Conditions for the onset of nonpenetrative convection in a horizontal Boussinesq fluid layer subject to a step change in temperature are studied using propagation theory. A wide range of Prandtl numbers and two different kinematic boundary conditions are considered. It is shown that for high Rayleigh numbers, critical conditions for the onset of convective motion reproduce exactly those for the unsteady Rayleigh-Benard instability. Present results extend those of previous research and show a tendency of the rigid-rigid and free-rigid critical curves to converge for low Prandtl numbers. Comparison between present and previously reported results on critical conditions for the onset of instabilities and onset time using different methods yields good agreement on a middle to high Prandtl number range. A ratio of 10 between experimentally measured and theoretically predicted onset times is suggested for stress-free bounded systems. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.