The Random Questions thread

Parent Cafe
1941

We stay around 70. In the summer we keep AC around 76 and that’s cold to me so any lower than 70 and even with a sweater (and I always keeps socks and shoes on even in summer) my hands are cold. Problem is when I’m cold I want to sit there with blanket on when on couch and then don’t want to get up. And I eat more junk when cold. I think I could do 68 at night since I do like it to be cooler when I sleep.

This is obviously a southerner’s take on what cold is. D went to school with kids from Maine and Pennsylvania and was amazed at how cold they wanted to keep the house they shared. She had space heater for her bedroom or she likely would have never gotten out of bed on cold mornings.

1942

Yeah. @Consolation, I suspect my old house is like yours, good aspects and bad. Plumber was just here. Made adjustments to rad vent balances and installed new thermostat. Not a Nest. @jym626 . Because it’s steam, different considerations.

Set to 68, mornings. Lower later. Etc. But I can mix match after a trial.

I’m so used to this “New England thing” of lower temps, a sweater, that cooking heats the kitchen, a space heater if needed. So have no idea what target temps. And the issue of possibly selling in a few years. Right now, feel confident I understand the options, by room and whole house.

I don’t even wear socks in winter. Later, it’s Uggs.
Thank you all for the input.

Bsmt pipes will get wrapped next week or so. More heat will effectively move through the house.

1943

@lookingforward -I grew up in a house with Steam heat. By the time it was warm upstairs the main floor was a steam bath. But that is separate from the thermostat. The temperature sensors at in essence a dumb thermostat and tells the boiler what the temp is on that particular room and will turn it on if it’s below what you have your thermostat set to. Bummer that they used a different thermostat. Nests work in all areas, afaik.

1944

The good part is she installed this today for no charge. So nothing lost if I later find I could use a Nest. But we only have one zone. Whole system would come on.

1945

There are several brands besides Nest that do the same thing. When we talked to several HVAC companies this summer getting quotes, many preferred systems other than Nest actually.

1946

I read that about other, less $ brands being more reliable. Also, I’d been advised to stay away from the internet/phone Nests, keep it simple. And that because steam systems need to get the boiler water up to boiling, which is a big energy hog, a setback therm is not necessarily best management.

At this point, house is where I want it to be. Yay. For now. Need see how this cycles through a day.

1947

If you want to connect/communicate with your devices with google/google home, use nest. If you want to use alexa, use a different product.

BTW, the temperature sensors aren’t zoned. They simply act as a remote thermostat in the room you place them.

1948

Jym, a Nest remote sensor will not help with an issue rooted in simple laws of physics. Usually, the thermostat is installed in a central area. It is hard to relocate the thermostat because the wiring needs to be relocated. A remote Nest solves this problem by relocating the sensor wirelessly to a different area, so the furnace will keep coming on and off until the temperature in that area reaches the setting. The other rooms will still be unbalanced. It is not a useless feature, it just does not solve the problems of having one heating zone. :slight_smile:

Our boiler has an outdoor temperature sensor. It does not control the temperature inside, but the frequency of boiler firing up and the heating ramp. There is also a thermostat that sets the indoor temperature. It is not a simple system! But I will replace it with the like when it dies. I like it.

1949

I think we are saying the same thing, @BunsenBurner. A remote temperature sensor is essentially a dumb thermostat that communicates to the main system. It has nothing to do with the location of the main thermostat and has nothing to do with “zones”. It simply says to the system “pretend I am the thermostat and turn on when I tell you to pay attention to me and when I go below a certain temperature”. The nest sensor is not an outdoor sensor - it’s more like an indoor room thermometer. It’s not going to rezone a system that doesn’t have zones. It cannot control different room temperature is simultaneously. It’s simply says to the heating system to pay attention to the temperature in that one room and turn on and off based on the temperature in that one room at that one time. You can put another one in another room and tell it to pay attention to that second room at a second time. It can alternate between the two sensors but not simultaneously respond to both at the same time. We have had this conversation before :-). If I house is on evenly heated the best these sensors can do is have any one room at any one time be set at a temperature it desires. It can’t fix somebody’s bad heating system

1950

So the remote says, this room needs heat.
And the whole boiler system has to come on to get heat to that room. Problem.

In some ducted systems with dampers, this is easier. In electric or hydroelectric, can be simpler. But my furnace doesn’t distinguish zones. Heat that study and that means steam is also going to every other room.

