House not warming up enough

Tom Hopkins

One or two of three things is going on here, you do not have enough radiator for the room, two many room heaters looped together, or your boiler is undersized.

Erik_6

I have gas forced hot water heat. I have the thermostat set at 68 but it will only warm up to about 61 or 62 when it's really cold outside. I bled the radiators and no steam came out, just hot water. any tips?

martin

Inadaquate Heat

Here are a few things that could be wrong. Did carpet get installed and touching bottom of baseboard stopping convective air currents. Do you have a pet in the house and hair ,ect plastered on bottom of fin tube stopping air. Did aquastat get turned down somehow, should be around 180. Is this condition new or is problem longterm.

Erik_6

This is not a new problem, it just happens when it gets REALLY cold outside. If the outside temps are in the 20's or 30's, the house will warm up fine. If it gets extremely cold, not enough heat in the house. The pet hair thing is possible- the heat has been on all day and the baseboard heaters are just warm to the the touch. How hot should they get- hot enough so I can't put my hand on them?

Glenn Sossin_2

Clean the Fins

It sounds like you are coming up short on the heat output. If the fins of your baseboard/convectors are caked up with dust, there will me a substantial reduction in heat output. Try using a shop vac on them. That might make a difference. As indicated by PLUMBARIS, the air has to be able to flow past the elements in order to create a convection flow of hot air. If the bottom of the radiation is blocked, that will reduce the flow of air -hence reduced output.

If your boiler never turns off, and there is a large difference between the supply and return temps when it is running - that would be an indication of the boiler being undersized. In that scenario, the boiler is making heat - it's all being absorbed/released by the radiation, but there is not enough output to satisfy the thermostat so it continues to produce heat in an attempt to satisfy the thermostat.

If your boiler cycles on and off, it most likely is large enough - you can't get the heat it is making released by the radiation.

Hope this helps you understand your potential problem better.