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We have hot water baseboard heating in our circa 1984 house. There are no valves on the baseboards themselves to control heat; they have flaps that open and close (sort of) but do not seem to greatly affect temperature. The house is zoned. One of our zones is three upstairs bedrooms and a hallway. Bedroom A is the old master; it's quite large with several windows and it contains the thermostat. Bedroom B is medium size and usually fine. Bedroom C is small with only one window. Bedroom C is *always* the warmest room in the house, even when the heat is not on. But when the heat does go on, it can get to be ten or fifteen degrees warmer than the rest of the house. For example, on a recent night we set the thermostat in Bedroom A to 65 degrees. Bedroom C was around 79 degrees in the middle of the night when I went to check on the baby (we have a baby monitor that tells the temp in that room).
I feel like every night I have to choose between letting my daughters in bedroom A freeze or letting the baby in bedroom C roast.
So my questions are:
1) Can this issue with the heating be solved and how?
2) Why might bedroom C always be warmer even without the heat on? I would have guessed it was due to the single window in the room, but other rooms in the house (like two of our bathrooms and a large walk-in closets) don't seem to get as warm.
Since I have no idea what kind of distances you're talking about, or the actual size of each radiator and room, I would surmise that the plumbing for that zone starts in room "C", then goes to "B", and then continues to "A" before returning to the boiler.
Fresh out of the boiler would be obviously HOT- as it travels through the zone it loses that heat along the way. Hence, by the time it gets to the last room the t/stat keeps calling for more heat- which makes the first room too hot.
If the routing is indeed like that, I would move the t/stat to that room- but, that might make the other rooms too cool. I've never liked the idea of t/stats being in rooms- systems tend to work better overall when they are mounted in common areas- like hallways.
Bedroom C is small with only one window. Bedroom C is *always* the warmest room in the house, even when the heat is not on.
I would investigate this first, turn the thermostats off or as low as they will go in all zones and give it an hour or two to cool down. If you still have heat going into the zone(s) then it's likely gravity feeding. For the gravity feeding this is slow action and most of the heat will disburse early...room C if it's first room it reaches.
If it's zoned with multiple pumps check that there is flo control valves installed, each zone should have valve like this. These will be located near the pumps/boiler.
If you have these valves check the lever on the top is tight, it can be turned numerous rotations and may be a little difficult to turn. Use some pliers if it's little tough BUT DO NOT force it, it may be difficult to turn but not super hard to turn. Quick tip for anyone, if your pump breaks on a zone that lever can be used to open the valve and it may put some heat into that zone through gravity.
If it's a single pump with zone valves the valve may be not be fully closing or it's plainly broken and open. Another possibility is that it's been manually opened. In all three cases with the zone valve in addition to gravity feeding there will also be heat will be going into that zone when there is call for heat from other zones.
Another quick tip for anyone. If you have zone valves they can be manually opened to get some heat into the zone for different situations.
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If that is not your problem how many feet of baseboard is in the room? If it has a lot you can remove some of it but you only want to do this if it's oversized for the room. When I say oversized I mean oversized for the demand that can be put on it during the coldest days. This is actually pretty quick fix because you can take the faceplate off the baseboard, remove some fin tubing and replace with pipe. This should be last resort because if you have other problems you'll be creating a problem when those other problems are fixed.
You may also want to check the pump, it may have speeds on it. If it's on low speed turn it on high speed. That will put hotter water in the other rooms faster. Yet another possibility is with zoned valves if the pump is small, if all three zones are calling for heat and open the water is going to be moving slowly and lingering in the first rooms it hits.
Bottom line is there is lot of reasons you may be having this problem, don't be hasty and figure out what the issue is.
What room is under bedroom C? What is the temperature of that room?
You could leave the window open a bit in the warmest bedroom (as a temporary fix until you figure this out).
Bedroom C is above the kitchen, but just the cabinetry part, not a stove or anything. The kitchen temperature feels normal and comfortable, whatever temp the rest of the downstairs is.
Since I have no idea what kind of distances you're talking about, or the actual size of each radiator and room, I would surmise that the plumbing for that zone starts in room "C", then goes to "B", and then continues to "A" before returning to the boiler.
That very well could be, as bedroom C is above the kitchen which is closer to the basement and our boiler than any of the other rooms.
How difficult/expensive is it to move a thermostat?
That implies that you also have a boiler and pumps... correct?
We have a boiler. I'm not really familiar with how it works. Pumps? Maybe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrRational
When were these and the whole system last serviced?
When did the system work well/correctly?
It was serviced last year but we've only owned the house for two years so I have no idea if in the past it stayed a comfortable temperature with the heat on.
How difficult/expensive is it to move a thermostat?
It's usually not a big deal. By virtue of the fact that you're asking (no offense), you'll need an HVAC guy or a good handyman. It could take a couple of hours, so expect $200-400 range.
Yes, I have just triple checked the room in question and several other rooms upstairs. The pipes come into the room and leave the room with nary a valve as far as the eye can see.
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