House won't heat

[Jmagerl]

IT is 0 degrees on this fine, sunny Chicago winter morning. The thermostat is set for 72 and the house is sitting at 65. The house, built in 1967, is heated with hot water radiant baseboard. Every inch of exterior wall that can have a radiator, has a radiator. I have blown out the accumulated dust/dog hairs of 30 years from the radiators so the air is once more circulating freely. The boiler is busily cycling on and off maintaining a water temperature of 180 degree. I conclude from that, that the problem is at the radiator end. The boiler guy was out in the fall and replaced the expansion tank and air bleeders and bled the system and pronounced it fit

1) WHat is the correct way to fix this? 2) Temporarily, can raising the water temperature to 190 give some relief? How high can I go?

Note: there are 4 zones to the system but only 1 thermostat. THe house is equally cool in all zones. I would suspect the wall to wall carpeting (reducing the air flow thru the radiator) but the one room without the carpeting is just as cold as everywhere else.

[Duane Bozarth]

About inadequate heating...

1. Is this a new phenomenon? You been in the house for a while or is this first winter so you don't know history?

1. I don't know much about these systems, but if the boiler is functioning as you say, sounds to me like there's either a circulating pump that has failed or a valve is closed or some similar problem keeping the water from circulating...that all areas are cool implies a single-point failure.

[Noozer]

Are the radiators warm at all?

Not familiar with these, but I assume that there is some mechanism to pump the warm water from the boiler to the radiators. Have you checked that? Fuses, etc.?

[Jmagerl]

[Jmagerl]

[m Ransley]

Raise water temp to 195, blead each radiator of any air. Is water level correct, is pump running? Baseboard depending on type, normaly requires higher water temps.

[Steven Fleckenstein]

If your thermostat is a setback type you might try locking it at one temp so the furnace does not have to try and recover from the lower temps in set back mode.

I had trouble in single digit temps during very windy day. I turned the boiler temp up to 195 which helped. A house built in 1967 might need more insulation or better windows.

[Stormin Mormon]

If the ammount of heat pumped in is less than the ammount leaking out, it is time to call several insulation companies, and see what they can do to make your house more tight.

You can either increase the heat input into the house, or reduce the loss. Reducing the loss is cheaper in the long run.

[Jmagerl]

A quick check of the baseboard temperature gives around 157 degree. I will up the boiler to 190. I will admit I have no idea what the insulation situation is other than the ceiling has about a foot of blown in in it. About half of the windows are double pane. All windows have storms. The doors could use some weather stripping but the windows seem tight enough.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Check that it is operating properly at the burner.

Raising the temperature may help if the heater is cycling off and on. If it never shuts off, that means it does not have enough power to heat the house. If cycling, raise the temperature 10 degrees. If not, insulate and/or buy a bigger heater.

[Duane Bozarth]

Unless I want to remain inside, that is... :)

[Matt]

My house stops eating for awhile when it gets really cold too. I wouldn't worry about it too much, it's pretty normal.

[Greg G]

Is the circulating pump cycling on and off also? I would think it shouldn't, given that you never reach the set temperature on the themostat.

When you say it's 65 in your house, how do you know? Do you check it at the thermostat location? In my house the thermostat is set for 70 (when we're home) but the house never gets up to 70. The reason is simple: The thermostat happens to be in the warmest spot in the house. (smart design, huh?) It is indeed 70 in that spot and the pump and boiler cycle on and off as needed to keep it so. It's more like 66 in my bedroom, which happens to suit my constitution (and wallet). If I wanted it to be 70 I'd have to set the thermostat higher.

I guess what I'm saying in my long-winded way is this: Is your thermostat calling for heat all the time? Or is it perhaps in a warm spot, or miscalibrated, or defective, such that it is turning off the heat at a lower temperature than you want? With older thermostats just being physically off level could cause a problem like this.

Greg Guarino

[Pop]

Though he didn't mention any relationship between thermostat setting and temperature, I wonder if it's just the thermostat mis-indicating? He said there's only one.

Pop

[Stormin Mormon]

You're supposed to eat more in the winter. Calorie is a measure of heat. Houses need to eat more, too.

[m Ransley]

If you are not reaching thermostat set point your pump should be running continously, is it?

[Jmagerl]

I've checked the thermostat. Seems to be level. it reads 65 while set to 72. It calls for heat all the time. THe house seems to be of a uniform temperature (I have thermometers in every room) just low. Raising the water temp got me a few degrees on the air temp. Can I go higher than 190?

[Jmagerl]

The pump runs continuous but the burner cycles on and off (the water gets to

190). The thermostat may be old (an old honeywell dial type) but seems to be working correctly.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You can probably go a few more degrees.

If the heater is struggling, it may just not have the capacity of the system to do the job. Since it does cycle off, it is able to get the water hot, but you may not have enough radiator surface area. Or you don' t have enough insulation, or you have drafts, etc. Close off the radiators in unused rooms (if you have any) to get more heat to the used ones.

Since it will be very cold this week, consider some temporary supplemental heat. It won't take much for a kerosene or propane heater to kick it up another five degrees.

Did you post if it saw gas or oil? If oil, the burner may need a cleaning. If the spray nozzle is not right, you don't get the proper heat. If the heat exchanger is sooted up, you don't get the proper heat

[~KJPRO~]

It's not an issue of to small of a boiler, if it is cycling on the internal thermostat!

Your best advice would be to call in a HVAC professional. As messing around with boilers can lead to a catastrophe, if you are not trained to service them.

~kjpro~