HW HEATING OFF STEAMER

Tonny

Currently I have steam radiators on the main floor, no problems there, on my finished attic I have a big radiator which is working fine also, Finished Attic has been properly done and insulated and passed proper building inspections,



While the main floor is comfortable at 71 degrees the Attic is 68-69 degrees which makes me crank up the thermostat to heat up the attic (main floor and attic heat up at the same time) and waste energy re-heating the main floor to 73 just to bring up attic's temp



So my question is if it will be more efficient to run HW heating ( I will run new copper/pex for HW) piping from steam boiler to the one radiator/baseboard in the attic and have it with a separate zone/thermostat just to heat the finished Attic and not waste more gas re-heating the already comfortable main floor

nicholas bonham-carter

slow attic radiator

maybe you can speed it up with a faster vent, like a gorton d.--nbc

Tonny

Speed up

Heating is not the problem, whole house heats at the same time (attic included) when steam boiler runs, heat loss at attic is faster than main floor despite of all insulation that was done when attic was finished, I guess what I'm looking for is if it's worth running a single zone HW heating in the attic for two radiators or baseboards efficiency wise, burn enough gas just to heat attic as the rest of the house stays comfortable against running the whole system just to keep attic warm



Steam boiler runs once a day and main floor stays warm for the rest of the day but I dont want to raise temp(waste gas) to heat up attic



I understand that a pump will be needed and there will be electrical usage included but at what point would that compare to running the whole system to accomplish the same

Mark N

Hot Water Loop

If you take a loop off the boiler to heat the attic, your steam boiler is still running and using the same amount of fuel it would to make steam. I have a loop off of my boiler to heat 2 rooms. My gas usage went up as I figured it would. The gas is cheaper that the electric that was used to heat the rooms before. Is the rad that is the attic large enough to meet the heat loss of the space. I would try to rebalance the system by tweeking the venting to get more heat in the attic.