Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which raises the question whether the OP now unknowingly also controls the heater in the apartment next to his...
Probably not otherwise the original would also potentially run that risk
Good point!
Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
161–170 of 232 posts
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I moved all my radiators away from under windows (and upgraded the windows to triple glazing) to avoid maximising the temperature differential and energy loss through the wall under the windows, while eliminating the cool drafts that the under-window radiator placement was intended to counter.
I'm really confused about (not complaining, just not understanding) the downvotes. These are statements of neutral fact, and the whole process is described in some detail on my site, for each room that we retrofitted. I don't understand if I have caused offense or something: apologies if somehow so!
I'm not sure, but I think that the reason that radiators are placed near windows (at least historically) was to avoid hot/cold spots in rooms.
By placing the radiator near the place that is likely the coldest place in the room, you ensure that the room is an even in temperature as possible. Rather than to counteract 'cool draughts'. I think.
So perhaps people thought that your initial comment was wrong/misleading.
But if you have triple glazing and this mitigates the heat loss, then the coldest wall of your room may no longer be the one with a window, so you may well be doing the right thing for your room(s).
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#163I wonder what the ideal one-size fits all thermostat looks like. The one in my apartment has a “feature” a lot of US thermostats now have, where you set four ordered times called wake, leave, return, and sleep and the temperature you want the space in each interval. I know very few people who actually live in a household where everyone wakes, leaves, returns, and sleeps on the same schedule every day. I work from hom…
> ideal one-size fits all thermostat
The round Honeywell electromechanical thermostat with a bimetallic strip, invented in 1953: https://www.honeywellstore.com/store/products/honeywell-roun...
24VAC, dead simple, and reliable. My family’s lake house has 50+ year old Honeywell round thermostats still in service.
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#164I wonder what the ideal one-size fits all thermostat looks like. The one in my apartment has a “feature” a lot of US thermostats now have, where you set four ordered times called wake, leave, return, and sleep and the temperature you want the space in each interval. I know very few people who actually live in a household where everyone wakes, leaves, returns, and sleeps on the same schedule every day. I work from hom…
>I guess I’d be happier with a more programmable thermostat that I could set to behave like an old school dial thermostat.
I honestly prefer the older type. Ours is programable, but we just don't program it and always just set it to the temp we want. If we are feeling a little chilly on a cold day, we'll bump it up a degree, or down a degree when it's particularly sunny and everyone is feeling warm.
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still of the opinion that a dial works best. Especially in modern homes (in Europe at least), there seems to be a school of thought that you should just leave your thermostat at the same temperature at all times - the theory being that warming up a cold house in the morning costs more energy than maintaining a stable temperature. Anyway, my ideal setup would be to install 'smart' thermostat taps on every radiator…
> the theory being that warming up a cold house in the morning costs more energy than maintaining a stable temperature This is only true if the heating happens quickly and the system is less efficient when heating quickly. Otherwise, this doesn't make sense from a physics standpoint. A temporarily lower temperature differential means less kWh of heat lost.
>Otherwise, this doesn't make sense from a physics standpoint. A temporarily lower temperature differential means less kWh of heat lost.
This topic comes up anytime thermostats and heating are mentioned. The physics arguments only makes sense if you don't care about comfort. Most people would rather optimize for comfort with some energy/cost savings if possible and the physics folks seem to not care about comfort at all.
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#166We've moved to an new apartment (house) and we had to do a full renovation. It doesn't have modern insulation and I calculated that for the time being the ROI on insulation isn't worth it. It's a multi-floor semi-detached house and I wanted the best comfort and the most economical heating possible. In particular: stable and individually adjustable temperatures for bedrooms and living rooms; underfloor heating in some…
> I could not have been more wrong. After spending a few hours of understanding the setups that "experts" have recommended, I figured out edge cases where they would be either wasteful or uncomfortable (meaning: unnecessary and inavoidable temperature overshoots or undershoots, etc.). I had many-many rounds with Honeywell, Tado, Siemens, etc. and every single one of them had _major_ issues.
Temperature hysteresis is unavoidable with a conventional thermostat, but you can reduce it with PID controllers. Most commercial building automation systems use PID controllers extensively.
My guess is that the residential options from Honeywell, JCI, Siemens, Trane, Carrier, etc are focused more on one-size-fits-all applications, whereas commercial BAS systems are more or less bespoke designs for a specific building (using commodity sensors and controllers). I work with all five of the aforementioned companies on building automation projects, FWIW.
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#167I wonder what the ideal one-size fits all thermostat looks like. The one in my apartment has a “feature” a lot of US thermostats now have, where you set four ordered times called wake, leave, return, and sleep and the temperature you want the space in each interval. I know very few people who actually live in a household where everyone wakes, leaves, returns, and sleeps on the same schedule every day. I work from hom…
Isn't this pretty much what these thermostats already allow? I have a new Honeywell Thermostat which basically does what the twenty years old one it replaced does with a few added conveniences in terms of UI. It has those wake/leave/return/sleep instants for each weekday (but also adds an optional second leave/return pair), and it has an option to override the day programme to 'holiday', which is essentially an eight…
15 C is very cold. Are you American?
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Baseboard heaters need very high temperatures. I would not recommend installing this anywhere. Having big Typ 33 heaters for temperatures below 45°C will greatly increase efficiency of your heating system. Otherwise, a split air con is also an efficient way of heating.
Baseboard heaters are often sized such that very high temps are needed (because that's what cheapest/lowest labor/least space used), but they don't have to be sized that way. In the attic bedroom, we have baseboards around the entire perimeter on two walls and same in the bath. I run the attic zone on the same water temp (outdoor reset controlled to be quite low) as the rest of the house (mostly large cast iron rads,…
Which is not exactly efficient. 40C or less is desirable.
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#169Cool project. Speaking of newish natural gas (CH4) heaters, they all should have modulating thermostat capability with OpenTherm/eBus or other protocol. Combined with a thermostat with outdoor temperature sensor system efficiency is increased a few percent and that should help offset thermostat and installation costs. In the end you have more efficient modern heating system. Same should apply for heat pump systems.
OpenTherm is a cool idea but even new installations aren't always wired for it. When installing a new smart thermostat I found the installation has been wired as S Plan with the few cables running between the boiler location and valves location already consumed. Makes the job much bigger if you're not prepared for it.
There are many wireless OpenTherm thermostats. Wired is better but is not required for modern thermostats.
Re: Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
#170In the former Soviet Union we just have central heating The government maintains indoor temperature at 24 degrees from October to May, and the water is heated at the power stations.
Jesus that sounds miserable. Sleeping at 75F?!