Radiator Heating

LESLIE: Beverly in Delaware needs some help with a heating question. What’s going on?

BEVERLY: I need to know – we have an upstairs second floor that was added on later, before we bought the house, and there are two rooms with radiators but there’s a large hall upstairs that doesn’t have any heat.

TOM: OK.

BEVERLY: Is it better to leave the doors open or to keep the doors closed to the other rooms? Does it help for the heating for this first floor?

TOM: Well, are you using those rooms? Are you using both of those bedrooms?

BEVERLY: Not all the time.

TOM: OK. So I mean is this like for guests or that sort of thing?

BEVERLY: One is for guests; one is for an office but we don’t use it …

TOM: Well, for the one that’s for the guests I’d keep the heat turned down there. You say it’s radiators? Can you control the individual radiators by partially turning them off?

BEVERLY: We haven’t done that. How do we do that with the radiators?

TOM: Well, you can partially turn off the valve to the radiator. That will reduce the amount of heat that comes out of it. I mean the bottom line is if you’re not using the room and there’s no bathroom in there, there are no pipes to freeze, I would try to cut as much of the heat as I possibly can and I would keep the door closed.

BEVERLY: OK.

TOM: And the hall – you know, many hallways don’t have heat because it gets it from downstairs; it wafts up. But I mean if you want to save some money in winter and you’re not using a room, I would definitely try to do what I can to turn the heat off.

BEVERLY: OK, great. Thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome, Beverly. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.