Want to keep your room extra toasty? A baseboard heater is the answer
When you want to warm up a space quickly and quietly, a baseboard heater can come in handy. These mounted heating units are ideal for increasing the temperature of a specific room or zone of a home, and they tend to be quieter and easier to maintain than a forced-air heating system. If you’re considering a new or additional heating element in your home, here’s how to install a baseboard heater with the help of a professional.
Please note that installing a baseboard heater is an extremely advanced project that is dangerous to take on if you don’t have professional experience in electrical work. This guide can inform you how a professional may approach installation, but you shouldn’t attempt this project without advanced electrical skills.
Finally, note that this guide is specifically for electric baseboard heaters that use a heating element. Hydronic baseboard heaters, which use a boiler and a system of pipes to produce radiant heat, are more complicated to install. They are typically installed all at once and reserved for a remodel or a large professional project.
Since a heater installation like this requires in-depth knowledge of your wiring and other home systems, we recommend you start with some research or at least refresh your electrical DIY skills. You should understand the following topics:
The voltage of your system: Know the voltage of the wiring in the rooms where you want to install heaters and the voltage that the heaters will need to operate efficiently. A 120V heater is usually easier to install in standard home systems, but higher-voltage models will require some additional wiring work.
Circuit breakers and amps: Understand which breakers control the rooms where the heaters will be. Also, find out if the breakers and the circuit have enough amps to handle the amperage that the heaters will add to the room. You may need to upgrade breakers or other components before you begin.
Heater placement: Baseboard heaters are placed under windows for the best results, but their position in the room, where you want to put furniture, and nearby electronics all make a difference.
Clearance for the heaters: Baseboard heaters can’t be near any furniture and may have trouble with some kinds of carpet. Drapes or curtains can’t be within several feet of a baseboard heater. Solve any clearance issues before you begin.
Local electrical codes: Look up codes associated with this project so you understand any specific requirements. For example, you’ll likely need a permit to install multiple heaters.
Fire codes: Whenever you’re installing a heater, check the local fire codes for rules about materials near the heater, how the heater must be installed, and similar instructions.
When you’re ready to learn how to install a baseboard heater, you’ll first need to visit your local home improvement store to determine which baseboard heater you want. You’ll choose a 120-volt or a 240-volt electric heater, keeping in mind that a 240-volt baseboard heater may be more efficient but will require an additional power circuit.
Calculate the electric baseboard heater size and amount of wattage you will need. The heaters are available in lengths of 12-inch increments, with typical sizes ranging from 2 to 8 feet in length. For wattage, you’ll want about 10 watts for every square foot, plus 25% more for every extra 2 feet above a standard 8-foot ceiling.
Once you’ve bought your baseboard heater kit, it’s time to determine where to install the baseboard heater along the bottom of a wall and the thermostat. The baseboard heater will need about an inch of space below it to allow air to flow in. Although you can usually install a baseboard heater below a window, most models must be 6 to 12 inches away from curtains or other window treatments.
With so many rules regarding placement, you need the help of a licensed professional. There are safety concerns and building codes to follow when choosing where to install a baseboard heater and thermostat, so a pro should inspect the room and identify the best place for installation.
Once the professional has marked the places to install the thermostat and baseboard heater, they will start by installing the wall box, which will house the thermostat. However, if the baseboard heater has a thermostat on the heater itself, the pro will install the thermostat at a later step when connecting the cables.
Before beginning, they will shut off the power to safely handle the wiring for the thermostat and heater. Then, the pro will trace the wall box on a wall that is away from a heat source for more accurate temperature readings and about 60 inches from the floor for easier access.
The pro will cut through the drywall with a knife or drywall saw to install the wall box.
Next, the pro will connect a non-metallic (NM) cable to the electrical panel, snaking it through the walls until it reaches where they placed the thermostat wall box. The pro will use the drywall saw and a drill to snake the cable.
This step also requires electrical tape to mark the “line” and “load” wires. Line wires deliver power, while load wires move the power to the next device.
Next, the wall heater pro will place the baseboard heater or heaters, depending on how many you purchased for the room, against the wall where they will install the devices. On one side of the baseboard heater is a cover that the pro will remove, revealing a knock-out that needs to be pushed out. This is where the wiring will connect to the heater.
Then, using a stud finder, the pro will determine where to securely mount the heater. The baseboard heater has openings along the back, where it will screw into the wall. The expert may set the heater on top of a wood block in order to align the openings and mark where to drill into the wall.
With the openings marked and aligned with the studs, a professional will use a drill to connect the baseboard heater to the wall. The pro can then remove the wood blocks from beneath the heater.
The heater expert will now push the NM cable through the knock-out hole near the factory-installed wiring attached to the baseboard heater and secure it with the lock nut.
If you install multiple baseboard heaters in one room, the pro will need to add additional wiring between the heaters to connect them. Either way, once the heaters are connected, the pro will also need to connect wiring from the electrical panel to the thermostat and then to the baseboard heater. This will involve stripping the appropriate wires, so it is critical to let a pro handle this part, even if you’ve been doing some of the work yourself.
With the wiring connected, it’s time to turn the power back on and test the heater. Turn the heater to a high temperature, and use an infrared thermometer to check that the heat from the device starts to increase. Then, turn the thermostat off to ensure the heater shuts down completely.
Installing a baseboard heater costs about $400 to $1,500 for materials and labor. For the unit alone, you may spend around $50 for a small unit or over $700 for a longer unit. In addition, whether you have the skills to DIY or you hire a pro, you may spend about $50 to $200 for building permits to complete this project.
By DIYing, you could save on labor costs, which run about $75 to $250 per hour. But baseboard heaters and their wiring must be installed correctly to avoid shock and fire risks. You shouldn’t attempt to install a baseboard heater on your own. Instead, hire a wall heater repair company near you to replace or install a new baseboard heater safely.
One downside to baseboard heating is that it can be more expensive to run each month compared to a forced-air system. On the other hand, it is easier to maintain on your own, so you could save on maintenance and cleaning costs. Another downside is that baseboard heaters are hot and easily accessible, so you need to take extra care to keep furnishings, small children, and pets away from the heaters.
You shouldn’t install your own baseboard heaters unless you have a background in electrical work. Learning how to install a baseboard heater typically involves working with electrical wires, and improper installation can be dangerous. However, if you have an existing baseboard heater and want to replace it with a compatible system, you should be able to plug the new heater into the existing system.
A standalone electrical heater is the easiest to install. These models often come with onboard controls so you don’t need to worry about installing a thermostat elsewhere. They’re also the cheapest to purchase. However, these baseboard heaters have several cons. They’re the most expensive to run once they are installed and the most likely to create a fire hazard.
It’s possible, but you should ask a local heating professional to get a better idea. For an electric baseboard heater, you can often wire a new heater into an existing thermostat (if it has enough room), so the thermostat will control both old and new heaters. If you want to install an additional hydronic heater, you’ll have to make sure the boiler has the capacity and route new piping to the boiler, which is generally a task for experienced heating professionals.
Hydronic radiant baseboard heaters are the most efficient to run. Add a geothermal heat pump, and it’s one of the most efficient heating options. Any type of heating with electric heating elements, including baseboard heaters, tends to have the worst efficiency ratings since it takes so much energy to heat up the element, and so much of that energy is wasted before it becomes heat.
