Hot water Baseboard heating

carol_6

My house is a quad level with four zones controlled by a thermostat (gas). My heat bill was atrocious last month and I'm concerned I'm not setting the thermostats correctly. The basement is set at 60, family room 68, main floor 68, upper floor 68. The basement is showing the temp as 66, family room 70, main floor 68, upper level 66. I don't know why there is such a discrepency and I don't know how to correct this. Any suggestions?

There is a door from the basement to the family room. Should it be closed or open???
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you

Leo_7

hot water baseboard heating

The baseboard in my house needs replacing...the house is late 70's construction-oil burning with 3 zones (upstairs, downstairs, family room). My question is the elements used with the slant/fin 30 series for example are smaller than the elements presently in the house, not by much, but smaller. Do I have to replace the elements by zone or can I replace room by room, and do I have to worry about re-calculating losses if I keep the fins per linear foot the same?

Brad White

Mouthful

Leo, why does the baseboard need replacing? Is it kicked and crushed to oblivion?

In order to really work it all together correctly, start with a calculated heat loss room by room.

What is key is that you apportion the baseboard according to the heat loss.

By "apportion", I mean that this may go beyond putting "8,000 BTUH worth of fin-tube in an 8,000 BTUH heat loss room".

It also means that if you wind up putting another 20% in any one room for distribution's sake, that you do so to all the rooms in proportion.

You have an opportunity here to use lower water temperatures and use outdoor reset if you can.

What you should know:

Room by room heat loss in BTU's per Hour (BTUH)

Design Water Temperature

Design Temperature Drop (usually but not always 20 degrees)

Average Water Temperature (halfway between supply and return. This is the value you use to select your radiation.

Once you have all of the above you can select your minimum baseboard requirement. Remember, if you round up any one room significantly (except a bathroom then do the same for all rooms.

Cautionary note: If you intend to just replace the element, your best bet is to get an element that is roughly as wide as the current stuff. Too narrow and air will bypass the element within the cover and dilute the output.

McKern

Carol...

Are you sure your consumption has jumped? It might just be a case of the the gas company charging you that much more for the same amount of gas. You might want to try and verify that your consumption is in line with other periods (although that does get tricky depending on what the weather was like).