Relocate/replace recessed steam radiator?

[fusarelli]

Hi,
I need to remove and relocate/replace what I believe is called a recessed steam radiator. I have a gas boiler and the entire house has baseboard heaters, except for my kitchen and bathrooms which have the recessed steam radiators. Anyhow, in my kitchen there is a 6' window and a radiator underneath it. My plan is to replace the window with a french door to lead out to the deck. I'll need to remove the radiator, but there is nowhere else on that wall that would work to move it to. There is one exterior wall and 2 interior walls with cabinets (no 3rd interior wall because it's open to the dining room). So really, my question is, what can i use to heat kitchen instead of the radiator? Once i'm done with the kitchen remodel and french door, i won't have any open wall space for the radiator or baseboard heaters, they will all be filled with cabinets. I took a quick look into toe kicks, but i'm not sure how great they are. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[GrandpaDan]

Hi,
A few details, please?
What's your climate like where you live?
Do you have a basement or crawl space access to the piping?
It's probably not "steam". It's hot water, right? Steam heat is a whole different creature.
You will probably lose a little more heat with the French doors, as compared to a window and wall combination (depends on how good the existing wall and window are in the first place!) but hot water heat is pretty flexible, and there are a lot of options.

 

[fusarelli]

Thanks for the response. Yes is a hot water system. I attached a pic of what it is.
I'm in CT so our winters here are cold and sometimes below 0 degrees. The piping is accessible through the finished basement. Unfortunately there's an access door only where the shutoff is, so I'll be tearing down some Sheetrock to relocate it.

Being in the North east, I don't think I can get away with just eliminating the kitchen heat altogether. However, I do have natural gas so that does leave me with more options.

What would you recommend? Thanks!

 

[GrandpaDan]

Ok...does that cabinet have a fan in it?

 

[GrandpaDan]

Ok...does that cabinet have a fan in it?

Sorry...it's an interesting configuration...I can see it's a cast iron radiator.

Those are not very efficient heat transfer devices, but they have mass and a fair amount of area...and yours look like it has a shroud to create a chimney effect.

But anyway...the toe space heaters can do the job, and you might want to look at different types of fan coils...basically fin-tube with a fan that is operated with a separate control. You get one level of heating anytime the "boiler" (yes, the name is confusing. Nothing is boiling!) and then if you need more, the fan turns on, stripping more heat from the coil.