Hot up Cold down - Radiant heat

manitobamadness

Advice plz:



I recently bought a 100 year old home with boiler heat. I have a problem with the upstairs being about 15 degrees hotter than the downstairs. This means in the winter, it's 30 upstairs and 15 downstairs. Not fun.



I have a restoration company coming in to redo the ceilings on the main level. So, I would like to put some sort of fan or something between the first level ceiling and second level floor to circulate air from upstairs to downstairs.



What do I need? And who do I need?

Paul Pollets

Fixing radiant system

If you have a radiant system, there should be distribution manifolds that supply the upper floor. the manifold should have adjustable flow ports for each loop. The flow ports can be adjusted to reduce flow, and reduce temperature. If you do not have adjustable flow ports, there's not much you can do. 

If you have radiators, installing thermostatic radiator valves (TRV's )will solve the problem

Paul Pollets

Fixing radiant system

 duplicate.

manitobamadness

...

I have radiators that look like this pic. There don't seem to be any valves.

Paul Pollets

Baseboaard

If you have one thermostat controlling both floors, you can install TRV's on the upper floor baseboard, providing the piping to each baseboard radiator is in parallel, not a series loop. That means each piece of baseboard has a separate supply and a separate return to the mains. If the return of a baseboard is the supply of the next radiator, the TRV will not work.

Or move the thermostat upstairs...it seems you have too much baseboard installed on the upper level, or a zone valve that's broken.

Mark Eatherton

Show us your pipes...

Pictures go a long way towards resolution around here...



As Paul pointed out, you have a convective system, and if it is not set up right, the upstairs will ALWYAS be hotter than the lower floors.



There are some 3 way Non Electric TRVS that can be adapted to baseboard to allow downstream convectors access to the hot water.





ME