(no subject)
Dec. 11th, 2006 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI got to go into Everett again this evening to spend even more time in the basement of 321. Hooray. There was nothing wrong with the upstairs tenant's gas furnace.
*sigh* The reason I went in to examine the basement at 321 was because the upstairs tenant did not understand why his 74-degree apartment did not have scalding hot radiators. "Surely," he exclaimed, "the furnace is not working!" I inquired if there was heat in his apartment. "No," he said. "There is not heat in my apartment and my wife turned the thermostat up to ninety and the radiators *still* didn't get hot. There is no heat. We have a sick child. MAKE THERE BE HEAT!!!"
So, what the hell. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Everett we go. We (Dad and I) got to Everett where there was nothing wrong with the furnace. It wasn't running when we got there and the radiators *were* room-temperature, but that was because the rooms were 74 degrees and the thermostat was SET for 74 degrees. Fuckwit tenant.
I cranked the hell out of the thermostat in front of the tenant. We all adjourned to the basement to see the furnace run, which it did without any huhu. We stood there and watched the little temperature gauge on the furnace creep up. We all felt the pipe carrying the hot water to the radiators. Yes. Hot. We went upstairs to the apartment and felt the radiators, which had gotten warmer in the interval.
I explained to the tenant about the delights of central heat, with special emphasis on the fact that the thermostat has to be calling for heat before the circulator pump circulates the hot water that makes the radiators get hot. If there is no calling-for-heat from the thermostatly department, then there is no circulating of hot water and there are no hot radiators.
Furthermore, I explained that if the apartment was only a wee bit cold, the radiators never ever get scalding hot because the circulator (it's a cold-water furnace) circulates mildly hot water as soon as the thermostat starts calling for heat. It also kicks the furnace on to start heating up more water hotter, but the circulator starts circulating from the get-go, even before the water is very hot. (A hot-water furnace has all-the-time hot water and just turns on the circulators when heat is needed. The hot-water furnace makes there be heat faster, but it is a less efficient system than the cold-water furnace Way.) That being the case, in an only-slightly-cold apartment, the temperature rises the few degrees it needs to rise during the circulating of the not-very-hot water and that shuts off the thermostat which shuts off the circulator before the radiators have gotten very hot.
I went over this a number of times, using small words. It could only have been clearer if I'd had a Powerpoint presentation and perhaps a laser pointer for explaining the slides. I am optimistic that the tenant will grasp the important part of the lesson, which is mostly Don't call me about having no heat as long as your apartment is over seventy degrees, asshole. (I did not say the asshole part.) I also advised tenant to invest in a thermometer seperate from the one included free of charge in his thermostat so that he could check the temperature in his apartment in two ways, to get an accurate read of how warm it was in there.
*sigh* The reason I went in to examine the basement at 321 was because the upstairs tenant did not understand why his 74-degree apartment did not have scalding hot radiators. "Surely," he exclaimed, "the furnace is not working!" I inquired if there was heat in his apartment. "No," he said. "There is not heat in my apartment and my wife turned the thermostat up to ninety and the radiators *still* didn't get hot. There is no heat. We have a sick child. MAKE THERE BE HEAT!!!"
So, what the hell. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Everett we go. We (Dad and I) got to Everett where there was nothing wrong with the furnace. It wasn't running when we got there and the radiators *were* room-temperature, but that was because the rooms were 74 degrees and the thermostat was SET for 74 degrees. Fuckwit tenant.
I cranked the hell out of the thermostat in front of the tenant. We all adjourned to the basement to see the furnace run, which it did without any huhu. We stood there and watched the little temperature gauge on the furnace creep up. We all felt the pipe carrying the hot water to the radiators. Yes. Hot. We went upstairs to the apartment and felt the radiators, which had gotten warmer in the interval.
I explained to the tenant about the delights of central heat, with special emphasis on the fact that the thermostat has to be calling for heat before the circulator pump circulates the hot water that makes the radiators get hot. If there is no calling-for-heat from the thermostatly department, then there is no circulating of hot water and there are no hot radiators.
Furthermore, I explained that if the apartment was only a wee bit cold, the radiators never ever get scalding hot because the circulator (it's a cold-water furnace) circulates mildly hot water as soon as the thermostat starts calling for heat. It also kicks the furnace on to start heating up more water hotter, but the circulator starts circulating from the get-go, even before the water is very hot. (A hot-water furnace has all-the-time hot water and just turns on the circulators when heat is needed. The hot-water furnace makes there be heat faster, but it is a less efficient system than the cold-water furnace Way.) That being the case, in an only-slightly-cold apartment, the temperature rises the few degrees it needs to rise during the circulating of the not-very-hot water and that shuts off the thermostat which shuts off the circulator before the radiators have gotten very hot.
I went over this a number of times, using small words. It could only have been clearer if I'd had a Powerpoint presentation and perhaps a laser pointer for explaining the slides. I am optimistic that the tenant will grasp the important part of the lesson, which is mostly Don't call me about having no heat as long as your apartment is over seventy degrees, asshole. (I did not say the asshole part.) I also advised tenant to invest in a thermometer seperate from the one included free of charge in his thermostat so that he could check the temperature in his apartment in two ways, to get an accurate read of how warm it was in there.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 04:52 pm (UTC)At some point, it's necessary to create a separate set of roads for people who are this stupid. Call them "Darwin Highways" or something like that. No speed limits, lots of crossings on grade, and all signs written in Esperanto. Maximize the chances that people die in accidents.
The future will thank us.