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Have to turn T-Stat all the way up for Upstairs to Heat

Dairon421
Dairon421 Member Posts: 80
in THE MAIN WALL
So here is the situation guys. So a customer has a single family house but Renting out the upstairs and downstairs with only 1 steam boiler heating system. The first floor is not occupied but the thermostat is on that floor. Upstairs Tenant have adjustable radiator valves and they all set 5 which is the maximum setting. But the problem is he have to set the boiler up all the way to 87 for the radiators to get warm. Can you give me all the possibilities on what could be going on? 

Comments

  • Robert_25
    Robert_25 Member Posts: 552
    What is the actual room temperature on the first floor with the thermostat set on 87? it may be as simple as your thermostat is faulty, or getting an inaccurate reading (steam pipe in wall behind thermostat, etc).
  • Dairon421
    Dairon421 Member Posts: 80
    84 degrees
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,318
    If the TRV's are on the air vents of a single pipe radiator. They will shut of the air vent and not reopen until the boiler shuts down...with your tstat at the 87 setting the boiler may not shut down for the 2nd floor to reset to heat again.
    But at 87 I suspect the pressure control should be shutting the boiler down.

    What is the pressure on the boiler.....clean pigtail....pressure control settings??
    Dairon421
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 25,376
    The best approach to this -- which may not be possible with tenants -- is to take the TRVs off all the radiators, and set about getting the heat even by altering the venting as needed. You may find you need to slow the downstairs venting a good bit. If you have inadequate main venting, that doesn't help.

    Then once you get the venting correct and the heat even, upstairs and downstairs, you can consider putting the TRVs back on -- but remember that they cannot increase the heat in a space, only decrease it.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    Dairon421
  • Dairon421
    Dairon421 Member Posts: 80
    I solved the problem. The problem was we had 2) bad main return vents in the basement and none of the steam piping was insulated. I changed the vents and insulated the lines. Also there was a big radiator in the same room as the thermostat. I put a adjustable radiator valve on that radiator and put it on the low setting so the thermostat don't turn off so quickly when the upstairs start getting warm. No complaints after doing that.

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