Thermostat Central Heating

[Mark Hennessy]

Apologies. I will refrain from any further attempts at humour.

Actually, I do know a thing or two about subsidence. Or, strictly speaking, I should say differential settlement. But that's another story...

Mark

[pwdrive]

No appologies needed Mark, we have differential settlement events more or less every year in this part of the world, hopefully my location won't be one of them.

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

Actually, a 'hole' to put the boiler in has some historical relevance. Some 60 years ago, at a Youth Club I used to go to, that's exactly how it was done in an ex Miner's Welfare building. There was a large cast iron sectional boiler, coke fired, which lived in a hole about 4' deep - it couldn't really be described as a cellar as it was open. The hole was big enough to get round the boiler and fire it. The main pipework was 4" with 1" connections to the cast iron radiators. The flow pipe went up to the attic and the return pipe went round the edge of the ground floor. Each radiator was connected between the two via a drop pipe. There was no pump, just gravity - thermosyphon strictly speaking - and a big header tank in the attic.
No, I wasn't a 16 year old anorak, we had a freeze one Winter and the boiler went out, so we had to do some repairs, under the eagle eye of a Civil Service Maintenance Fitter.

Alan

[pwdrive]

Hello Alan, I read a bit on the web about those old gravity heating systems especially pertaining to multi storey buildings in the States in the early days, some of them were a work of art, I'm guessing that fuel was comparatively cheap back then. Our old youth club (Knutsford Town Hall) had a simiiar system to what you described.

Lawrence.

[Paula A]

You must understand.. I was 12 when that was all built.. and I'm 46 now. There was a small expansion tank up there somewhere as well. There was no pump on the system at all. The house was very old and built on the side of a hill on 3 levels, the bedrooms being on the lowest level. Dad was a flow dynamics and aircraft engineer.. so most of how it all worked is a mystery. The big change was not having a bath in a metal tub in the kitchen in front of the huge range after it was all done, but the toilet was still an expedition down the garden with an oil lamp after dark.

My memories of early childhood are full of fetching buckets of water from the pump in the yard by the stables and lugging wood and coal to all the open fires.

[pwdrive]

Hello Paula, that sounds like a full gravity system that your Dad installed, the difference between that and ours is that we have not got sufficient hieght as we are in a low single story building, however our system does work very well and serves it's purpose, it's just the niggling stat problem, I am now certain that could be resolved.

Lawrence.

[Paula A]

Hi

Reading through everything again I think the problem is hysteresis in the combined system. Most stystems are built with a considerable safety margin. Out with the thermocouple along the pipes and there will no doubt be a point a distance away where the temperature characteristics fit the desired result.

I'm lucky living on the top floor of a high converted factory. No heating required.

[pwdrive]

Lucky indeed, does the heat come from all the slaves working below?

Lawrence.

[Paula A]

Actually without having any views on the mainly asylum seekers below.. Their heating kicks in at 3am and by 4 I'm sweating up here I don't even know if the heating works in this flat, never needed to turn it on.

Of course Mark saw the derelict freezing unheatable place I survived last winter in, so I'm pretty immune to being a bit chilly. When you have recorded an indoor temperature of minus 14 in an upstairs bedroom 12c in any part of this place at it's lowest is Bali

[pwdrive]

I think there was a fictional film made years ago where the upper occupants of a skyscraper city needed a continual supply of bodies/slaves to keep them suitably sustained, can't remember it's title.

Keep warm

Lawrence.