Best Of
Re: 25 Years ago.....
Reminds me of how far back our little group here goes. Life is very good with friends… And friends who share our interests and values are golden. Thank you Dan for bringing us all together a lifetime ago.
Re: Radiators make my apartment unbearable during winter
Having the thermostat, in an unheated hallway, is quiet silly. Let's just envision the following scenario. The building is 60 degrees. Someone turns on the thermostat and sets it to 70 degrees. Let's say in 20 minutes, the radiators start heating up a bit. In 30-40 minutes, the apartment room temperature has climbed a degree or two. In one hour, the apartment room temp has climbed a few more degrees. Meanwhile, the hallway, is as cold as ever. Because it is unheated. Maybe the hallway will get a bit of heat, from the surrounding apartments. Maybe for every 5-7 degrees of temperature rise in the apartments, the hallway will increase 1-2 degrees. As you can readily see, this setup is a guarantee to have overheated apartments. And it is obviously extraordinarily inefficient. Boiler will need to run how much longer than it should have to.
There is a relatively easy solution to this problem. Put in a thermostat with locking features. That only the landlord can control. Install remote sensors in one or more apartments. Landlord will have control but the actual temperature that controls the thermostat will be in the apartments.
Re: Radiators make my apartment unbearable during winter
And just to reiterate, even though you are experiencing the symptoms of a messed up heating system in your particular apartment, there is a pretty good likelihood that the cause of the problem is located elsewhere. And always passable that there are a combination of factors.
Re: New Daikin - AC Mini Split
4 hose manifolds can work if you have good hoses, but it's not the best practice. @pecmsg is correct. The best way to evacuate a system is with the vacuum pump connected directly to the system with 3/8" or larger vacuum rated hoses connected with a core remover tool. A four hose manifold can work, but it will take much longer and you have a lot more connections that can leak under vacuum. I don't even use my manifold gauges anymore. I use probes and a charging tee when charging and a dedicated vacuum setup.
Re: Old Winkler for you oil folks
My only comment is: that boiler, and area, is clean! Good job.
Rick
Re: Radiators make my apartment unbearable during winter
Let me just give my two cents. You should not need to live under such conditions. Doesn't matter if you are paying a million a month or ten dollars a month. Or anything in between. The landlords who are subjecting you to inhumane living conditions, to save a few bucks, have a special place in "not paradise" (see site rules).
That said, you need to be realistic. There is no way to get the underlying problem fixed, if the landlord is not on board. That is the unfortunate reality.
You can try to take the legal route, to force the landlord's hand. That can be long and aggravating and might not work.
You can try the heavy blanket route and see if that helps.
Maybe one screen, combined with occasionally leaving the front door open, to encourage air movement. Maybe leaving a few windows open a crack. Maybe fill the tub and a few buckets with cold water. Will absorb some of the heat.
Just to reiterate, you should not need to do these things. But the reality is what it is. I wish that there was more that I could do to help.
Re: New Daikin - AC Mini Split
Pulling the dissolved refrigerant outta the oil. It takes a lot longer to pull a vacuum on oil in a system that was operating.


