Blocking the baseboard heat

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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

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

All that would do is to slightly slow down the rate at which the radiator warms the room. Once the room is already warm, it should have no real effect.

Unless you manage to set the coats on fire.

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