I don't know anything about plumbing, but we had Beacon/morris hydronic kickers put in and thespace we're heating is about the size of your kitchen, or even a little smaller and 2 kickers (one on each end of island) heat the room just wonderfully. i think we have the advantage of the kitchen being directly over our utility room - so the boiler is literally under the kitchen floor.

I realize you have a bit more complication with being on a slab, but my understanding is that electric heat costs a fortune. Though, you arent in Boston like I am so your winters are a bit more mild!

I have had Turbonics heaters operating for 20 years here in NH, so they do have reliability. I recently added two 6/8s under cabinets in the kitchen undergoing renovation. They put out a lot of heat even wired for low fan speed, and presently heat the adjoining living room area.

With a 4-inch kick space, there is some "breathing" when the cabinet base access cover is put back over them. I suspect this may be a bit of stall at the fan, so I intend to find a way to slow them down even further when I have time to experiment.

Pending addition of living room baseboard heaters to this loop, there is presently one baseboard of about 12 ft in the loop with a Taco 007 pump, I believe. They do not shut off during operation due to over-cooling with this setup. Furnace is set to a range of 160F - 180F, but can overshoot.

If there is a simple way to cut the fan speed, this might work for you in VA. With less air flow, cooling of the fins would be slower and the units might better match your loop's flow rate and not cycle excessively. Note that this all depends on actual flow and temperature of the water leaving the furnace.

kas

I would go with the hydronic toe kick. The 100 ft of pex is $32.45, the pump is $98.95, and the valves should be less than $100. I think even in 5 years you'll come out ahead of paying for electric heat. These prices are from pexsupply, which I highly recommend. They have toekick heaters as well. Also, FWIW if you're a diyer, Pex is incredibly easy to work with. I've hooked up several new radiators with it and plumbed my new laundry room.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pex Supply

Thanks everyone for the info - to clarify - I am not on a slab I have a full basement. I guess I just need to figure out how to plumb it in and not have the my existing Taco 007 pump conflict with the pump for the toe kick heater....

At the most basic level, you can imagine the boiler having an in and an out. The out is usually at the top, and the in is usually near the bottom. The out branches to the two loops (circuits) which rejoin at the in. Each loop has to have a pump and a check valve. (They should also have drains, preferably including one on each side of each pump.)

There are arguments for having the pumps push from the out end and for having the pumps pull into the in end of each loop. I'm not qualified or awake enough to address their merits in this message.

Each pump is controlled by a thermostat via a control box. One control circuit could be the hydrostat already on the furnace. Another could be a Honeywell or other unit mounted to the furnace, or you could buy a Taco box designed to control some number of circuits.

The fun part is looking at the controls and reading their directions and figuring out how to prioritize, if needed. Usually, if there is a circuit for a water tank, it gets priority and also forces the furnace to run to the upper temperature limit.

Or, you can just do all the plumbing and get your heating tech to hook up the controls.

kas

I had a similar situation -- I lost all my walls where I could have baseboard heat. Went from a constricted to open floor plan.

Instead of going the toekick route -- I went radiant floor heat. If you have access to the floor from below, and your floor will be tile or stone, it wasn't all that different than adding a zone like your hydronic toekick heater would be. I did all the work myself.

1. Add zone to heating system
2. Add Taco RMB -1 controller (computer control, takes care of mixing, activating boiler, etc) ~ 1,000
3. Add manifolds
4. Staple aluminum fins bottom of subfloor, run tubing in joist bays
5. Add insulation

This will likely be a few thousand more than the toekick hydronic heating, but on a wintry day -- your feet will thank you!

I did this in two rooms, one room I used the staple up method from below, for the kitchen tile, and the other I embedded the tubing in 2 inches of concrete under a wood floor (I have a sunken dining room where I could get away with the concrete).

Mind you, a quote to do the same work from a plumber was $40,000. This was likely a way of saying "I don't want to do this work, but if you are stupid enough to pay me that much, I will"

For the tubing for 2 rooms, aluminum plates, clips for tubing, 2 manifolds, 2 controllers, piping, zone valve, 2 thermostats, etc -- all in I was talking a little less than 5k.

BEST MONEY EVER SPENT!

If you are interested in going this route, I can help via pictures model #'s etc.

If you have a good honest plumber, I am sure their charge would be less than my quote. The biggest pain is snaking the tubes in the bays - which anyone can do if they have patience and your plumber would likely charge less if you took care of that part for him...