Thermostat Placement
A year ago we completed a renovation on our masonry row house that extended the house to the rear, twenty feet beyond the other houses in the row. We also added a third storey, while the other houses in the row are two stories high. Problem now is that the new part of the house–the…
A year ago we completed a renovation on our masonry row house that extended the house to the rear, twenty feet beyond the other houses in the row. We also added a third storey, while the other houses in the row are two stories high.
Problem now is that the new part of the house–the two-storey twenty-foot extension in the rear and the entire third floor, is four to six degrees colder in winter than the original part of the house, which of course is nestled between the other houses in the row.
We have single-zone, gas-fired, radiator steam heat, with adequate radiators throughout the house. But currently the thermostat is in the second floor hallway, within the original part of the house, and so registers the temperature of the warmer original part of the house and turns off the boiler before the new part of the house gets to the desired temperature. Should I move the thermostat to the third floor to be able to better control the heat throughout? Or perhaps there are other solutions to consider?
Thank you for any and all suggestions.
You did not mention if your architect/builder did any kind of calculations on if your boiler had the extra capacity or not.
If not, going the separate furnace route would be better and less expensive.
If your boiler was oversized to begin with (or you installed a bigger one) you do have the possible choice of increasing the radiation in the cold spots. But it’s a crap shoot. Sizing steam systems is an (almost lost) art. Check heatinghelp.com (I think).
But you made it easy to judge you: let’s see: a 20ft extension is pretty large (I see a bunch of 8-12 footers around me) and, coupled with the extra floor, obviously makes your houuse somewhat out of context.
That gotten out of the way, you have very few options with a one-zone system. Steam heat is not too flexible. Moving the thermostat will most probably not work out.
The best way would probably be to use a separate furnace (gas, forced air) for the top floor since it could be roof installed (obviously you’re not landmarked) and ducting would be easy. Also this by definition creates a separate zone which may be useful and more efficient if you care. You might look into heatpumps (which would give you a/c as well) but I don’t think they are cost effective in mostly heating conditions we have here.
If you take care of the top floor that way, you can double or increase the radiator sizes in the extension to improve heat.
I’m assuming you have up-to-snuff insulation everywhere; if not, do that also.
Sorry, not envy, have original extension on my house – which is the way it was built but not greedy, maximize the far type extension, People have done it on my neighbors block and it is ugly and hurts their property,blocks light in the gardens. I realize it is legal, but there are other things that matter besides legality, such as what kind of person you are.
quest is actually guest and is the username for anyone who posts comments, but does not sign in with a personal username.
hey mr. brownstoner, can you capitalize the “guest” username on posts so it reads “Guest”? Many people seem to have the misconception that there is a user out there named quest who is a know it all 🙂
Is there a font that better displays the difference between a g and a q? At this point, it would be the humane thing.
We did a 2 story 12 foot addition on the back of our 3 story townhouse (neighbors still love us). Anyway, we needed to put a thermostat in the addition. It has it’s own zone. (we have hot water heat) and that works great. The addition gets hotter than the original house. I would suggest adding another zone. Oh, and don’t listen to the idiots that give you a hard time for your expansion. As long as you stayed within your building code it’s your right. Plus, what you are hearing is really envy.
if only we were all as smart as “quest”, who seemingly has something to say in every thread.
To quest and master plumber: thank you for your suggestions. I will certainly discuss them with my wife and we will think about them seriously.
To cmu and quest, I suggest you refrain from judging people before you know them. We love our 1889 house and the reason we extended was we could not bear to leave it. We interviewed a half-dozen architects and dismissed them because they wanted to build a mcmansion, until we found one who convinced us that he loved the original house as much as we did, and would preserve its spirit. My wife has lived on our block for fifteen years, is well loved by our neighbors, and they are happy that we found a way to stay on the block.
As for what everyone knows and does not know, I am a first-time homeowner, so I am afraid that I have yet to scale the heights of knowledge commmanded by quest. I would respond more directly to your namecalling, quest, but I do think that your behavior reveals more about you than anything I would come up with.
Moron – what did you think was going to happen when you build out like that. Everyone knows exposed extensions are always colder than the parts with party walls.
I bet your neighbors love you too!