Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with heating

Sticking it to the oil man

a22lamia — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:22:55 -0800

We are thinking about switching from oil heat to a geothermal system to heat and cool our 1200 sf cape in western massachusetts. If you have a geothermal system are you happy with it? Have you had any problems? How much did the conversion cost? What are the monthly costs associated with it? Do you know of a reputable installer in our area?

Water well and propane heating

mithiirym — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:59:10 -0800

I'm considering moving to a nice house twenty miles away from the big city I'm currently in, but the new home uses a water well--I don't know exactly what type at the moment, but let us assume I won't need a bucket--and propane for heating. What should I expect from these in regards to water quality, water pressure, cost of propane versus gas provided by public utilities, and anything else those experienced with these systems can think of.

Advice on solar hot water systems in the UK? What do I need to know?

handee — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:26:58 -0800

Solar hot water and central heating for dummies? I'm in the UK, our (gas, combi) boiler has been rubbish since we moved in, and given that we're now looking at a new boiler we're thinking of complementing it with some sort of solar panel based solution. What should we look out for? What do we need? Can we reuse our existing radiators? What questions should we ask installation companies? Caveats:

We don't currently have a tank, and we don't have much space for one (loft has been converted).
We need to get it done fast (expect current boiler will not last the month). Recommendations of suppliers to use and/or avoid welcome.

Geothermal heat on a mountain?

Shepherd — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:14:38 -0800

Geothermal heating: what happens if you live on a mountain? My chimney got crushed by sliding ice last winter (see previous Ask here), and now that I've got contractors coming back with repair bills of $3000+, I'm thinking that maybe it's time to ditch oil altogether and look at other alternatives.

One thing I'm VERY interested in is geothermal heating: the costs are daunting, I know, but the long-term benefits are awesome.

But I live on a mountain, and I'm not having much luck finding out how geothermal heating actually works in terms of raw geo-physics. Will the fact that I live at a higher place relative to the earth's core than somewhere that isn't on a mountain mean I will have to drill deeper than if I lived somewhere lower?

As a side note: if anyone has any interesting heating information pertinent to living in Quebec, I'm all ears.

Furnace vents net to sandbox. Is this bad?

winston — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:50:23 -0800

High-efficiency gas furnace installed where previously there was mid-efficiency. So it vents straight out the wall while the old furnace used the chimney. The vent is right next to the sandbox. How bad is this? Tiny yard -- not much other space for the sandbox. It's either keep it or get rid of it.

Of course, during the peak months for sandbox usage, the furnace is rarely used.

It's in a corner (between the house and the wooden fence) so a little more enclosed than if it were in the middle of the wall.

The kids are 4 and almost 2.

A sandbox is one of their favourite things in the world and they can use it for hours at a stretch.

Is fiberglass duct board hazardous to my health?

wsg — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:31:03 -0800

Is fiberglass heating/cooling duct board safe? My carpenter says the fibers from the duct can get blown into the house and you wind up breathing fiberglass. Some of the reading I've done on the web says newer duct board is safer cuz of longer fibers that don't blow loose as easily and a coating that is applied by the manufacturer that helps. I couldn't find a definitive answer on the web.

The alternatives are substantially more expensive.

I'm tired of coming home to a cold house!

anastasiav — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:01:09 -0800

Which approach really burns more heating oil - keeping the house at a constant medium temperature (say, 64 degrees) or keeping it very low most of the time (58-60) but bringing it up to a higher temperature (say, 66 degrees) once or twice a day? We have a single thermostat (in the dining room, which is between the kitchen and the living room) which is computer controlled. Our home is a 1913 Queen Anne style house with an open floorplan (arches, not doors, between the four rooms on the first floor). In accordance with conventional wisdom, we let the house cool down to about 59 - 60 degrees when we're sleeping or at work, then heat it to 64-66 when we get up in the morning (about two hours) and in the evening when we're home (about four hours). (We have a 21-month old baby, so I don't like the house to be too cold when he's awake and home.) On weekend days when we're all home for the entire day, I will keep the house at about 64-66 degrees for the entire day.

