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The case of the cold offices This fridays case

RayWohlfarth
RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,619
in THE MAIN WALL

In this case, there was a wide temperature difference between the offices. It was a simple heating system with copper fin tube baseboard heat. There was a non programmable thermostat in one office that controlled the zone valve. The room with the thermostat was 8 degrees warmer than the others. My first thought was there was a portable heater in the room but we didnt find one. Signs were posted that prohibited heaters. I'll let you know Friday morning what I found,

hydronic zone.jpg

Ray Wohlfarth
Boiler Lessons

Comments

  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,747

    Flow restriction of some type, maybe the valve wasn't opening fully or something lodged in the throat?

  • dko
    dko Member Posts: 668

    They had file cabinets in front of the baseboards in all the other rooms

  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,136

    The other offices had furniture or file cabinets in the way of the heating elements.

  • DCContrarian
    DCContrarian Member Posts: 514

    The room with the thermostat had a photocopier and some servers.

  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 968
    edited July 24

    You probably found 1 or more of these possibilities: Office machines or some other heat source adding to the heat in the warmest room; dirty elements or restricted air flow through the heaters in the colder rooms; the warmest room had more people than the colder rooms. One last possibility, they did a space upgrade where they took a large space and added walls to have more separate rooms or offices with no regard for how much radiation was left in each space.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,443

    Someone didn't do their integral calculus when they designed it.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,443

    or the circulator's bad and gravity is only providing enough flow to heat the first section of emitter.

  • RayWohlfarth
    RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,619

    Thanks for all the great responses. It turns out the women in that office, the boss's mother, would bring a portable heater with her every morning and take it home every evening even though heaters were banned. The only way I found it was by going into her office during a lunch break and hearing it buzzing under her desk. Thanks sirs! Case of the cold offices

    Ray Wohlfarth
    Boiler Lessons
    PC70609326yssh
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,136

    Wow. Lucky catch.

    It reminds me of some office and lab rooms that were designed with CRT computers in the rooms. They were considered in the heat loss calculation design as heat emitters for some unknown reason. Ridiculous! When the picture tube computers were replaced with flat screens everything went haywire. Complaints, complaints, and more complaints.

    CLamb
  • RayWohlfarth
    RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,619

    @Intplm. I would imagine. I never worked in one of those. Thanks for watching and the comments

    ray

    Ray Wohlfarth
    Boiler Lessons
    Intplm.
  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,747
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1806827#Comment_1806827

    They were considered heat emitters because they are heat emittets. You can tell, because once that heat source went away the system lost control. If they hadn't been accounted for, the system wouldn't have been able to control the space (until they left).

    Remember, 100% of electricity used ends up as heat in a space.

    CLambIntplm.GGrossPRR
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,136
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1806879#Comment_1806879

    Sure thing. But I had never heard of such a thing until this happened. I have never taken a CRT tube type and used it toward a heat loss calculation. Residentially or commercially. And have never had complaints when removed. That situation threw me for a loop.

  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,297
    edited July 30

    back in the days of CAD we had rooms of engineers with 24” CRT monitors. The desks were specially designed by the resident engineer lead to position the monitors at an angle to corner to accommodate the longs yokes.

    The CRT radiators were nice in the winter but not so much in summer.

    CLambIntplm.

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