The building is tall, sleek, and mostly glass. Due to mechanical constraints exacerbated by that slim design, hot water was not available in most of the upper residences, and that made hydronic systems impractical. So the building owner requested Berko ASL3 convector heaters from Marley Engineered Products.

Convection heaters provide warmth and heat to a specific area or room by circulating air and heating it using a highly efficient electric element. Designed for quiet, controlled comfort, they are ideal for both residential and commercial applications, including living rooms and bedrooms, offices, hallways, lobbies, conference rooms, retail stores, and buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows.

The challenge came from the building owner’s preference to keep the heaters hidden for aesthetic reasons. The varying heights and angles of the millwork in each condo limited the ability to install the heaters directly where they wanted them.

A custom design proved to be the answer.

The solution involved fabricating and supplying custom dual inlet convector heaters, which were then mounted within the millwork of each condominium unit by Faber Industrial Technologies. Using a thermocouple array, the engineering team at Marley tested the Berko ASL3 convectors — at 125 watts per foot and 120V — inside a customer-supplied demo millwork section sent from New York City. After making some adjustments to the design, thermal couplers were utilized on both the heaters and their enclosures to ensure their surface temperatures would pass a UL site inspection.

Then, power relays were used to fit the heaters into each condo’s temperature control system. The result was an “invisible” solution where none of the controls or heaters could be seen in the residential units.