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Heating an Odd Shaped Room

Topic: 
Heating and Cooling
Question: 

Dear George,

Oddly enough I am from Leavenworth, just a few hours and over Stevens Pass from your Sound Home, but I am writing to you from Bulgaria, where I can't seem to find anyone to answer my question - in more than 3 months of active searching....

I am not sure if you can help on this one as it was not in the very useful heating and cooling FAQ on your site, but after 8 additional hours of searching Google, you seemed to be the best person to turn to and I am praying for some home town (or at least State) assistance, so please help!

I have an unfortunately oddly shaped space that is the only possible place to put a heating source for a ~1000sq.ft room. We had electric radiators, but they are simply way too costly to run. This odd space is actually located underneath the windows and set back about 14". This "cubby" is 1'10" in height and about 12' long. Below is the apartment floor and above are ceiling high windows. Due to this and other construction elements, this really is the only place to put any kind of heating. I am attracted to heat pumps for their high efficiency, unfortunately the only type of heat pump I have found that fits in the space requirements are wall mounted heat pumps. Will putting a wall mounted heat pump only 10-15cm off the floor be a problem? Will it heat our place even though it was designed to be put near the ceiling. Would it be worth the investment?

The only answer I could seem to get from people over here is that the hot air will come out of the heat pump and only heat at the floor level. Having some of the most fundamental laws of physics in mind, I simply couldn't buy the idea that our apartment would be capable of creating a temperature inversion defying the law of heat rising...

Please, any help you can provide would be very welcomed and much appreciated and perhaps could even lead to a free dinner if you ever find yourself in Bulgaria:)

Thanks,

Answer: 

Hello W.

If your need is for heating then placing the heat pump low is the ideal location for a forced air system. For cooling its best high. But keep in mind that many good quality hotels and motels use under window forced air heat pumps for heating and cooling and that works quite well for a regularly shaped room.

If the room does not have a regular shape - lots of ways to block the heat flow then then such a system does not work well. You might think about a hot water radiator system and one of the easiest ways to do that is by using (your existing?) on demand gas water heater. Many of these heaters can be used for such a dual use - hot water and heat. The hot water could then be circulated to several radiators by means of thin pipes. The pipes can be run along the baseboards and can be hidden with some added trim. They can also be run inside walls and attics. The heat is regulated by pumps and thermostats.

Hot water (hydronic) heating systems are quite common in central and eastern Europe and you should be able to find them in Bulgaria. I have seen such a system used in a 12th C. apartment in central Vienna.

I have been to Bulgaria twice - great trips. One of my favorite places is Veliko Tarnovo. I take construction related photos wherever I go.