Any way to implement a forced air solution from beneath the cabinets?

AGA cooker? :)

We are in a similar situation. I saw in another remodel they put radiant heat underneath the wood floor. However, we can't pull our floors up.

Layout of our old tiny kitchen leaves us with very little wall space to leave the radiators. We have penciled in the idea of a toe kick heater, worked into our existing boiler system.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slant fin radiator

There are toe kick heaters that install under kitchen cabinets. I have them with my hot water heat, but I don't know if they have models that work with steam. Basically when they heat up, it activates a fan that blows hot air into the room. You might want to ask your gas company if it's available with steam heat.

To use kick heaters with my furnace I was told I'd need to add a hot water loop at a cost upwards of 8-10 thousand dollars.

I'm interested in electric toe kick heaters, but how loud are they? I'd probably need more than one and I fear the drone of a constant fan might drive me nuts. I know the hood vent does already.

We replaced our existing baseboard radiators that didn't even come close to keeping the kitchen warm with a toekick radiator under one of the cabinets. Do the math to make sure it is sized correctly, but once sized right it is very quiet and definitely keeps the kitchen warm.

Having a boiler is more than halfway to having hot water radiant floor heating. You just need a temperature modultor and a way to get the tubing under the floor. Radiant is best suited to tile floors though. Wood needs a much lower temperature water output boiler and it's difficult to successfully achieve those low temps with a steam boiler.

You need to contact a HVAC pro who is familiar with the cost/benefit analysis of the different products.

My toe kicks are about 20 years old and they're a bit noisier now than when they were new. They're not anywhere near as loud as a range hood fan though - just a steady whirring sound in the background. I often work at my kitchen table during the day and I don't even notice them. It sounds like electric may be your only option, but they may be expensive to operate. You might want to visit a showroom to listen to one in person. As katylou mentioned, they'll only cover a certain amount of space, so you might want to consult a professional to make sure you get enough of them.

With a steam boiler, I would imagine that you'd have the same issues putting in radiant heat as you would have with toekicks.

We have been gradually replacing our ugly Slant-Fin hot water baseboard units with new ones from Runtal. Runtal doesn't make steam units but their website says they have a sister company that does (link below). We have found the Runtal units to be very efficient compared to the originals, and actually attractive. At first glance, the steam units look pretty jazzy and like they are an efficient use of space. (Both companies are in Massachusetts, no connection to them except I am loving my Runtals.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Steam Radiators

In a previous home, we had hot water radiators. We replaced them in the kitchen only with radiant floor heat. We installed slate flooring. It was wonderful. The warmest room in a historic house. It allowed us to get rid of two radiators. Rather than an HVAC guy, we needed the services of an experienced plumber.

@wannakitchen: I would double check on the costs on adding a water loop to your existing system. Cost seems really high. I initially was told something outrageous for doing kick toe heaters in a furnace with rads. Turned out to be nothing close to the figure someone pulled out the sky. (The contractor was trying to get me to do baseboard heat which I absolutely hate). So keep looking.

dup

This post was edited by Mags438 on Mon, Jan 12, 15 at 13:32

When we reno'd our kitchen, we removed the wall between the kitchen and what was then the DR (now the LR), and we also installed cabinets along the wall under the window. In so doing, we lost the kitchen baseboard heat pipes that had existed at the base of those walls, so we had kick heaters installed in the kitchen island as part of the reno. We got two Turbonics toe kick heaters (one on each side of the island). I read about them here on GW, (before I even joined as a member). I've mentioned here before that our plumber, who had tried to convince us we wouldn't like kickheaters ("they're noisy") or even need them (he can tolerate the cold a lot better than we can!), told us that he was impressed with ours after he installed them.

They aren't noisy, per se. The only thing you hear with ours, is the sound of air blowing when the fans kick in (ours are controlled by the optional/supplied switches, and when they are switched on the fans will blow when our wall thermostat is calling for heat--when desired temp is reached, and boiler valve "closes" the kickheater fans shut off and stop blowing, until thermostat calls for heat when temp drops below the set temp). There are no motor sounds at all when running them.

If switched to "hi" speed, the air sound can be loud, but we only turn them on to "hi" briefly on super-cold days/nights to speed up warming of the kitchen, and then turn them down to "lo" speed.

In the spring and fall, the baseboard (heat) in the adj LR, usually keeps the kitchen warm enough, without the need to switch on the kickheaters. Once it gets colder here (southern NYS), we start using the kitckheaters when we are home and in the kitchen. When we go out, or just leave the kitchen to hang out in another room, we switch them off.

Here is a link that might be useful: Turbonics heaters

Fyi- we went with turbonics too. I didn't find their website that great but they were fabulous. I contacted the turbonics owner via email, who in turn led me to their distributor in my area. The distributor in turn, recommended a local plumber who installed 2 kick toe heaters into my island.

As with just about everything utility-related in this house, our kick toe heaters are on a programmable thermostat

I always spec Turbonics for toe heaters, except for shallower depth cabinets. Then Beacon Morris. I have a 30" Turbonics and a 24 x 12 BM in a 40 x 16 ft space after removing a wall and all baseboard. We keep the fans set to low. Fine here in the Hudson Valley in a 60 yo house.

Haven't done it myself but have heard of running them off hot water heaters when it was a steam boiler. Talk with the mfg or HVAC guy.

I really appreciate all the good input. Thanks.

If I go with a hydronic system I'll definitely check out the Turbonics.

What I'm wondering is if the electrics are any noisier than the hydronics? I'm guessing both use fans to push out the heat, and the fans are the noisy part, therefore the noise level should be fairly similar. Is that a fair guess?

I gotta say, I like the heat from my radiators, but I sure wish they were hot water instead of steam. Would save me a lot of trouble going forward.

Turbonics uses muffin fans, they are the quietest, BM has rotary fan with ball bearings second. AFAIK no others use ball bearing fans. My experience has been that others are noisier particularly electric.
Be sure to check BTU rating.