When it comes to forced-warm-air registers and hot-water and steam radiators, the most effective location in a room is along the exterior wall near doors and windows. This way, the heated air can mix with the cold air that very often infiltrates into the interior through the joints around doors and windows. Moreover, if the joints are properly caulked and weatherstripped, the air infiltration in a cold, windy day will be minimized.
On the other hand, most homes are not adequately caulked and weatherstripped. Keep in mind that the mixing of warm air with the cold air around the exterior walls will reduce drafts, eliminate cold spots and produce a more uniform heat distribution in the room.
If the registers or radiators are not located along the exterior walls in any of the rooms, the overall heat distribution in those rooms might be less than desirable. Still, all central heating systems have their advantages and limitations. A common mistake people make is disregard any house that is not heated with a hot-water system, firmly believing that a warm-air system is “too dry”. Actually, unless the air is intentionally humidified, all heating systems are “too dry”. And since a hot-water system does not have ducts, the house cannot be humidified from a central location as with a warm-air system.
Heating Registers and Radiators Inspection
Whether you have a forced-air system, a hot-water system or a steam heating system to heat your home, it is essential to have your heating unit inspected and maintained once a year by a qualified, licensed professional. Proper furnace maintenance is very important not only to conserve heat, but also to ensure the safety of your family and, as an added bonus, it will lower your utility bills. The better maintained and operating equipment, the easier your system will work, using less power and heating your home more efficiently.
A professional heating registers and radiators inspection conducted by a professional should be done once a year, however there are also a few things you can do yourself to keep your radiators working well. In addition to saving you time and money, proper maintenance will detect any potential problems and let you handle them before they turn into bigger and more costly problems.
Maintain the Radiators on Your Home Heating System
In order to properly maintain the radiators on your home heating systems, there are a few things you can easily do yourself:
- First of all, check the slope. Inspect your system and make sure that every radiator has a gentle slope towards the steam inlet pipe – the pipe that comes up from the floor or out of the wall. If
there is no slope to your radiator, you can add a 1.4-inch wedge of wood under the feet of the vent’s end to provide a slightly gradient, preventing your furnace from making clanging or knock noises. - Check for vent blocks. Your vents can be blocked by paint, rust and general corrosion, not letting air escape properly. The air trapped in the radiator will then prevent steam from entering, preventing your unit from heating and running properly. If the vent is blocked, just unscrew it and replace it with a new one.
- Check inlet valves, including their positioning. A partially open or shut valve will not help regulate the heat, so make sure that your radiator valves are either all the way open or all the way shut – simply turn them to open/closed position.
- Check for leaky valves. Frequently, the cap nuts are the ones leaking, not the valve itself. These are the big nuts located at the vertical and horizontal connections. Usually, they can be easily fixed by simply retightening the nuts. Use one wrench to hold the valve and another one to tighten the cap nut, and your should fix it in just a few seconds. If the leak seems to come from somewhere under the valve handle, try to remove the valve head and tighten the uppermost nut there – the gland nut.
If all these solutions fail to correct the problem, check the double-ended and double-threaded brass piece that connects the valve to the radiator. Remove the valve and the adaptor and install a replacement. Replace the adaptor and valve, refill the system and then check for further leaks, tightening everything else.
Note, however, that these are just some simple methods to properly maintain your system, but they should under no circumstance considered a replacement for the annual heating registers and radiators inspection conducted by a professional, licensed inspector.