It's getting hot in here
October 30, 2011 5:52 PM Subscribe
Please educate this clueless former Southerner on the operation of radiators in apartments. Specifically, is there any way I can stop it from feeling like a sauna in here?
I recently moved into a lovely old building with steam radiators. I have never had radiators before, but they looked fairly easy to operate - a knob which you can turn from open to closed. This weekend, when it started to get cold, I turned them to open, and arrived home from work to find my apartment practically baking.
I've looked around a bit online, and found some very conflicting information. But I determined that the best thing to do would be to turn the radiators back off. Now, nearly 24 hours later, the apartment is STILL hot. The radiators themselves are somewhat cooler, but the pipes are still quite hot.
I feel somewhat silly, complaining about being warm in the winter, but is there any way I can bring the temperature down a bit?
I recently moved into a lovely old building with steam radiators. I have never had radiators before, but they looked fairly easy to operate - a knob which you can turn from open to closed. This weekend, when it started to get cold, I turned them to open, and arrived home from work to find my apartment practically baking.
I've looked around a bit online, and found some very conflicting information. But I determined that the best thing to do would be to turn the radiators back off. Now, nearly 24 hours later, the apartment is STILL hot. The radiators themselves are somewhat cooler, but the pipes are still quite hot.
I feel somewhat silly, complaining about being warm in the winter, but is there any way I can bring the temperature down a bit?
turn the radiator all the way off. open the windows a little to let the excess heat out. then, turn the valve only a little to open it up. wait a while, see how hot it is, and adjust as necessary.
posted by cupcake1337 at 5:58 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by cupcake1337 at 5:58 PM on October 30, 2011
Open the windows. It's stupid and annoying and terrible for the environment, but that's really the best you can do.
Or you can take the long route... Close radiator valve. Bake. Call landlord and explain that it's too hot. Bake some more. Call landlord again. Watch as landlord comes in, pokes at the radiator valve, and tells you that it's off. Continue baking. Open window.
But it's easier to just open the windows from the get-go.
(It's been this way in every radiator-heated apartment I've lived in.)
posted by phunniemee at 5:59 PM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
Or you can take the long route... Close radiator valve. Bake. Call landlord and explain that it's too hot. Bake some more. Call landlord again. Watch as landlord comes in, pokes at the radiator valve, and tells you that it's off. Continue baking. Open window.
But it's easier to just open the windows from the get-go.
(It's been this way in every radiator-heated apartment I've lived in.)
posted by phunniemee at 5:59 PM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: First of all, you might want to check your lease (if you're renting) about the rules for radiators. When I was living in Chicago, the manager had language in the lease requiring us to keep the radiators on at all times during the winter, lest the pipes freeze. Floods not being a good thing.
Believe it or not, the solution most people wound up adopting was keeping their windows cracked open, as the alternative was to live life in a state of perpetual slow cooking. This led to the bizarre spectacle of open windows during zero-degree temperatures.
However, have you looked into radiator covers? That will cut down the toastiness somewhat.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:00 PM on October 30, 2011
Believe it or not, the solution most people wound up adopting was keeping their windows cracked open, as the alternative was to live life in a state of perpetual slow cooking. This led to the bizarre spectacle of open windows during zero-degree temperatures.
However, have you looked into radiator covers? That will cut down the toastiness somewhat.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:00 PM on October 30, 2011
On the hot water radiators in my old house: Keep the valve at the base wide open, or you create a bottleneck for radiators further down the line. There is supposed to be a regulator valve on the radiator that you adjust. They are often missing, or corroded shut.
posted by theora55 at 6:05 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by theora55 at 6:05 PM on October 30, 2011
Yeah, windows open is a shockingly and depressingly common way to handle this if you dont' have control over your own radiators. I have radiator heating elements in each room, but I also have a central thermostat and pay for my own heat, so I can dial things up and down appropriately.
So that's my suggestion: Make sure you don't have a thermostat you could be controlling, and then yeah, start cracking windows, silly as it may seem.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:06 PM on October 30, 2011
So that's my suggestion: Make sure you don't have a thermostat you could be controlling, and then yeah, start cracking windows, silly as it may seem.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:06 PM on October 30, 2011
Nthing windows. I turned my radiator valve off once, not knowing anything about them, and apparently trapped water in the thing. Somehow (science probably) this led to a CRAZY leaking-water-spitting-everywhere situation. Now it's always on and a couple of my windows are always open at least a crack.
posted by grapesaresour at 6:10 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by grapesaresour at 6:10 PM on October 30, 2011
Born and raised in Alabama and now living in New York. I'm in a studio apartment, It's 44 degrees out, and I have both of my windows open. This is after turning the radiator off. It's completely ridiculous, but it's the only way I can make the apartment tolerable.
