Help us stay cool through the ...winter

November 2, 2023 6:44 PM

We live in a temperate zone in an apartment building with steam radiator heat. We don't have much control over the heating, so if we don't open our windows in the winter it gets too hot. We'd like to better regulate the temperature, keeping it around 70 degrees more consistently through the night etc. Would a window fan be able to do this?

Ideally we want a low-power, low-noise, fully automatic way to use cold outside air to keep our apartment within a narrow temperature band. It would seem like this is what window fans are designed for, except that presumably they aren't designed for wintertime -- are they going to work well if the outside is much colder than the inside? Specifically, are they capable of regulating temperature with enough precision? I'm also worried that any thermostat attached to the fan is going to be off by several degrees relative to other parts of the room.

Thanks! Other suggestions also welcome.

posted by ropeladder to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

One option that I used when I lived in an old building with the heat set to roughly "surface of the sun" was to cover the appropriate radiator with a very heavy denim blanket. Make sure the blanket material is appropriate to the max temp of the radiator. It works well to moderate how much the individual room would heat up, lessoning the need for any other kinds of intervention.
posted by past unusual at 7:25 PM on November 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

This is a common issue in my neck of the woods. I think you’re right that the thermostat on a window fan wouldn’t work well in such a situation. In my experience the best tactic is to just open a window some amount depending on how cold it is outside and mix that cold air, which would normally pool down at floor-level, into the hot room air to achieve the desired temp. A ceiling fan is best, but if that’s not possible you can get an air circulator (it can be one of those small tabletop-size ones) and find the ideal spot for it to do its job. This would be a part of the room where vertical air movement wouldn’t be obstructed. It’s not necessary to run it at full speed, so that should keep the noise to a minimum.
posted by theory at 7:52 PM on November 2, 2023

This Metafilter post from 2020 explains why NYC apartments have this 'feature.'
posted by oceano at 8:47 PM on November 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

Radiators work by radiating, so the way to make them heat less is to cover them in some way to prevent them dumping so much heat in your apartment

What I used to do when I lived in a house heated by radiators is to take cardboard and cover it with tinfoil on the radiator side, and use that to cover as much of the radiator as necessary to keep the room a comfortable temperature. (You may need to experiment a bit with coverage.) This reflects the heat back into the radiator, keeping the steam warm for the apartment next to you.

Your radiators may have a valve at the bottom left or right that can turn off the steam coming into the radiator, which can help with rooms which you want to keep cooler.
posted by Lycaste at 9:50 PM on November 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

I used a water-heater blanket that I cut and duct taped to fit the radiator in my small studio apartment that was too hot. WARNING: don't get one with fiberglass insulation because it will make cutting/taping/fitting harder and could allow fiberglass particles to drift. Once finished, you should be able to remove it/place it back as necessary.
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:52 AM on November 3, 2023