heater high on a wall

29K views 71 replies 35 participants last post by  emtnut 
#1 ·
This isn't for a work-related job, it's for the workshop at the back of my garage.

I'm going to be refinishing an antique table soon so I need to put some heat in my workshop. I don't want fan forced heat or anything else that actively moves air, because I don't want to stir up dust that will get stuck in tacky varnish.

I have a 4' baseboard heater but I don't want to put it on the floor because I'm always stacking sh!t there. Is there any reason I can't mount it like 4 or 5 feet up on the wall?
 
#5 ·
It's not for human comfort, it's just to try to get the room up to a reasonable temperature so stain and polyurethane and whatnot will cure properly.

It's a small room too, probably 6' x 14', and well insulated on the exterior walls, so I imagine it won't take much to heat it up in there.
 
#14 ·
BBQ hits it on the head.....cheapo $15 box fan for other projects I use 2 1500 watt-hydronic types if I have to work on car/trucks. My garage is insulated and sheet-rocked 1hr and it is 55 out there and 20 outside. I installed a split 20amp recept wired w/10-3 to power up my 2 portable heaters....my panel is 5' away from back wall of garage this works great and I can use the heaters for other projects away from shop if need be.
 
#16 ·
It doesn't matter what height you put the heater, that hot air is going to rise straight up to the ceiling anyway. Then after a while it will mix and normalize with the other air and warm up the room. A small fan to help it circulate will help this happen faster.
 
#17 ·
You guys have reading comprehension problems.

This isn't for a work-related job, it's for the workshop at the back of my garage.

I'm going to be refinishing an antique table soon so I need to put some heat in my workshop. I don't want fan forced heat or anything else that actively moves air, because I don't want to stir up dust that will get stuck in tacky varnish.

I have a 4' baseboard heater but I don't want to put it on the floor because I'm always stacking sh!t there. Is there any reason I can't mount it like 4 or 5 feet up on the wall?
 
#34 ·
Depends on the finish, but generally I want it room temperature. It was like mid-40s in there the other day and I stained & varnished a little scrap piece of western hemlock as an experiment. It worked fine, I just had to let each coat cure for 24 hours or so. But with the table I want to do it as perfectly as possible so I want it warmer in there. Anyway standing there working on projects in a 40 degree room sucks :laughing:

What about exhaust? Necessary?
I have a through-the-wall exhaust fan in there for when I'm using some really gnarley stuff. But the strategy for the wood refinishing is, do all the prep work (sanding, etc) for each coat, then let the dust settle as much as possible, then wipe it down with a tack cloth, apply a coat, and then shut the door and leave so as not to stir up more crap. After an hour or so, when the finish is a bit tacky, I can go in and check it out for dust particles or another contaminants and dab them off with a teeny tiny pointy artist paintbrush.
 
#32 ·
IMHO, you would need to place a piece of baseboard on the wall below the heater. If not, this will likely void the UL listing of it being a baseboard heater.
You could also have the heater re-listed as a wall heater, but your finish will be ruined by the time the testing is done to make it a wall heater!:)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top