Heat is provided by hot-water baseboard units.

She also replaced the lone heater in the house (an electric baseboard unit in the living room that "didn't do much") with propane-powered heaters throughout the house.

Older homes are likely to have old-fashioned cast-iron radiators instead of baseboard units.

Studies by the National Association of Home Builders show that they save 33 to 52 percent over heat pumps and baseboard units, and they are competitive with natural gas.

In the winter, the walls directly above the baseboard units get very dirty from the heated air that blows above the radiators, making it impossible to keep the walls clean.

At the Slant/Fin Corporation, a privately owned manufacturer of boilers and baseboard units for heating systems here, Donald Brown, the president, says he is being squeezed by rising prices for raw materials, particularly for aluminum and cardboard.

I bled air from the downstairs radiators, which helped a little, but the new baseboard units upstairs do not have vent valves.

Do you remember how the baseboard units would hum, even when they weren't heating?

These baseboard units are bad.