What I've noticed over the course of the winter is this: it feels as though the furnace works longer and harder getting the house warmed up (from 60 - 64, say) than it does keeping the house at a constant 66. I haven't timed it with a stopwatch, but if I'm up early in the mornings with the baby I'll notice that the furnace kicks on more than an hour before the target time for the computer-set temperature, and this happens again in the afternoon before we get home from work (although the house cools more overnight than it does during the day). Then the furnace continues to work for 10-15 minutes every hour keeping the house warm for the 4-5 hours we want it warm in the evening, since the warm air is working its way up to the bedrooms and other rooms on the second floor that are in use.

By contrast, when we're home all weekend and are keeping the house at a constant 64-66, by Sunday morning the furnace is only kicking on about once an hour for perhaps five minutes or so. Also, the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom have a chance to get fully warm as the air circulates around the house. (They're always chilly during the week, since the single thermostat is downstairs.)

In short, from simple observation I'm always left with the impression that the furnace is working much less hard to keep the temperature constant than it is to warm the house twice per day.

I know what "conventional wisdom" says - it says let the house sit cold most of the day. But is this really true for all homes? Since I can't be home all week to run a stopwatch to see how long the furnace is running for, and I don't have any way to tell exactly how many gallons of oil we're burning per furnace run, is there any other way to check to see which approach is actually burning less oil?

My central heating unit smells like farts

lxs — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:13:49 -0800

Is my central heating system killing me slowly? I've lived in a garden apartment for the past two years. Right after I turned on the central heating system my first year living there, it broke and the landlord had it replaced with a new unit, which is in a sort of closet type thing in between our kitchen and living room. Whenever the thing runs, it smells strongly of sulfur. We've told the landlord and she had someone look at it, but said there is no problem with it. Does anyone have any idea what the smell could be? Am I slowly killing myself by breathing it in, or is the real problem just how embarrassing it is to have to explain to first time visitors that really, no one farted? I'm definitely moving out when my lease is up in a few months so I'm really just curious where the smell might be coming from and if it's something harmful.

Alternatives to heating with oil

Gordion Knott — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:39:08 -0800

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that home heating-oil prices treble over the next five years. Would it be possible to retrofit a domestic hot-water baseboard system for an alternative fuel? . . . And if the answer's "yes," what fuel or fuels would provide the most bang-for-the-buck? And what would a retrofit entail, assuming that the guts of the system--the pipes carrying hot water through the house--are kept intact?

Heating the Apple Store

cgs — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:17:15 -0800

How does the Apple Store keep all its heat from rushing out its open doors? I apologize if this is a New York centric question. The Apple Store on 5th ave has an entrance on the street w/ a gaping open door... you then walk down a spiral staircase to the main store, underground. (Do their other stores have this design?)

Now that it is winter, I expected to feel a draft as all the hot air rushed up and out through the doors, into the cold exterior. That wasn't happening and I couldn't figure it out. I didn't feel any major blowers pushing it down either.

Thanks for tips!
-cgs

Attention Physics Geeks: How do we improve the functioning of our in-floor radiant heat?

RedEmma — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:11:52 -0800

Physics Geeks Please Help: Is it better to turn our radiant floor heating system on and off or to let it run? My partner and I have been debating this, for days and days now. Please help us stop the hate. We have converted our 120 year old garage/mini-carriage house into a studio. It has an upstairs which is temporarily used as an attic, but will eventually be made into a loft area. (It is well insulated, like with piles of insulation past my knees. There are other issues with "leaks" but we are working on fixing those.) We also have a carpet on the slab, an office type with some backing, but not thick.

The in-floor radiant system was installed by a professional with our help. The slab is on the low end of acceptable thickness, and we're using an electric hot water heater to heat the water. (Someday to be converted to solar, and we can't afford a boiler.) We have a fifty-gallon water heater, and ten gallons in the floor. Closed system.

