Jack wrote: I recently installed an electronic thermostat. I have it set for 21 degrees before bed and then down to 15 overnight. Someone told me I shouldn't have more than a 5 degree difference because the furnace would have to work harder in order to warm up the house in the morning, there...
Anthony in Vancouver BC can't get enough heat into the upper story of the house. He has already tried playing with the balancing dampers on the furnace ducts to try and force more air to the far reaches of the house.When that fails, just about the only thing you can do is to add a special "in-li...
If the sun has unobstructed access to the inside of your house through lots of window space, and if you have a well-insulated house, the sun can cause overheating in the summer and sometimes even in the winter.
If the south-facing window area of your house is more than 6 per cent of the floor ar...
That is an interesting idea. Put the heater on the ceiling as part of a ceiling fan which assures that all that extra heat up there gets circulated all around the room.
Room light, ceiling fan for summer cooling and heating unit for winter heating all in one unit. Add to that a remote control za...
As winter approaches people are asking how to get more heat out of those very old hot water radiators. A few tips.
Bleed the air out anytime they don't feel hot enough. This will usually be only one or two that have problems while the rest are hot. If they all are cold you may need to check the ...
The field of energy efficient heating systems is advancing rapidly and constantly and I cannot evaluate all the new products here. Remember that it usually takes a company a couple of years to work the bugs out of new products. And some companies try so hard just for novelty that... for example i...
FURNACES & BOILERS
Well-sealed houses need a fresh air supply for combustion. (search keyword "Combustion Air" for the title "DOES MY FURNACE GET ENOUGH AIR?") The most common technique in basement installations, is to use an insulated duct to dump air next to the combustion intake. The gas...
Water-source heat pumps work the same as any other heat pump in principle, but instead of having a radiator sitting outdoors, a pump pulls water out of some underground water source or lake, runs it through a radiator inside your basement, and dumps it into a second well in the ground or back int...
For various reasons, hot water heating systems can accumulate pockets of air in the top of the radiators. When there is too much air, the water doesn't flow any more and the heat slows down and stops. For that reason most people have to "bleed" the radiators regularly: open a little valve in the ...
The key to efficient heating with a wood stove is not just having an air tight stove, but controlling completely the burn, even re-burning the gasses after they come off of the logs. It is easier to understand if we look inside an energy efficient stove. Check out this 3-D animation.