Plus, when you rely on radiator vents (that let out excess air, allow the rad to fill with hot steam only,) individual room control is manual. If I want heat in BR x, to avoid other rooms overheating, I’d need to tamp down the other rooms’ vent settings. Too much.

edited

1951

Yup. Same thing. Cool feature, and can be useful. However, lookinforward wants her system balanced to the best of her system’s ability.

I mentioned the boiler because some have these outdoor temp sensors or whatever they are called, and those need to be calibrated periodically. Just another thing for folks with boilers to keep in mind.

1952

Correct @lookingforward . It simply pays attention to that one room. But it may not be the best option for older systems . It doesn’t control zones or baffles, especially where they don’t exist! It simply allows the thermostat to choose the room to respond to. Mentioned earlier that in the house I grew up in, by the time the upstairs was comfortable the downstairs was like a sauna. So we either sweltered on the main floor or wrapped ourselves in sweaters and blankets on the top floor

1953

Funny heating story. I could not figure out why the room felt so cold even if the furnace was full speed on. Then I saw the problem! There are three floor vents, and my three heat-seeking cats plopped their bodies on the vents basically blocking them! A few fleeces on the sofa solved the problem. The cats migrated to softer grounds. :slight_smile:

1954

Funny-- similar stories (but not caused by pets)- I’d forgotten I closed the vents in rooms we rarely use, and then when guests visited in the summer, they were sweltering!! (ours is heat and A/C). At my late dad’s house (the one with the old steam heat system) , we discovered that he’d lost knobs to some of the upstairs radiators and they were off! Steam was blasting in radiators on the main floor (a room added later and with bigger, newer radiators) and upstairs was freezing.

The remote sensors only tell a system what temperature to set, not differentially where to send the heat! A system is either on or off.

1955

@lookingforward , Until my late dad lost the knobs, I think we did what you said you prefer not to-- we individually controlled the radiator knobs (or in my brother’s case, put the bed up against the radiator to get the heat on the bed, but it blocked it from getting out into the rest of the room!)

Short of individual space or radiant or ceramic heaters, there isn’t a way to turn an old steam heat system into a newer, more efficient HVAC system with baffles and/or zones.

1956

Jym, yes. It would respond to the temp in that upstairs room, but provide to the whole house. Same as your family home. Even if you had a remote sensor upstairs, the downstairs would continue to heat until the upstairs reached temp.

Add to this, steam pipes don’t always go in direct lines (alas.) So the pipes to the room (study) above the DR, which is above the boiler, apparently is not a just a matter of 20 feet up.

Now in my case, we balanced those vents today. Max setting is 8. MBR 6 (was 8,) BR2 6 (was 8,) study from 6.5 to 7,5 , first floor is set lower. That sends more heat upstairs before the first floor. (All these variables do bend my mind.)

This boiler is new, right sizing, the rest is old. With today’s fix, the study is heating. The two other bedrooms are nice. (4th room has its own elec.)

With vents, if I have dinner guests (some friends are older and temp sensitive,) I can crank that vent to a higher number, temporarily. Or if someone stays in D2’s BR and is chilly, that vent can be opened more. If the whole house needs more heat (say, guests with little kids,) then I’d up the thermostat.

All this spins my head. Today was a Eureka moment and I don’t want to lose that, lol. But it shows me that if Isell, the system is capable of heating the house to another’s specs.

Last concern is if, when the weather warms a little next week, this will still work as it has today.

1957

It sounds like you were able to adjust the vents so the rooms are comfortable. Good news!

1958

Now when the pipes get rewrapped next week, the balance may change. Right now, the DR floor is warm like radiant floor heat. Hate to lose that. But right now I think it does affect the DR temp.

And yes, I’d love a new condo.

1959

Anyone have or heard of an Aqua Therm furnace? A friend thought she had a gas furnace only to find out it is an Aqua Therm. She cannot find anyone who services them. If you do, how many years do they last?
Thanks!

1960

You mean hydroair? This?

https://www.contractingbusiness.com/residential-hvac/hydroair-best-both-worlds

We have it in our house. Love it!!! The benefits of hydronics combined with forced air. Even heating, no dry air, and can be hooked up to AC.

Ours is made by NTI. Yeah, most plumbers are not familiar with such setups. Your friend needs to find out the manufacturer of the system and call them for references to qualified contractors. She needs someone who knows boilers. Not forced air. If she was in WA, I would have had a rec for her.