Let's Talk About Heating Shall We?

[launderess]

Is the heat on yet?

Not a bit of here am sorry to say. Was very difficult getting out of bed these past two mornings. I mean when you come out from under the eiderdown and place your feet onto a cold floor.....

 

[wayupnorth]

I have not turned the oil baseboard on but have had my gas Hearthstone stove running almost every evening and it is quite comfy inside but frost warning AGAIN tonight.

 

[ovrphil]

Reply #2 - school building

That looks a little like the school I attended for 1-6th grade in my home town.
The rooms were all green and the large steam radiators reached up to just under the sills of the windows. We never felt cold. That school was raised because they claimed too much asbestos and too costly to renovate and use. It's strange not seeing the primary school I attended - others in the city are still up, but that one was built in the early to middle part of the last century.

Our generation grew up with alot of the steam or oil heaters. I liked the noise they made, as others...a reassuring sound that heat was on the way.

 

[washman]

Furnace coming on

from time to time, runs 3-4 min tops when the temps are in the 40's like they have been. Today I had it on briefly in the AM whilst enjoying my coffee and the Sunday paper lounging in an LL Bean robe.

Also ordered another Aprilaire replacement filter. The one in there now is brown from all the tabacckuh smoke from when dad was visiting.

Next on the agenda is to put the Electrowarmth bed warmer on the mattress. I will sing the praises of that purchase for years to come; never have I been more comfortable in a bed in the winter in my life. Only regret is that I did not purchase it sooner. The master bedroom is about a 2-2.5 deg difference from the living room where all the electrical stuff is. As such, the living room will be nice and toasty whilst the mbr is a tad on the cool side. Of course, my blood is still thin from all the Big Red I consumed this summer.

 

[DADoES]

 
Heating = no.

Cooling = yes, but it's running considerably less.

 

[foraloysius]

@jim

Yes, I have baseboard/radiators, but I don't have a basement. I have a second and third floor apartment.

 

[davey7]

My heat was on most of Saturday but it was warmer yesterday (and the darn lake winds finally eased up). I had a huge post last week with pictures, but the internet ate it up before I could post it.

One of my cousins lives in Center City/Rittenhouse Square and has, blech, electric heat pump heating/ac in a high-rise.

 

[gusherb]

Today I cleaned and performed a tuneup on the boiler for my dads building. He hasn't had it done in 5 years since there was a flood so it's about time this got done, it was pretty messy and probably would've failed this winter due to a dirty flame sensor or the pressure switch probe in the exhaust getting dirty.

It's a Buderus GA244 boiler with a cast iron heat exchanger. Kinda like German cars, German boilers are a little harder to work on, many screws to remove and several nuts to get at in tight places just to get at the burners.

After I got it all cleaned up the flame looked much healthier. It ran for awhile and the water temp got up close to 130 degrees before reaching its set point of 70 from 66. The T&P blew off some pressure after awhile so I'm gonna have to check the expansion tank and adjust the air charge in it.

It's been cold these past couple of nights so heats been necessary everywhere. Supposed to warm up again soon.

 

[launderess]

I need a little steam heat on my floor....

Since last Thursday has been kind of chilly here in NYC. Wondered what the strange whiff was about Friday then touched the riser in bathroom. Low and behold the heat is cranked on. Though the hot water was back to "winter" setting when ran the Mobile Maid.

Looks as if building sorted out the system as the heating is totally quiet. Barely a hiss. If it weren't for the "heating" smell given off by the risers and convectors you'd never know. Well that and feeling warm.

 

[wayupnorth]

I used much more of that expensive heating oil than I had ever used last year. As it was the coldest ever on record. But the heat is on again right now and it is going to be in the low 20's tonight. No need of it! North of me had 4 inches of snow this morning. Most of my neighbors have gone south to escape it and wont be back until April at the earliest. I am ready to go to warmth and close this place up for the winter. I have had it with cold and snow.

 

[dustin92]

We've been running the furnace almost a week off and on, but it looks like it's going to be more on than off from now until spring. Going to have a friend come over tomorrow afternoon and help us clean the chimney then we'll be able to use the wood stove when it gets cold in the evenings (it won't draw if the outside temp is above 40 or so). We had a chimney fire two winters ago and I don't want to repeat that, so scary when the stove starts rumbling and won't close down. Ended up dousing the wood with water, which sent up steam, extinguishing the chimney fire, but not before neighbors called the fire department. They came and wanted to inspect the stove, chimney, and attic, which was fine, but we had closed the dampers and the firefighters didn't know how to open them, opened the stove and filled the house with smoke. Set off every smoke alarm in the house! We had a good laugh after that was all said and done, and the house aired out.

 

[launderess]

Chimmeny Won't Draw

Was reading about coal fired boilers/stoves/furnaces and learned a few things.

Apparently it must be quite chilly out to burn the stuff in particular anthracite. Without cool or cold temperatures (again apparently) producing a draft required to get fire started is quite a challenge. Anthracite in particular is very hard to get going and it can take hours to get a good fire up. Longer still to cold start a steam boiler.

 

[DADoES]

 
Still running cooling here.  Last few days dipped to the lower 60°Fs/upper 50°Fs by early morn but day warms to upper 80°F/lower 90°Fs.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Bessie Smith

I saw a revival of Albee's play about her. I rather enjoyed it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/t...-smith-at-interfaith-medical-center.html?_r=0
------------

IIRC from my grandfather, in homes one generally started the fire with wood (with coal grates in place, of course. Then one added a few handsful of soft (bituminous?) coal, Once the soft coal was burning well, one added anthracite as needed. Am I confused?
------------

What's your winter destination, Wayupnorth?

Jim

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/t...-smith-at-interfaith-medical-center.html?_r=0

 

[wayupnorth]

Jim, my niece has been bugging me to come to Florida for the winter. Maybe next winter but not this one. I have a coal stove I no longer use but I thought using coal was very easy. To start a fire, I put charcoal on the grate and crumpled newspapers in the bottom ash pan. Once the charcoal was going good, I would add a scoop of coal every few minutes until it was going good and shut down the damper. Then it was to shake down and add more coal every 12 hours. The fire would continue to go until the first mild day and without the chimney draft, the fire would smother itself out.

 

[launderess]

About using soft coal and or wood/newspapers

Am sure everyone has their own ways but from what one has read using wood to start a fire in a coal only boiler is/was frowned upon. Something to do with adding creosote to the interior of the boiler or whatever which apparently isn't a good thing.

Also (again IIRC) boilers and or whatever designed for burning hard coal aren't easily swapped or like to deal with the soft stuff or wood.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Exactly right. That's why the goal is to use the minimal amount necessary of wood and soft coal. I'd have to look it up, but I'm pretty sure one can't start a fire with just hard coal.

 

[gusherb]

Well now that we've had our three nights of late fall like weather it's supposed to be 70 Monday and 77 by Wednesday. Looks like I'll have the A/C on by Tuesday. Thank you El Nino!

 

[davey7]

I seem to remember reading that coal fired heating needs to be or should be run continuously (more or less) once heating season begins - at least in a gravity warm air furnace. With steam, one stoked the fire in the morning and by evening many systems ran on induced vacuum which allowed lowering of the boiling point to provide daylong heat as the coal gradually burned down.

Just for kicks, here's some shots of a light industrial building on the near west side of Chicago which has two boiler rooms with three boilers. I think that the not quite matching boilers were installed as the building was added to.

 

[arris]

starting a coal fire

Starting a Coal fire can be an art, my grandfather a railroad man said when starting a coal fire in a steam engine a Fusie/Flare was used, or several if needed, not sure how that would work on a residental unit...