The problem is that here in Northern Minnesota, we're having trouble getting the heat to "catch up with itself." Since it's a closed system, I have insisted that if we just let it run, it will eventually, but slowly, heat up. My partner says that we should turn the heater on and off in half-hour intervals to let the psi rise, for a few days, to allow the water to heat up enough. I have been resisting probably because I'm an idiot, but also because I'm not sure my partner's philosophy degree means his physics is up to snuff. I believe that the slab, in 10 below weather, will cool too fast, and the cold 10 gallons and cold slab will not be offset by a pause in which the rest of the water is heated in the water heater.

Online research has come to nil, mostly because the information out there is spiked so heavily with people trying to sell the systems.

So, physics geeks: should we turn the system on and off in half hour intervals, or should we leave it run? And does it matter if we do it when it's cold outside or marginally warmer? Night or day?

I want to get in hot water!

pdb — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:13:39 -0800

NoobHomeOwnerFilter: Where do I start troubleshooting water temperature issues? Mrs. pdb and I bought a house in August. The two-story house was built in 2002, and has one utility closet on the main level that has a water heater and the heating unit in it. There is no wall or barrier in this closet separating the water heater and the heating unit; both units were inspected before we bought and found to be in perfect working order.

It's been getting a bit chilly lately, so we've occasionally had the heat on. We have noticed that, when the heat is on, our water doesn't get nearly as warm as it does when the heat is not on - my wife ran a bath yesterday in the upstairs bathroom that struggled to get to tepid by the time the tub was full.

The water heater doesn't have gradations for heat setting, just a dial that says "cooler" on one end and "warmer" on the other. I would estimate, on a scale of "1-cooler" and "10-warmer", the water heater is currently set to about a 3. This setting is perfectly adequate to heat the water - except, for some reason, when the heat is running.

Are these two things related somehow, or am I missing or not thinking of something else to check? The water heater is not wrapped or otherwise insulated, which I know it probably should be - would this help? What else should I be looking into?

Best way to heat my iguana's enclosure?

baphomet — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:01:13 -0800

I have a full-sized iguana enclosure that needs to be heated more effectively. I've been researching my options and I think that using an infrared heat panel is the best way to go, but I'm not sure what size to get for my enclosure. Reptile enthusiasts needed! The enclosure in question is 5' wide, 4' deep, and 6' tall, and contains several vertical and horizontal spaces for basking and climbing. The enclosure is fronted by a sliding glass shower door, is made of oak veneer plywood, and was built by my father and me about 2 years ago.

The problem we're having is that the room the enclosure in is colder than we'd like, and we're having trouble maintaining the correct heat gradient for our 3 year old iguana, Rethgar. Currently using a 125 watt ceramic heat emitter we can get his basking spot to the required temperature range (90-95 degrees, usually sitting at a comfortable 93), but the problem is that this device does not have a very large radius, and most other areas of the cage are cold enough that Rethgar doesn't like to go in them. This, of course, effectively confines him to the basking spot and doesn't give him very many options for thermoregulating (he can do it effectively and is healthy as far as we can tell, but he just doesn't get to move around very much).

Obviously we'd like him to be able to use the entire space, so we're looking at getting an infrared heat panel like the ones here. I'm just wondering what size we need to get to provide the proper gradient of heat for our setup- preferably the ideal setup would heat the basking area to 93-95 while keeping most of the rest of the cage above 85. Does anybody have experience with large cage heating? I should mention that we're in Minnesota, so ambient temperature is a constant challenge.

Why is my house using so much gas?

perpetualstroll — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:01:29 -0800

Why is my natural gas bill insane this month? Last month, it appears that my household used an average of 11 cubic meters of natural gas per day versus the 2 that was the average last year for the same month. Needless to say, the gas bill was a bit higher than I expected.

The average monthly temperature has been about the same, but the only variable that has changed is that instead of having the fan on "auto" I've set it to "on" for the last few months to more evenly distribute the air throughout the house. Would that account for the much higher gas bill?

On occasion, my roommates leave the windows open with the heat on, how much would that account for?

