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Heating & Air Conditioning

Hot water baseboard heat, comments and tips

9 years ago

I recently bought an older home with hot water baseboard heat, powered by a gas boiler. I bought this house from an estate within a few months of the owner's passing. The heat ran on low all winter. I have never had this type of heat. I'm looking for some insight on how these systems operate and what it needs to run efficiently.

Does it require periodic maintenance?

When I turn the thermostat up, it clicks and I hear the boiler fire up. Seems to only run for about five minutes and the registers aren't getting warm. My gas bill was substantial last month so I wonder just how high this thing has to run in order to comfortably warm up the house.

I haven't the desire or the money to replace it with HVAC. The house already has duct work in place connected to a small air conditioning unit.

Any advice or comments is appreciated!!

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Comments (4)

mike_home
9 years ago
A hot water baseboard system is not that complex. It is a closed system with all the radiators connected in one or more loops. The hot water is circulated with a water pump from the boiler throughout the house and back to the boiler. This flow continues until the thermostat is satisfied.

There is not much maintenance to be done. You may sometimes have to bleed the radiators to remove any trapped air in the system. You may have to add some water, but if you do it would mean you have a leak somewhere. The boiler needs to examined to make sure it is burning the gas correctly.

When properly maintained this type of heating system can last a long time. It is several advantages over a forced hot air system. There is no need to replace it if is working properly.

All the registers should be getting hot uniformly. If they are not then you have probably have trapped air or some else which is preventing the water from circulating properly.

I suggest you hire a service company to review everthing carefully and make any adjustments or fixes. Spring is a good time to do this, or you could wait until the fall before the heating season starts.
dauxiegal thanked mike_home
ionized_gw
9 years ago
What kind of heat emitters do you have, cast iron radiators or lightweight aluminum-finned convectors? If the latter, make sure that they are not clogged up with dust on the inside of the covers or that carpeting or rugs shoved underneath them is not impeding air circulation.

Note that there is no efficiency advantage inherent in hydronic heat or forced air. Either can be inefficient or efficient depending on the skill of the designer, and the age and quality of the equipment. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types.
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Raising water temps is one way to get more heat out of less baseboard. 160-190 comes to mind. Hot water heat is the most comfortable form of heat ever invented and you will soon love it. The boiler probably maintains a certain low limit temperature, usually 160 degrees. Some have cold start boilers, but let's stick with the most common. When the tstat calls for heat, the burner and circulator will start. The burner will run until the boiler water reaches it's high limit of, usually 180 degrees. At high limit, the circulator will continue to run until the boiler temperature goes below 180 degrees and the burner will restart shortly thereafter. This is called "running off the high limit". If the boiler water never reaches high limit, the burner will run continuously until the thermostat is satisfied. If you have a domestic hot water coil in the boiler and the boiler water temperature goes below the low limit because the burner can't keep up, the circulator will stop, the burner will continue to run until the boiler water get above the low limit, whereupon the circulator will restart. This keeps enough hot water in the boiler for the coil. This is called "running off the low limit". Your boiler may cycle without a call for heat, just to keep the water temp above the low limit for the domestic coil. A good explanation of how an aquastat controls a boiler, google Honeywell L8124A, or L8148A for cold start boilers, or L7224A/L7248A.
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dauxiegal
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the comments.

I have the short baseboard registers.

I hadn't thought of that. I will be sure to vacuum them.

Is it possible the thermostat thinks it's warmer that it really is?
ionized_gw
9 years ago
Take a look at some pictures that you might find online and see if your emitters are cast-iron radiators or aluminum fin-tube. It makes a difference.

A properly-working system will be on for more than five minutes and you should have the system looked at as mike_home suggested. A well designed and matched system will be on for extended periods in cold weather. Sometimes in older homes the insulation and windows get improved and the heating system becomes oversized causing short cycling. Since your emitters are not warming up, however, this really can't be the case in your house.

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