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Baseboard Heating

revilo
revilo Member Posts: 1
in THE MAIN WALL
Hi - seriously need help here! I'm decently familiar with NYC heating/apartment woes, but have no idea how to fix my current situation. I've always had radiators in prior apartments that I could easily adjust temp on to lower air flow in case it got too loud or hot - now I'm in an apartment that has baseboard heating and it IS.SO.LOUD. Like, unbelievably loud. Hammering, banging, knocking - all the noise all the time. I'm a light sleeper as is, but truly no one would be able to sleep through this sound. I've done some googling to see if there's anywhere I can start to get the noise under control (my super and landlord are less than helpful, though does that surprise anyone?) since my knowledge of baseboard heating is at 0, and I just desperately need sleep, figured someone here may be able to lead me in the right direction. My main questions are:

1) How do I find out if my heating is electric or hydronic? My super doesn't know
2) Can I adjust airflow/turn off entirely? I'd rather have to bundle up each night than not be able to sleep. It's my understanding that apartments with baseboard heating are independent of one another? My turning off of the heat won't impact other apartments above me, right?
3) Is there a way to deal with the noise? Ultimately I'd like to be able to have everything functioning properly in my apartment - is there anything specific to state to my super in hopes we can get this remedied? Does a baseboard heater use a boiler? Could the temp or pressure be set too high and that's what's causing my issues?

Please help! I'm happy to google what I don't know, but any direction is appreciated! Thank you!

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 25,300
    Good heavens. Your super doesn't know whether your heat is electric or hot water -- or steam? Egad. But no, I'm not really surprised.

    Can you take a picture of the baseboard units, perhaps overall, and if you can get any covers or access panels at the ends off, pictures as to what's inside? If you find any handy valves, pictures of them, too...

    Usually crazy banging is due to a very poorly maintained steam system -- but not always.

    With the pictures we can at least figure out what type of heat you have, and go from there.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    Intplm.

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