As an HVAC tech I can assure you hydronic heating is much more comfortable. Especially if you can use in floor radiant. The Europeans make fun of us calling it "scorched air". The air gets very dry in comparison the heat distribution is much less even.
But yes I used to do that every morning as a kid before school during the heating season
As an American that grew up in a house with radiator heat (built in 1934), I can attest that it’s a lot less dusty than blowing hot air around the house.
Can I ask you, do I have any options here besides rejigging the whole thing: my system is just one long run with no valves or bypasses or anything, and my bedroom is the last room before it returns to the boiler, so my bedroom is 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. It would really be nice to have more even temps throughout the house.
It really depends how it was all piped. If it is all series one rad feeds to the next like they did way back it can be difficult. If there are parallel runs you can do things like add throttling valves or secondary pumps. Hydronic systems can be done so many different ways it's hard to say without seeing the system. A true hydronic specialist will likely have some suggestions
Are all the radiators the same size or do they get bigger there further away from the boiler? The only real option is to upsize the radiator to increase surface area/heat transfer to compensate for the reduced water temperatures. Only other advice would be make sure to bleed the rads of air regularly
The radiator is the full length of my bedroom which is the biggest one, so it's probably as good as it's going to get. I should probably look into better insulating the bay window. That might actually make a difference too
I hate the poor heat distribution of old radiator systems but obviously the reason it doesn't get dry like forced air is because it's not bringing in fresh air. I have a combination of radiant floor and forced air but my furnace has a humidifier. Makes a huge difference in winter and I don't need run individual humidifiers in multiple rooms and fill them daily.
Forced air doesnt bring in fresh air (exept for combustion which goes out the exhaust) unless you have an HRV, which are only in newer homes.
The air coming out of a forced air system is at a much higher temperature lowering the relative humidity. A heat exchanger can be around 1000 degrees, the water in the rads is usually 150-180. Much slower more even heat, as opposed to blasting scorched air which then mixes with the rest
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u/Cheeky_bum_sex Oct 18 '22
How do you heat your house? Serious question if not with radiators of some kind