My heating system: just fine or time bomb?

a22lamia — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:12:31 -0800

My forced hot air system has no return ducts. Instead, cool air falls directly into the basement, where there's a filtered intake on the side of the furnace. Are my life, health, and or selling prospects at severe risk? You should also know that the hot water heater is right beside the furnace, though on the opposite side as the intake. Both are oil burning. Also, I live in Massachusetts, and plan to sell my home in about a year. The place is about 1200 square feet, and I've lived in it off and (mostly) on my whole life... so I've made it this long!

Will no return ducts cause my home to fail an inspection, or cause complications with the sale? In the mean time, how great are the risks from combustion fumes, dust, mold etc. from my basement?

The highly reputable firm who I am confident will do a first rate job installing the return ducting, has given me a rather expensive estimate. If I put it off, or opt for second or third rate, am I really just postponing the inevitable?

The best way to heat concrete?

CaptMcalister — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:20:21 -0800

What is the best way to heat a 600 square foot concrete slab? I need to install a heating system for a exposed concrete slab that will be in the living room of a new house. I've heard of both electrical and water systems but really know very little about each. I'd like to know the pros and cons of each system including cost, efficiency, and installation difficulty.

Get me hot: residential boiler info needed.

wordwhiz — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:30:29 -0800

Does my home really need a new boiler? How do I choose one? Where should I buy it? How much should I pay? My oil company just raised my monthly payment by over 50% ($288 -> 438) because last winter my oil usage soared for my 4-zone FHW system. Which is weird, since my house is only ~2000 sf. Yes, it's an old house (+/- 200 years) but it's not much older or bigger than it was last year! ;-)

Have you replaced a boiler (or furnace) lately? Any shopping tips, dire warnings, trenchant observations, before I shop? Can you recommend any brand names or models? Bonus points if you're a boiler repairman or expert. How much should I expect to shell out for this? Thanks in advance.

Oh, if you'd like to loan me a few grand to pay for it...

Does bamboo burn?

Galen — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:17:44 -0800

Does bamboo burn in fireplaces and wood stoves? I'm wondering if I can use it to heat a house, since it's far more renewable than trees.

Country heat for city boy?

saladpants — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 17:01:36 -0800

Househeatingfilter: Saladpants is a city boy from major east coast city, who recently moved to smaller west coast city, Portland, OR. He and Mrs. Saladpants are looking at a house which, while only 15 minutes from downtown, is essentially out in the country. This means that the house has no gas line running to it and no sewer either. In this particular house, the Saladpantses have two potential heating options: Propane or Electric. They have no experience with either, and are uncertain as to which is better. They seek opinions, wisdom and experiences of fellow mefites. OK...so third person narrative aside, this house we're looking at is awesome. But the heating system scares me.

It currently has a propane tank and baseboard heat, which doesn't thrill me. We've received rough estimates for installing ductwork, and for installation of a furnace -- propane or electric heat pump. The fixed costs on these options are more or less equal (and not entirely unreasonable, amazingly), except that the heat pump will include A/C and the propane furnace would not, which is one check in favor of the heat pump.

As far as variable costs go, the person who gave me the estimate said the costs would currently favor the heat pump because gas and propane prices have spiked so much recently. I'm not so sure I believe that, and I'd be curious for anyone's thoughts.

Also, assuming all other factors are equal, I'm curious about performance of these two options. My readings lead me to believe that heat pumps can have trouble keeping the house warm enough in fairly cold weather and cold enough in fairly hot weather. But I've also read that newer heat pumps do a much better job. True? Untrue? I've read a lot that also indicates that propane heats very well. On the other hand, it seems like a real pain the butt to me to have to rely on a propane truck show up every X number of months to refill the tank.

I know in the end, if we get the house, we'll have to weigh all these factors on our own. But I want to get feedback on whether my presumptions are at least sound.

So those of you out there with heat pumps or propane, what have your experiences been? Are there are significant factors that I'm missing?

(Also, as I noted above, I'm in pacific northwest, to the extent that factors in.)

Is it me, or is it a little warm in here?

colgate — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 19:38:13 -0800

What form of energy is used to heat a Wal-Mart, Home Depot or Costo store, and how much does it cost per month in the winter? Each time I walked into Wal-Mart this winter, it felt 75 degrees inside. Many times, it was 25 degrees or colder outside. A Wal-Mart Supercenter is easily 100,000 sqare feet (with high ceilings to boot). How much does it cost them to keep such a massive space heated 30-50 degrees above outside temperatures 24hrs/day for a month? And what are they heating the place with?

