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Posted by Laurie on December 05, 2005 at 17:24:28:
Here's the problem. We have an old stone farmhouse. We added on to it last year (about 250 sq. feet). Even when we had first moved in, it was very difficult to regulate the radiators to get overall even heat in all the rooms and floors (3). The coldest rooms are the newest since they are all farthest from the boiler and have more windows and don't have stone walls. Also the attic (3rd floor) rooms are cold. I've tried with varying success to have the farthest radiators be on the fastest settings and the ones closest to the boiler on the slowest. Having carpets on the floors of the old part of house changes things also.
It seems that the only way to get the cold rooms warm is to jack the heat up 3-4 degrees higher than what we'd want, get the steam moving and the radiators going. However, that means that the coldest rooms end up getting really hot, then cooling off to be cold again, while the main part of the house is someone even. The thermostat is in the old part on the first floor (directly above the boiler).
Some of the controls (fast-slow) on the radiators don't appear to actually do anything - they spin from fast to slow or from 0 to 10 with no noticeable change in effect.
What can I do? I've given up and bought electric blankets.
Thanks for all your help.