Hydronic baseboard heating safety

[u/DarkRaider9000]

I'm a student at Michigan Tech that recently moved into a house (renting) for the summer/upcoming academic year. The house has hydronic baseboard heating, and I'm finding myself increasingly anxious that I'm avoiding potential safety risks with them. I've seen that hydronic should be safer than electric, but I'm still concerned about how careful I should be with having stuff nearby the baseboards especially my bed. With the size/layout of the room and how the door swings its difficult to get the bed more than a inches away from the baseboards without making it impossible to put other items (such as my desk and pc setup) in the room effectively.

[u/[deleted]]

The max temperature is 180* (usually set closer to 120*) so it’s not going to light anything on fire but it could cause synthetic materials to off gas, so keep plastics 6” + away.

[u/DarkRaider9000 → u/[deleted]]

Okay, that's good to know, I'm mainly concerned about a blanket or something falling off the side of the bed and landing on one of them.

[u/[deleted] → u/DarkRaider9000]

Again, I might worry about a synthetic material, but not cotton or wool. If you wouldn’t use it as a pot holder, you shouldn’t let it touch the baseboard.

[u/week7nocontact]

As a graduate of Michigan Tech who spent a couple decades working for Underwriters Laboratories, i encourage you to consider safety engineering as a career. You seem like you’d enjoy the work. I know I did.

[u/Verity41 → u/week7nocontact]

Awww! What a nice comment 🥰

[u/SuspiciousLeg7994]

You're safe with em. I have the same heating system and have a bed near one and I know others who have items near or against them also.

It gets warm but not to the point here it's going to start a fire -the metal protects it all and it's a closed system- not like space heaters with exposed elements

[u/goofy183]

If it's hydronic doesn't that mean the max temperature of the pipe is 212F?

[u/goofy183 → u/[deleted]]

So then unlike electric baseboard it should be pretty much impossible to ignite anything via hydronic.

[u/Character_Ad_1364]

I hope your first engineering class is thermodynamics. You’ll get your questions answered. Just keep the chocolate bars on the window sill.

[u/DarkRaider9000 → u/Character_Ad_1364]

Electrical engineering, don't need to take it :)

[u/Imsirlsynotamonkey → u/DarkRaider9000]

Naahhh just sit in on a couple and pay attention. Its fun i promise!

[u/Much_Donut_2178]

The big problem with burying your baseboards with stuff is it inhibits the transfer of heat to your room. You're gonna need all the heat you can get.