Fade away and radiate

It’s sort of typically ironic that we had the last radiators fitted during a heatwave! We had to wait because of the problems with the shutters. These have hopefully been largely resolved. In the meantime, of course, these particularly expensive radiators.

It was Mr Sauer’s idea to hang the radiators like that and, thus, free up space around the walls. The old radiator, if you recall, was a bit of a monster.

And, if you put a sofa in front of it, you dramatically reduce its effectiveness.

As part of our new heating arrangement we’ve had what’s called a hydraulic assessment in German, though I personally think thermal or hydrostatic might be better. The idea is to have a lower temperature for the water in the radiators and circulate the water more. As cooler water loses heat more slowly, this should mean the boiler runs less often.

In the winter we were able to use the living room but the 2° temperature drop from the dining room was noticeable. Not least because we have a thermometer there! As we’re both used to using rugs, it wasn’t that bad. We’ve already made some adjustments to the boiler and hope, that with the new windows, we’ll see a noticeable improvement. To be honest the weather will make the biggest difference. This year we had gaps around the windows during the coldest period. I also don’t expect more than 10% improvement from the windows. In a house this old, and with such an open staircase, thermal currents will frequently drive the warm air towards the roof.

We have an oil powered boiler and had to buy oil in May. That was already three times the price the last time in November 2020. If we’d suspected then we’d be moving here, we’d have filled the tank! My app suggests that we should make it until November next year and I’ll be taking regular measurements to check. Spring 2024 would be fantastic.