Tag: Radiators

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Humidifiers

Christine
Even though we keep the temperature down, the heat still manages to make the house pretty dry. To combat that, we use a combination of devices.

First, these beauties. My trusty humidifiers. I couldn’t get through the winter without them. If I get too dry, my sinuses dry out, then my allergies flare up. It’s just bad all ’round.We just got this little guy over the weekend, the Vicks V3500N. I think it is just an updated version of the two we already have. It is put together exactly the same way, it just has a slight style change. So far, so good. It seems to put out more water than the older ones, but is slightly noisier.

Don’t let the lime scale fool you, this old school method does help. Well, it contributes. I need to get out to the Salvation Army store or Goodwill to find a couple more enamel pans to put around the house. These can do their work when we are not home, and if they dry out, no worries.

The same can be said of this little guy. It is another old-fashioned, evaporative-style model. I ordered it several years ago from Killian Hardware in Philadelphia.
I bought one, figuring that if it worked out well I could give it to my dad, who is a tinsmith, to make more. Unfortunately, I’m not so in love with it that I want more. It only fits in one of the eight radiators in the house, and I inadvertently over filled it one time. As it turns out, you cannot fill it anywhere near the top of the reservoir. See that lime scale line? That’s the absolute maximum.

I know there are other options out there, prettier decorative ceramic things that hang on the front, but they are far more costly. So for now, I will have to make do with these.

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Frugal Heat

Christine

Our steam radiators keep us nice and toasty in the winter. Well, they could. If we turned the heat up. But we are being frugal. Two winters ago was really the first time we had the house back together. Before that, there was still construction happening on a minor scale, and the old boiler kept failing. I would often come home to a cold house, get the boiler up and running and it would have to bring the temperature up 15 to 20 degrees. It would bang, hiss, clang and knock. Then it wouldn’t come back on for hours. Very inefficient.

So winter 2006-2007 was the first year we could keep the house at a consistent temperature. We kept the thermostat around 65 because it would get too hot on the second floor if we went any higher than that. We fiddled with the radiators and the thermostat a lot that year, trying to figure out what was comfortable.

The next winter, 2007-2008, we bumped it back a wee bit more, keeping it around 64. Not so bad. Now it is like a challenge. How low can we go?

So last winter, 2008-2009, I put the thermostat down to 62. We managed. We had a fairly mild winter, I bumped it up if I was sick. I cannot stand to be cold and sick. But mostly we kept it at 62.This year, I thought, okay 62 again. No biggie. Well. Think again. I’m so cold, I just can’t take it. We’ve put the thermostat back up to 64. I’m not sure why, but those two degrees make all the difference.

I ordered a tank of Fuel in mid-October, when I checked last week we had just above half a tank left. After the blustery weather we’ve had in the last couple of days (temps in the low 20s, wind gusts, wind chill in the single digits) I’m afraid to check the tank level again. I know it is going to be bad news.

The temperatures can be in the single digits and the house will remain warm (-ish). But if it is windy, forget it. The boiler will just run and run, trying to keep up. It was so drafty on the second floor last night, which is better insulated than the first floor, that I crawled up to the attic to make sure the windows hadn’t blown open. It has been known to happen when we have high winds. I was very surprised to find them still closed.

This whole house needs better insulation, I know. When we had walls torn open, insulation was replaced, but it is just here and there. We didn’t understand that the blown-in insulation wasn’t really doing anything at all. Now the long-term plan is to insulate from the outside in, when we re-do the siding. Which we don’t have money for. Because we can’t save any. Because we are paying twice as much as we should to heat and cool the house. What a vicious cycle.

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Radiator Revitilization

Christine

When I bought the house there was no source of heat on the second floor. Just gravity. I thought I would give it a try, and I froze the first winter.

So I asked my dad and grandfather to put radiators in the three bedrooms. My dad looked around and eventually found four steam radiators. He got them from some guy he knows who hoards junk. Apparently hot water radiators are easier to come by than steam. So this guy has four, I only need three, but we have no idea if they even work. So daddy buys all four for $100. (Do you know how much new ones cost?) This was a steal. Well, they installed three, and they all work just fine. We now have a spare in the basement. No idea if it leaks.
Eventually we got to a point in the house where we were ready to start painting. Have you ever tried to paint behind a radiator? No? Well, neither had my previous owners.
Our first idea was to get oil paint from Sherwin Williams and paint each radiator the same color as the rest of the room. I was never thrilled with this idea. What if I get tired of the color in a few years? I’m sure I don’t want to keep repainting them. Plus, we’ve read that more layers of paint on radiators just act like insulation, keeping the heat from warming the room. But they needed something, all those old layers of paint (mostly on the sides that faced the room) were chipped and flaking. A big mess. Mom and I tossed some ideas around, I perused houseblogs, and we decided they should just look like radiators. Radiator-colored radiators. How novel. Why try to make them blend in? Let them be what they are.

So, we had all the radiators taken out, hauled away, sand blasted, and spray painted with high heat engine paint. I’m thrilled at how they turned out.
We had eight radiators of various sizes, and they charged us just under $1000. I think it was money well spent. That included transportation. (My dad and grandfather did the disconnecting and the reconnecting.) We couldn’t find anyone in the local area who did this kind of work, but daddy suggested someone he knew who did engine repair. So we had an auto engine repair place do the radiators.

We knew that the sandblasting was risky, because if there are any weak spots it can create holes, and then it is all over, folks. But we decided it was worth it. New radiators for the second floor were out of the question. I’m so glad we took the chance.I sincerely hope this paint job will last for years, decades even. About a year after the radiators were finished, I saw pictures (I’m sorry, I don’t remember where) of someone else who had done the same thing, only they had their radiators painted a dark metallic bronze. They were really gorgeous. Now I have bronze envy. I briefly wished we had thought of the dark bronze, but I am very happy with the engine silver anyway. Maybe we will go bronze if it ever needs done again.

I couldn’t find any before pictures specifically of the radiators, but I’m sure you can all picture them. You might be able to spot some in my before series of each room. Check out the details that were lost under all those layers of paint!