BLAAT!
New Member
Hi All,
I recently purchased an 1800 square foot house built in 1950 with a FHW by oil system that takes an extremely long time to get up to temperature... like 3-4 hours or more. The house has one single zone/loop. The radiators on the upper floors never really seem to get hot, just warm, even at the supply/inlet pipes... especially on the 2nd floor.
I can't use my programmable thermostat because it takes so long that it never reaches the higher target temp. I just leave it on HOLD at a higher temp which is not very efficient. The system was cleaned and tuned up last spring by a professional and the circulator pump seems to be working fine.
I'm going to replace the oil boiler with a high efficiency gas boiler in the spring/summer. I would do it sooner, but the city will not let the gas company dig up the street during the Winter months.
The heat exchangers (radiators) in the finished basement are some clamp-on finned things which are intermittently attached to the heat loop pipes near the ceiling. I don't care about the heat in the basement as we don't use it as living space.
Here are my questions:
If I remove the finned heat exchangers from the pipes in the basement and put pipe insulation on them, will it direct more heat to the upstairs radiators making the rooms that we use warmer?
Could there be some kind of unintended consequence due to insufficient heat exchangers in the system?
Any other issues I should be aware of before proceeding?
Thanks!
I recently purchased an 1800 square foot house built in 1950 with a FHW by oil system that takes an extremely long time to get up to temperature... like 3-4 hours or more. The house has one single zone/loop. The radiators on the upper floors never really seem to get hot, just warm, even at the supply/inlet pipes... especially on the 2nd floor.
I can't use my programmable thermostat because it takes so long that it never reaches the higher target temp. I just leave it on HOLD at a higher temp which is not very efficient. The system was cleaned and tuned up last spring by a professional and the circulator pump seems to be working fine.
I'm going to replace the oil boiler with a high efficiency gas boiler in the spring/summer. I would do it sooner, but the city will not let the gas company dig up the street during the Winter months.
The heat exchangers (radiators) in the finished basement are some clamp-on finned things which are intermittently attached to the heat loop pipes near the ceiling. I don't care about the heat in the basement as we don't use it as living space.
Here are my questions:
If I remove the finned heat exchangers from the pipes in the basement and put pipe insulation on them, will it direct more heat to the upstairs radiators making the rooms that we use warmer?
Could there be some kind of unintended consequence due to insufficient heat exchangers in the system?
Any other issues I should be aware of before proceeding?
Thanks!