I have baseboard heat in my house. We have one baseboard that is frequently blocked by coats hanging on a coat rack. When this happens my wife is upset because she thinks that it will prevent the house from warming up effectively.
But this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. With an unblocked baseboard the heat radiates off the baseboard fins into the air which is now warmed and the house is comfortable.
In the case of a baseboard blocked by coats wouldn’t I just have a situation where the baseboard warms a coat and then the heat dissipates from the coat into the air? There’s heat rubs no less frequently or intensely as the thermostat is in a different part of the room. So the same net amount of heat is being generated. It just has a detour before it gets into the air. No?
Thanks for explaining.
In: Physics
It’s less effective if you block the heater. Let’s take it to the extreme and imagine you placed the heater in a different room. Imagine how hot the room with the heater would have to get to heat the room with the thermostat in it. The hotter any area is compared to outside ambient temperature the faster heat is lost to the outside.
Your coats are a less extreme version of that but does create a hot spot that will lose heat to outside at a faster rate. Not to mention the fire hazard.
The other thing to consider is that for you to feel warm, which is the whole point, the air being warm is important. Objects being warm has a much less effect on comfort ( with the exception if the floor). But takes significant energy. Circle back to the heat lost to the outside and you can see why warming the walls (for example) doesn’t really efficiently affect comfort.
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