Heat moving up to rental Very Slowly

Steam or hot water heat…if steam, poor condition or missing master vents…if hot water  , air entrapment ora faulty pump or zone valve. For a free consultation, see my contact info in my profile

eman134

in Heating 13 years and 7 months ago

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hooky | 13 years and 7 months ago

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I have a rental apartment on the top floor of my 3 story building. The radiators are not getting hot very quickly, so they are not heating the apartment very well. I had them bled last January, so I don’t think it’s that. I was wondering if I should move the thermostat? There is only one for the building, in my living room. The middle floor (whree the living room is) is always quite warm, while the bottom level and the top level apartment seem to be cool. If I move the thermostat to the bottom level do you think that will help regulate the heat better? Or is it a big pain in the butt to move the thermostat?

slopefarm | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Wait for technical advice from Master Plvmber and others, but my sense, as a homeowner with a steam system, is that thermostat placement would not affect how fast the radiators heat up. It would affect when the heat turns on and off and how long it remains on. Your problem sounds to be in the area of pressure, venting, radiator sizing and the like. You may have a bigger problem but, at the margins, you could play with the vents on the radiators — put bigger vents on the top floor, smaller vents lower down. Bigger vents draw steam faster and you don’t want the parlor floor to be all warm before the top floor gets enough steam. I am curious why the ground floor is cold — do you have an extension (more exposure to the outside) or perhaps the radiators are too small. Again, you will get better advice if you wait for the pros, but mine’s a start. Bring in Gateway or John Hlad to assess your system. Both know what they are doing in this regard.

hooky | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Slopefarm- yes to the extension on the ground floor. It’s like an icebox… but it’s poorly insulated and that’s another job alltogether… For that floor I’m fine to run the space heater. The only reason I thought moving the thermostat would help is because then it would read colder if it was downstairs and turn on more often to regulate the heat. That’s probably not the best idea in terms of my bill, but obviously I need my tenant to be warm!

shahnandersen

in Heating 13 years and 7 months ago

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You have a hot water system.  This type of system can take a long time to heat up, especially if you have large radiators.  It also stays warm after the boiler shuts off, so you gain at the other end.  If you have a timed thermostat, I’d just have the setback offset turned off earlier. (it could be set back earlier in the evening to make up for this).  As for the location, I’d move it to a cooler spot-perhaps a warmer part of the bottom floor or a cooler part of the middle floor, but somewhere that you control.  You don’t want your tenant controlling the heat in your building.

Master Plvmber | 13 years and 7 months ago

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I’m always concerned when people talk about having their steam radiators “bled”.
That’s just not a process that applies to steam heating; only hot water heating. I hope you’ve got a hot water system. Hooky, moving your thermostat will only serve to create an imbalance more favorable to your tenant. It will cost you money and force open windows sending money out the window or force people to close radiator valves, making the boiler too big for the system and creating banging. You need a system-wide evaluation with pen put to paper to compare what you need to what you’ve got and costs associated with setting it all right.
I know a guy 😉