LESLIE: Now we’ve got Gary on the line who’s looking for some efficient baseboard heating. Tell us what’s going on and what you need some help with.
GARY: Well, I have a bathroom on the north side of the house and in Nebraska, it gets pretty cold in the winter. And so I was wondering about using a baseboard heater to warm up that corner of the house; how efficient they are and what the advantage of a 240 is over a 120-volt.
TOM: So it’s just a stand-alone bathroom on the north side of the house that doesn’t get enough heat?
GARY: Yeah.
TOM: OK. So, a couple of things. First of all, adding electric heat to that is the – definitely the easiest. Since it’s a small room, you don’t have to go with 240-volt; you can go with 110-volt. I would have it centrally wired and not use a plug-in unit.
Since it’s such a tiny room, I mean it’s – a strip baseboard heater is the best. If it was a bigger area, I might recommend a larger space heater but just a strip baseboard heater should be fine. The downside is that the thermostat on those is mounted on the unit itself. If you buy a little bit better-quality one, you can actually have one that’s mounted on the wall. But I think that’s an easy way for you to increase the heating in just that one small, very strategic area of your house.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And of course, for cost-effectiveness, you’re not going to put this on and keep it on when you’re not in there. You’re going to put it on, you know, a couple minutes before you go in there. And because of the size of the space of the room, it’ll really do a great job of heating it effectively and quickly. And then once you’re done in there, turn it off.
But of course, since it’s a bathroom, you want to make sure that you manage the moisture well, because if you’re dealing with extremes between hot and cold, you’re going to get a lot of condensation in there.
GARY: Uh-huh. Well, this one I was looking at does have a programmable thermostat.
TOM: Oh, good. Well, good. That’s a good choice then. I think you’re on the right track.
GARY: Alright. Well, thanks very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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