Steam radiator heat and cold room

[erin1715]

We just moved into an old home with steam radiator heat.
It seems that downstairs where the thermostat is located the heat maintains just fine but our daughters room does not. It will warm up and then the temperature gradually drops because the heat doesn’t kick on due to the downstairs still maintaining the temperature.
The house is not insulated and we don’t have the money for that right now. Any ideas as to how we can help this?

 

[mjkacmom]

Dress warmly. We’ve been living in a 100 year house for 20+ years, dd17 sleeps with her window open, dd21 and Dd18 pile on the blankets. I like to sleep in the cold, so although we are in the middle of the line, we turn off the radiator so others have more heat.

 

[erin1715]

Dress warmly. We’ve been living in a 100 year house for 20+ years, dd17 sleeps with her window open, dd21 and Dd18 pile on the blankets. I like to sleep in the cold, so although we are in the middle of the line, we turn off the radiator so others have more heat.

Ugh. Yeah. Our daughter is only 15 months so I hate seeing her room so cold.

 

[ronandannette]

We just moved into an old home with steam radiator heat.
It seems that downstairs where the thermostat is located the heat maintains just fine but our daughters room does not. It will warm up and then the temperature gradually drops because the heat doesn’t kick on due to the downstairs still maintaining the temperature.
The house is not insulated and we don’t have the money for that right now. Any ideas as to how we can help this?

Can your thermostat be moved to a cooler location in the house? It’s worth calling an HVAC company and asking. This is actually a simple wiring thing, not a revamp of your whole system.

We build new homes and optimally, the thermostat should be located somewhere that it isn’t affected by other conditions. It operates your heat system based on the temperature in its immediate vicinity. For example, it should NOT be in the kitchen, near any wall-mounted electronics or anywhere that receive direct sunlight. We actually put all of ours upstairs in hallways to bedrooms. It keeps the bedrooms warmer and people find they can operate their systems at lower settings overall because they don’t have to ramp it up to compensate.

 

[seashoreCM]

Put blankets over part of the radiators in the warmer rooms. Include the blanket or corrugated cardboard (old Amazon Prime boxes?) hanging down the back. But don't cover the air valve if any.

Set the thermostat a little higher so the system runs longer to heat up the radiator in DD's room.

You might per chance find a certain amount of radiator covering in other rooms that results in DD's room getting reasonably warm without the rest of the house getting significantly warmer.

Note: The temperature of a steam or forced hot water radiator (with no electric wires or gas pipes going in or flames inside) will never go above 220* degrees F. No fire hazard.

Note: Some steam systems require that radiators be fully on or fully off. When covered with the blanket, the radiator will reach maximum temperature and stop accepting/consuming steam sooner even with the knob valve fully open.

* Because there is some pressure in the steam pipes and in the boiler, boiling point of the water inside is slightly higher than 212 F .

 

[rwdavis2]

If it's not too expensive, have DDs room's circuit redone to have it's own thermostat. I lived in an older house with radiator heat and each room had its own thermostat.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Steam heat radiators. Oh what fun!
It's what I've lived with most of my life and fortunately I never had a heat circulation problems with a single occupancy home's system but have w/ multiple dwellings'.
Take a look through this website to get a better idea of how your system works (there is more than one style):

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/heating-cooling/21015031/take-a-good-look-at-vintage-radiators
Once you know if the radiators are original to their location, single or return line system, it's easier to discern the problem.

HTH

 

[cobright]

We just moved into an old home with steam radiator heat.
It seems that downstairs where the thermostat is located the heat maintains just fine but our daughters room does not. It will warm up and then the temperature gradually drops because the heat doesn’t kick on due to the downstairs still maintaining the temperature.
The house is not insulated and we don’t have the money for that right now. Any ideas as to how we can help this?

Steam heat is so great, except when it's awful. Some of this will depend on the particulars of your system. I'm assuming a one-pipe style radiator, with a big valve at the base and a little air vent at the other end?

1. Make sure the air-vents are working properly. The radiator is a closed vessel, like a bottle. Steam can only enter it is a similar quantity of air is allowed to escape. That's what the air vent does. When the radiator heats up, a little piston inside of the air-vent expands and pushes a plug up into the vent. If this isn't working it can cause the system to heat unevenly (one room over another)
2. Make sure air vent in child's room is not stuck closed or mostly closed. This can cause the radiator to not get warm enough.
3. Make sure the main valve for each radiator is working properly. Here is a This Old House Video that covers radiator maintenance pretty well.

Okay, so if your radiators are in good shape. You need to balance them a bit. If you really do have a one-pipe style system, that means getting an adjustable air-vent. This will let you reduce the steam flow to the downstairs radiators which will let the upstairs radiators have more time to work on each thermostat cycle.

It's a fidgety business and when the time comes to add air conditioning, steam systems really show their limitations. But it's a good inexpensive way of distributing the heat.

Good luck.

 

[_19disnA]

I would start by checking that the bleed valve/air vent is working properly and that it hasn't rusted or clogged overtime, especially since you said it is an older home. I saw on one of those home repair shows how they solved their problem with some fairly simples measures. Might also call HVAC/heating company to check it out for a fairly low cost if it isn't something you can do on your own. They may also be able to rebalance the system to reduce the flow in rooms that are too hot and add flow in colder areas. There are a LOT of way more expensive options, but that is where I would start.

 

[erin1715]

Thank you all so much for this great information. To give a little more detail, this was my grandmothers home and my father and uncles, who are very handy and knowledgeable, updated the home and got it ready for us to live here.
They did replace the air vent on the radiator in our daughters room. Today, my husband partially closed the radiators located downstairs in hopes of redirecting the heat a bit towards her room. Was that ok/the right thing to do?
We may have to call a professional if we can’t figure it out. I do like radiator heat. Our last two homes were forced hot air and that caused a lot of dust and dryness!