turning off individual radiators in hot water system?
Calling all plumbing experts! I have a gas-powered hot water heating system in my 4 story brownstone. Two of my tenants have turned down individual radiators (one because she doesn’t like too much heat in her bedroom and the other because they want to keep electronic equipment on top). I’ve encouraged this practice due to…
Calling all plumbing experts!
I have a gas-powered hot water heating system in my 4 story brownstone. Two of my tenants have turned down individual radiators (one because she doesn’t like too much heat in her bedroom and the other because they want to keep electronic equipment on top). I’ve encouraged this practice due to my memories of having to keep my windows wide open all winter long back when I was a renter in a tenement, and assuming that turning down individual radiators either saves or at least doesn’t waste energy.
Now I learn that my third floor tenant’s living room radiator isn’t working. I bleed and bleed and bleed, and hot water comes out but the fins don’t warm up. I am wondering if this is because the top floor tenant keeps his living room radiator turned down.
I’m going to have them do an experiment to see if turning the top floor radiator back up will affect the third floor radiator, but I wanted input from the plumbing experts: what are your thoughts on turning off individual radiators? Does that do too much damage to the hot water loop? Can it save energy (vs opening a window)? Anything else I should consider?
Thanks!
Deanbh, there are no steam traps in a hot water heating system.
it’s my understanding a two pipe system should be able to turn off individual radiators.
have you replaced the steam trap on the third floor radiator (if you dont know what they look like email me and i’ll take a photo).
We had one “stop working” over a summer 2 years ago, once this got replaced everything worked great.
There are very helpful information about radiators connector so i am thankful for all you.
Thanks for the responses! The original GCs are impossible to get a hold of, so I’m left guessing, but it’s good to know that most likely folks can individualize the heat in their rooms.
Now I’m left with the mystery of the one radiator that doesn’t turn on, despite hot water coming out when I bleed. Anyone have any ideas what could be causing that?
if your system is only two years old, you should be able to call the installer and ask for a diagram of the system…I never install radiators in series , since they are basically impossible to tune.. if you had a decent job done, meaning not the cheapest bid with slantfin baseboard slapped up randomly, you should have adjustable valves, such as danfoss, at every radiator so hat you can adjust it to serve your needs..for a free consultation, email me at errol832000@yahoo.com
Not sure I would define them as new or old, but you’ve basically got 2 types of common hot water radiator systems: 1. a series loop in which the outlet of one radiator feeds the inlet of the next radiator beginning and ending at the boiler, and 2. a two-pipe system which uses separate supply and return loops and allows independent control of each radiator.
The series loop system should have no valves beyond the boiler room because closing any one valve on this system will stop flow entirely.
Overheating costs money unnecessarily. Shutting off single radiators will, in theory, pull less energy out of the boiler and allow it to fire less frequently, but it also puts colder rooms next to ones you’re trying to heat to a certain temperature, presumably based on the fact that the surrounding areas are the all the same temperature.
Don’t confuse this with a steam heating system which hates to have radiators turned off.
Thanks. Any idea how to figure that out? For what it’s worth, the system was installed only about two years ago…
you need to figure out how radiators connected to each other. The old style with manifold pile then all connected in parallel and each can be individually closed without affecting others. The new style is to connect them in chain for a zone. This way closing one radiator will stop water circulation in the whole loop.