Can I combine two thermostats into one?

zempf — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 07:15:30 -0800

Do I need to have separate thermostats for my central air conditioning & my radiator heat? The previous owners of our house installed central air not long before we bought it, though they left the radiator heating in (so we don't have a forced-air furnace, just radiators & AC). When they installed the air conditioning, they installed another thermostat for that on the wall opposite the existing thermostat for the radiators. My question is, do I really need two separate thermostats for those? I'd like to remove one & just run the wires from it to the other one if possible, as everywhere else I've ever lived has just had one thermostat to control both heating and cooling & I'd like to free up the wall space.

I should note that it's not such a big deal that I feel like hiring someone to come out & fix it, but I figure if I can do it myself I might as well.

Cold showers

mkb — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:04:29 -0800

Please help me figure out what is going on with my hot water heater. I want to have a less foggy understanding of what may be wrong before I start asking either my landlord or the oil company questions. Our apartment has what appears to be a single oil-burning appliance in the basement that supplies both steam to the radiators and hot water. When using the shower, occasionally it becomes very difficult to get anything hotter than lukewarm water out of the faucet. It seems that if you turn the hot water up higher, the water actually gets colder, as bizarre as that sounds. All I can glean from the boiler is that it was made by Burnham and it has the boiler number W-84. I can't find that model on their website, so it might be discontinued. Google finds nothing.

Why is my ConEd bill so high?

cgs — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:40:23 -0800

Why is my ConEd bill so high? from my gf:

"I live in an apartment in a house in Queens, NY and my Coned bill has always been inordinately high. The apartment is 2 levels, 1500 sf, and 3 people live together. We have 2 fridges, family size washer and dryer. We keep the heat on at minimal and the heat system is your typical water pipe system that runs throughout the house. We have 3 computers, 3 tv's and nothing else out of the ordinary. But why did our ConEd bill come to about $450 last month? Is the meter just wrong? Or is our hot water turned up too high? What could it be?"

thanks for your help!

How warm should my landlord keep my apartment?

oreonax — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:16:55 -0800

I've tried Google-ing and I've done what I can manage with the archives, but I'm not finding the answer to my how-warm-is-the-landlord-obligated-to-keep-my-apartment question... I live in a West Philadelphia apartment that is the first floor of a house that was divided for rental purposes. The thermostat is in the hallway/stairwell - to which I have no access until I get a spare from the upstairs neighbor - to the second and third floor apartments. Lately, there has been no warm air coming out of the forced air system in the house which means that by 6 am this morning, it was 62F in my apartment. My live-in mate says that the landlord is legally obligated to keep the house at 72F but they regularly instruct the second and third floor renters to keep it at 68F.

I can't find any kind of legal requirements online for how warm a landlord must keep a rental property in the wintertime. Does anyone know anything about this purported legal warmth providing requirement?

. . . building a home network so cool, it's HOT.

datacenter refugee — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:24:27 -0800

Not-My-Walls-To-Cut-Through-Filter: Anyone have experience running Cat5 through HVAC ducts? I just moved into a space-limited Row Home and would like to keep my rack of various equipment (dvr, X10, security, nas) out of sight and earshot. The basement looks to be ideal for this purpose - but with plaster walls and new hardwood floors I can't in good conscience drill to run cable to the first and second floors. New windows eliminate the possibility of external-house runs, and the existing cableTV drops were drilled through the houses external brick and grometted. The only option seems to be the existing heating duct. There is a straight vertical duct-work run to all floors that terminates in the basement roughly 8' from the furnace itself. My non-plenum rated cable says it has a max operating temp of 140°F.

My question(s):

- Has anyone ever done this?
- Did the cable (or even cable jacket) melt?
- Would a 70+ year old duct run have built-in obstructions like a grate or something to stop urban rodents?

Thanks in advance!