Shutting Down Radiators

David_30

Does anyone have specific experience with this? Any other opinions? Thanks

David_30

Ok to shut down radiators?

I've read conflicting opinions on this topic so I'll ask again... Is it ok to shut down a couple unused radiators to force the steam elsewhere and therefore use less fuel? I've heard the argument of potential short cycling, etc. but my boiler runs on extremely low pressure and only seems to cycle on the thermostat. Thanks

Gary Fereday

Try it!

You can always retreat if you do not remove the rads. Keep some records and see what happens. You may or may not like the results!

Long Beach Ed

Sure -- all the time

The boiler should be sized to heat all the radiators. If the load is reduced, the boiler may be too big. Depending on the forgiveness of the piping and sizing, you may introduce velocity problems in the system. You'll get banging, perhaps low water condition, etc.

Like our friends said, try it. See what happens. Most systems will forgive a radiator or two or three turned off.

Ed

Bob W._3

I agree with Gary. Figure out the percentage of the total system EDR you will be shutting down. I inherited a boiler with 300 sq. ft. shut off/unused out of 1089 sq. ft. It was too much and the boiler short cycled. However installing larger capacity vents and increasing the anticipator setting helped a lot. YMMV.

David_30

Thanks

Thank you. I'll give it a try. Is it reasonable to expect this to reduce by fuel consumption?