posted by AaRdVarK at 6:15 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by AaRdVarK at 6:15 PM on October 30, 2011
In my old 1907 two-story hot-water-radiator house, it generally takes only a fraction of a turn from fully closed to get enough heat to warm a room. More than that, and we bake. And with hot water or steam, once they're hot they stay hot for a long time- the thermal mass is high. I'd say, close them tight- wait until the room cools down, and the radiators are only slightly warm- then open 'em just a little- wait to see what happens, go from there.
posted by drhydro at 6:20 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by drhydro at 6:20 PM on October 30, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks you all for the advice! Opening the windows it is!
posted by backwards compatible at 6:20 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by backwards compatible at 6:20 PM on October 30, 2011
Another answer for opening the windows. Most likely, you don't have any control over the thermostat and even with the valve closed or only partially opened, the radiator itself is still going to put out heat (I guess because hot water gets stuck in there?) I've never really understood the dynamics of radiator heat but several winters in Chicago has taught me that I'm lucky when I'm baking -- because occasionally those things simply don't turn on when they're supposed to.
posted by sm1tten at 6:23 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by sm1tten at 6:23 PM on October 30, 2011
Are you sure it's steam? If it's hot water, the valves can be replaced with thermostatic valves which can be set.
posted by notsnot at 7:29 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by notsnot at 7:29 PM on October 30, 2011
Nthing the open the windows route. In one of my less than ideal college apartments, several of the windows developed large gaps or holes in the frame and were very leaky so that they were essentially open all the time. It was the only apartment with radiators I ever had where it was comfortable to keep the radiators fully open most of the time.
posted by Nackt at 7:30 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by Nackt at 7:30 PM on October 30, 2011
Used to live in a very cold place where the building was built like a bunker, so no heat ever escaped. So in the middle of winter, with snow coming down, you'd see a bunch of open windows with fans pulling in freezing air to make it livable.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:51 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:51 PM on October 30, 2011
I noticed that you mentioned pipes - do you have both radiators and pipes running through the corners of some rooms (kitchens and bathrooms predominantly) that don't link to a radiator in your apartment?
Radiators you can (should be able to) turn on and off, and possibly have some sort of thermostat on them, and you can moderate the indoor temperature with windows, as mentioned above. Heat pipes will be hot on and off and there's nothing you can do about them. I think they link to radiators in apartments on higher floors, to prevent the problem mentioned above, of creating a bottleneck. Turning off your radiator will have no effect on those pipes whatsoever.
I mention it because, as a Southerner who moved to New York City, I "got" radiators pretty quickly but was flummoxed for a longer time by the random hot pipes in some rooms in my apartment. It shouldn't have taken me so long to make the connection, but it did, and I pass along this nugget in case it confused you as well.
Another tip from the new-to-radiators crowd: moisturize your skin. Radiant heat dries mine out like nothing I ever experienced down south. (The temperature up north that developed a need for radiant heat could also be to blame. At any rate: moisturize.)
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 7:54 PM on October 30, 2011
Radiators you can (should be able to) turn on and off, and possibly have some sort of thermostat on them, and you can moderate the indoor temperature with windows, as mentioned above. Heat pipes will be hot on and off and there's nothing you can do about them. I think they link to radiators in apartments on higher floors, to prevent the problem mentioned above, of creating a bottleneck. Turning off your radiator will have no effect on those pipes whatsoever.
I mention it because, as a Southerner who moved to New York City, I "got" radiators pretty quickly but was flummoxed for a longer time by the random hot pipes in some rooms in my apartment. It shouldn't have taken me so long to make the connection, but it did, and I pass along this nugget in case it confused you as well.
Another tip from the new-to-radiators crowd: moisturize your skin. Radiant heat dries mine out like nothing I ever experienced down south. (The temperature up north that developed a need for radiant heat could also be to blame. At any rate: moisturize.)
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 7:54 PM on October 30, 2011
If you can control the thermostat on your radiators experiment with how low a setting you get away with in each room.
I live in a mid level flat and I found that I only ever need to heat my living room at above the lowest setting, all other thremostats are set to the lowest setting. Due to good external insulation and the heat generated by my neighbours I was always nice and warm despite minimum heating.
posted by koahiatamadl at 5:41 AM on October 31, 2011
I live in a mid level flat and I found that I only ever need to heat my living room at above the lowest setting, all other thremostats are set to the lowest setting. Due to good external insulation and the heat generated by my neighbours I was always nice and warm despite minimum heating.
posted by koahiatamadl at 5:41 AM on October 31, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 5:58 PM on October 30, 2011