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January 14, 2009
Your Heat & The Coming Cold
PSA: The coming day’s forecast is for real winter cold. Will your heating system keep up with outdoor air temperatures in the teens? Make sure the space around your radiators is clear to allow for air to circulate up from the floor so that it may be heated as it rises trough the vanes and releases out the top. This is critical to allow for what is called convection, one of three ways a radiator warms a living space.
Another way a radiator does its job is through conduction whereby surrounding solid surfaces are warmed and heat is released slowly to the room. And the third is by radiation: A human body, in the presence of a warm surface, releases less of its internal warmth than when in the presence of cold. This is where the advantages of radiant floor heating are evident, but you don’t need to warm your floors to experience radiant heat. In fact, most residences in Europe use wall-hung radiant panel radiators rather than expensive floor warming systems. Radiators that are covered and baseboard heaters provide little or no radiant heat. Bare cast iron radiators provide the most radiant energy in a room, but the newer modern panels do it in a much more attractive way and use much less space. Radiant energy is most efficient because it doesn’t need to release energy to the room. That being the case, the water running through the radiators needs to be heated less than for what it takes to heat by convection.
Too often, I see radiators being used as bookshelves or encapsulated by clothing, window drapes or furniture.Radiant energy has some of the same characteristics as light in that it needs a direct path to you for you to know it’s there. For instance, you get no radiant heat in a “shadow” created by a panel or radiator being blocked by a chair. Knowing how your radiators work may help keep your family warm in the coming days.
Master Plvmber
http://www.GatewayPlumbing.com
Comments
Thank you Master Plumber. I always appreciate your useful posts!!
Posted by: seahag21 at January 13, 2009 10:58 PM
Me too. I'm moving my couch away from the radiator now.
Also a very late shout out from the October party. It was great meeting and talking to you. Thanks again for the tips.
Posted by: Montrose Morris at January 14, 2009 12:16 AM
Does this mean the common metal radiator covers are a bad idea? (I have hot water radiators, if that matters)
thanks
Posted by: oe at January 14, 2009 7:55 AM
I thought radiator covers helped send the heat out into the room through the vents in front, as opposed to allowing the heat to shoot straight up to the ceiling as it does when there is no radiator cover. Regardless, we'll always have radiator covers. I just have to have those. But I never place a sofa or furniture in front of them.
Posted by: traditionalmod at January 14, 2009 9:50 AM
I would also like to add that we have found it helps if you let one of your faucets run at a drip/trickle with warm water during the overnight and into morning hours to keep the pipes from freezing. The first year we moved in -the pipes froze and it took 2 days for it to warm up - luckily nothing burst - but my father-in-law (an old plumber) suggested to just let the water trickle from a faucet and that would do the trick - he was right - we haven't had a problem since!
Posted by: gemini10 at January 14, 2009 10:06 AM
Wow, gemini10, would never have thought this was needed in Brooklyn weather, even 15deg. Are you sure or just being extra careful? Anyone?
Posted by: cmu at January 14, 2009 10:18 AM
A few years back we had a week of like below 10 degrees in Feb and our pipes froze(so did our neighbors) so we learned our lesson
perhaps we are being overly-cautious - but if it goes below 15 degrees I do it - it doesn't hurt and much rather spend an extra $10 in water costs than thousands in repairs to pipes and walls etc.
Posted by: gemini10 at January 14, 2009 10:30 AM
No tips for those of us with hot air heat (not to fault MP, since this is outside his area, but still?)
Posted by: Bob Marvin at January 14, 2009 10:43 AM
Master plumber, you are the best!
Posted by: homey at January 14, 2009 11:20 AM
Thank you master plumber
Posted by: troll at January 14, 2009 12:17 PM
I live on the parlor floor of a brownstone with baseboard heat. It is absolutely freezing in my apartment...to the point where I feel like I could almost see my breath sometimes. We have told our landlord and he just says that he has the heat set at the appropriate temp. I know the law says that if the outside temp is below 55 the inside temp must be at least 68. Last time I checked the thermostat in the buildings hallway said the temp was 51. I believe it may be a few degrees warmer inside my apartment..maybe. I have even opened it up and raised the temp myself and it is still freezing. I don't think other apartments in the house are as cold as mine. I think either the heating system just isn't working or my apartment is so poorly insulated that the heat just goes right out. The brownstone is freestanding and I've often wondered if that makes the house colder. I have one other suspicion. Where the fireplaces would have been has been sheetrocked over (poorly..sheetrock doesn't even meet the floor and ceiling evenly)Knowing how cheap my landlord is I would not be surprised if he didn't even seal the fireplaces and just left it all open and through that sheetrock up right in front of it, because I can literally feel a cold breeze coming from under that wall. Can anyone give me some advice on how to get my landlord to do something about it and how to get it warmer in here. I went out and bought a space heater that I literally roll around the apartment with me day and night, but I just got walloped with a $300 electricity bill, so that's got to stop. My toes is froze!!
Posted by: boofer at January 14, 2009 1:30 PM
Master Plumber - I appreciate all of the information that you contribe on the Forum. For those of you who missed his video on this blog last winter on steam heating systems, search the archives.
When is Gateway going to expand it's service area to include Victorian Flatbush?
Posted by: yaakovdoe at January 14, 2009 2:23 PM
Boofer
am sorry to hear that
My suggestion would be to buy those "draft Guards"(you can find at Lowes) and just put them up against all crevices and door jams to at least seal in the little heat your cheap landlord is giving you.
If your apt really is at 51 degrees you must call your landlord asap and tell him you are freezing.If he stalls and says he keeps the temperature at the legal limit, demand him to show you. If the temp is at a legal setting, then you might have a problem with your baseboards in your apt that he HAS to fix! If all this doesn't work - call 311 and make a heating complaint against him.
Sorry, I'm a landlord and am a stickler for heating the house enough so we and our tenants are comfortable. If it gets too hot, they can open a window.
Posted by: gemini10 at January 14, 2009 2:43 PM
Master Plvmber,
Every winter, I seem incapable of balancing my 3 story brownstone's hot-water heating system. Gateway had every floor a nice even temperature, but despite my efforts to bleed the air from the radiators, the top floor remains freezing cold. The thermostat is on the parlor floor, and stays barely acceptable, while the garden floor is by far the warmest. Can I get all the radiators warm without cranking up the heat on the lower floors just to get the top floor bearable?
Thanks!!
Posted by: Drew at January 14, 2009 2:49 PM
Yaakovdoe,
Unfortunately, spreading ourselves too thin in the past proved counter-productive.
If I could find two more mechanics who knew what they were doing and weren't candidates for rehab, I'd widen my circle to include Victorian Flatbush in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at January 14, 2009 2:50 PM
Drew,
I'll bet you can. I'm mot sure who you are or what kind of system you've got, but get in touch and I'll give you an idea of what can be done.
http://www.GatewayPlumbing.com
Posted by: Master Plvmber at January 14, 2009 3:04 PM
M.P. I worked 15 years supervising repairs for management companies in the city. I have seen some pretty good plumbers in my day, steam fitter types who deserved to be in charge of the smart end of the tape measure, yet almost all had some kind of substance abuse problems. Does the profession drive one to self medicate, or vice versa?
Posted by: IMBY at January 14, 2009 4:28 PM
IMBY, you should see the résumés I get.
That's such a conversation for another place and time.
Definitely food for thought, though.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at January 14, 2009 7:14 PM
Here is a link to the videos yaakovdoe mentioned:
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/11/video_reignitin.php
Posted by: Master Plvmber at January 18, 2009 7:14 PM
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