Alternative kitchen heating

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May 26, 2004 at 12:08 pm #5369
brumster	Hi guys, I’m currently working on plans for a new kitchen in a house we’re moving into. It’s pretty much your run-of-the-mill rectangular affair currently with units on 2 of the four walls. I’d like to make the most of the room by putting units across the other two unused walls – however one of them has the radiator across it. I’m trying to find alternative ways of heating the room such that this wall would be freed up – the obvious one is under-floor heating but I’m not sure of the cost/fitting implications with this. I was thinking first of trying to find either an alternative radiator – something like often fitted in bathrooms, whereby it’s tall and thin. This would still require giving up a little space but hopefully no more than one units’ worth. The other off-the-wall (no pun intended) thought was to have a worksurface without any units underneath it, and cut some of the back edge away (and finish it appropriately), then use a conventional slimline radiator underneath it, allowing some heat out from behind the worksurface. However I’m unsure the worksurface would like being directly over such a heat source – warping issues/etc? Has anyone dealt with such an issue in an interesting way other than under-floor heating? If possible I’d like to keep the radiator approach. More questions to follow as the date nears, I’m sure, but this’ll get us going for starters Cheers, Dan Howell
May 26, 2004 at 8:57 pm #5371
timfoley	Welcome to the forum Brumster, I think I have just the alternative for you here. You can maintain full cabiner design in your kitchen by installing plinth heaters and the hydronic type can be installed using your existing pipework. These are an effective alternative that allow you to continue design without barriers. All that is required is that you adapt the existing pipework to run below your plinth and install an electrical outlet to operate the fan. I shall private message you my recommendation.
May 27, 2004 at 5:59 am #5374
brumster	Ooo, excellent stuff, thanks very much… I get the feeling that this site is going to become very, very useful over the next few months! Thanks Tim, you do a grand job answering people’s questions on here. It’s much appreciated – good advice, particularly free, is hard to come by these days. Keep up the good work! Cheers, Dan
May 27, 2004 at 8:54 pm #5381
miles	Hello Dan Forget heating. It should only be the wife working in the kitchen. Buy her a nice fleece for her birthday. If she gets cold in the kitchen. Hey presto, she can put on her fleece, that you thoughtfully bought for her. Seriously, though. Honest, that was a joke. Another alternative is a wall mounted fan. Although not cheap to run, they do work well in a small kitchen. Cheers Miles.
May 28, 2004 at 11:54 am #5384
brumster	ROFL Thanks guys, Dan
May 29, 2004 at 2:15 pm #5385
timfoley	Miles, I think you’ve just endeared yourself to a new fan base – wives up and down the country are no doubt swooning in admiration of your implication that their place is in front of a hot stove slaving over a meal for the man of the house. I’ll pass on any fan mail we receive in this regard. Dan, As an added advantage plinth heaters can be utilised to cool the area in warm conditions as they have a cooling fan facility.
January 20, 2005 at 2:29 pm #5723
brumster	Hi Tim and all, Just thought I’d revisit to let you know how I got on with the kitchen, and a particular thanks to the tip with the hydronic plinth heater in particular. The Smiths model went in absolutely fine, was a doddle to install (simply extended the radiator pipework off the existing wall and connected the flexis onto it, so very little effort in the end) and works great on hydronic mode – warms the kitchen up absolutely fine (~12 ft. sq). The kitchen was also an absolute doddle to put in compared to how I’d imagined it was going to be – the only pain was joining the worktops (solid wood – got an expert in for them ). I won’t mention the manufacturer of the kitchen in case that’s “out of line” on this forum, but suffice to say I’m very impressed and happy, and had pretty much zero issues with any of the supplied items. Once again, big thanks to Tim and all those who contribute to this site/forum – it’s a big help!