Cons of Baseboard Heating

By now, most of us have heard the horror stories of high electricity bills and insufficient heating capabilities of electric baseboard heaters. But there are numerous advantages if you use electric baseboard heating. So we thought that a balanced piece that gives the good and bad of these heaters was in order. Thus, in this piece, we discuss the Cons of Baseboard Heating. We hope this piece will help you make highly informed decisions about which type of heating you wish to have in your home.

However, on the contrary, they offer an economical alternative to smelly oil and kerosene, potentially dangerous heating, in a properly prepared environment. In fact, we’ve utilized electric baseboard heaters in our home for twelve years to warm the second floor, and found that the pros of the convection heaters we installed far outweighed the cons.

Picture of a typical installation of an electric baseboard heater in bathroom. — Baseboard electric heater, typical bathroom installation. Cons of Baseboard Heating.

Cons of Baseboard Heating: Disadvantages, Drawbacks, Limitations

Requires More Insulation for Efficient Operation

Since baseboard heaters are generally positioned near to the floor, and given the fact that their convection style heat rises, this type of heat works well to ensure that the entire room is heated, from floor to ceiling. However, since electric heating in general is generally inefficient due to the implied dual energy conversion process, higher R values of insulation of the room in the walls as well as the ceiling, is required to overcome this inefficiency.

Separate Wiring Usually Needed for Heaters and Thermostat

Separate, specialized wiring must usually be installed. For the best performance and least interference with other electric appliances and lighting within the home, each heating bank (usually banked on a per room basis), must have a separate circuit run. This minimizes light dimming when the heaters come on, and avoids the possibility of overloaded branch circuits.

Cons of Baseboard Heating: Thermostats Usually Have High Voltage Inside

Electric heaters of most any type (baseboard units included) require line voltage thermostats. E.g. thermostats that are capable of directly switching 110 or 220 volt supply lines. You can install additional control equipment such as low-voltage operated relays and switches to enable a low-voltage thermostat to control a high-voltage baseboard heater. Get details from your home heating technician.

Very Dry Heat Produced

Unless the heaters you select have built-in humidifiers, electric baseboard heaters tend to produce a very dry heat, resulting in raw throats and bleeding noses during the coldest months of the year. For maximum comfort thus, you may want to buy humidifiers of some sort, to moisten the air. We used a central humidifier that was attached to our primary furnace. This added enough humidity to our second floor to solve these dry heat problems.

Baseboard Heaters can be Noisy

Baseboard heaters powered by alternating current electricity can hum loudly while operating. The din can be irksome in a bedroom where quiet operation for many folks, is essential. However, if you spend a little more for your heaters, any humming or buzzing is hardly perceptible. Hydronic heaters are particularly quiet.

Sometimes Offensive Smells when First Turned On

This type of heat typically gives off a burning smell when first activated in the fall season. During the off-months, dust accumulates on the heating elements, and burns when the elements is first energized after long periods of inactivity. However, this smoky odor disappears within minutes, and does not return so long as the heater is operated at least several times per month.

Noisy, Clicking Thermostats Too

The typical style of line voltage thermostat features a mechanical switch inside, that can click repeatedly and obnoxiously, as it turns the heater on and off. After some time, it can also start to stick; the heater remains on even after the temperature set point is reached. On several occasions, our mechanical thermostats did this, and the temperature in the so heated room, rose quickly to 90 degrees. Fortunately however, the baseboard heaters themselves had a protective circuit that shut them down when they grew too hot.

So again, make sure that the heaters you buy also have overheating protection built in. Also, using the more modern, electronically switched thermostats like the Honeywell RLV310A Digital Thermostat or the Honeywell RLV430A 5-2 Programmable Digital Thermostat, solves the problem of the older mechanically based sensors sticking in the ON position. Both of these line-voltage thermostats feature an all-electronic control mechanism, that never sticks in either the on or off position, and also provides more precise temperature control for your heaters.

You may have to periodically clean and grease your electric baseboard heaters to keep the noise down. We discuss this in our Fixing Noisy Electric Baseboard Heaters article.

These Heaters Often Cost A Lot to Operate

Perhaps the most daunting of Cons of Baseboard Heating, is that running it can really jack up your electricity bill. Especially so when used for primary heat.

Cons of Baseboard Heating: Conclusion

We opted to install the electric baseboard heating. But while resistance heating indeed has some drawbacks, it realized that it also features numerous favorable points, as outlined above. These won us over. Plus, our cost to heat the two rooms upstairs ranged from $60 to $80 per month. Not bad, even for us starving-artist writers.

We wired and installed our heaters, ourselves, and so, avoided the expenses of “professional” installation by an electrician. And, except for occasional greasing, those heaters never gave us any trouble for over a decade of cold Pennsylvania winters. So, we’d highly recommend baseboard heating, powered by electricity. Particularly if you’re building a new home, and can thus, design it from the ground up to support electric heat. Great comfort levels, simple to work with, rugged, and the heaters endure well.