> On Fri, Nov 30, 2001 at 07:48:50AM -0500, Wesley Darlington wrote:
> > When transferring heat via convection, heat rises, sure. When
> transferring
> > via radiation or "conduction", I, um, remain unconvinced of the
> rising-ness
> > of heat.
>> Heat doesn't rise. It radiates out in all directions. However, hot
> air rises. This is irrelevant when discussing the movement of heat
> through a wall. So the whole wall will heat. Technically if you have
> a hot floor then the air above it will heat and rise, but I'd imagine
> hot walls wouldn't be significantly worse at heating the air in a room.
The difference is that the heat distribution will be much more
even with floor heating, since the convection currents will
(probably) rise and fall throughout the room. (Experiments with
liquids heated from below show that small convection cells tend to
form where a rings of liquid rise, cool and fall through
the middle of the rings - or maybe it rises in the middle of
the ring... the book is at home.)
With wall heating, the air will rise at the sides of the room and
fall in one big "pillar" down the middle, giving a less uniform
heat distribution. The airflow might even be fast enough for you
to feel it. That would be a little disconcerting...
Later,
Kenn
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