Just a Switch
Three months after moving into this house in 2020, we changed the heating system over from an oil-fueled furnace to heat the water that pumps through the wall-mounted radiators, to an air-water heat exchanger. We wanted to get a geo-thermal heating system, but it was either get that, or make the compromise and get new windows in the house to replace the leaky ones from the 1960s.
The unit we have is large enough to heat the entire house of 200 m² (2150ft²), plus the 100 m2 (1070ft²) basement. The basement isn't heated, but the plan is to one day renovate it also, however that requires digging out the concrete as there is no insulation underneath. It is far, far, far out of our price range at the moment.
The heating system however was "guaranteed" to be powerful enough for the house, which I confirmed and the salesperson promised, after I said that I don't want to here my wife complaining about the cold. But in the last three years, we have struggled with it. This is Finland and it gets very cold in the winter, so maintaining the temperature is important. However, even when it was "only" -15° (5°F), our loungeroom was sitting at 14°C (57°F) - which is "a bit" cold for inside temperatures.
The nagging is incessant.
Add the complianing about being cold on top, and it is unbearable
The radiators were also hardly warm, and even though I had pushed the temperature up on the machine a full 2°C to 23°C (73°F), they didn't change. My wife was working from home, freezing her butt off, and making calls to the heating company to try and fix the problem. Every winter we have had them out two to three times, but nothing really has changed. Because the room temperature was so low, they put it in an "emergency" bucket and sent another installer last night.
Just that morning...
The installer couldn't find anything wrong with what we had done, or the machine itself, but the water was far too cool in the system. But just that morning, a message had hit their intranet for installers to check that a switch is on inside the machine, as it can flick off during transit, so he had a look and lo and behold, it was off. He flicked it and in a couple minutes, the water temperature had increased 50% and the radiator batteries were starting to heat.
We didn't adjust the temperature down from 23, as the house was so cold and we wanted to see what the difference would be now that it is working correctly. When we first moved in and there was the oil furnace, it was very warm and it has never been close since. This morning when I woke up, my wife said "perhaps we should turn it down again".
It is so warm, I am getting a tan.
Now, all of these callout over the years have been performed for free (except one) due to the "guarantee it will work" clause. However, the way the system works (I don't know all the technical details) is that because it has been unable to heat the water hot enough, it pushes more power to heat it, meaning that it has been sucking far more electricity than it should be, to almost no effect. This means that we have been drawing far more from the grid than we should be, which has a high cost to it, especially over the last two years. Therefore, we have been paying more, and still being cold.
This cost is likely in many hundreds of euros.
I am working from home and this morning had to go straight into a meeting before I could turn it down. It is about 25°C (77°F) inside at the moment and I am literally sweating. After the meeting, I went and turned it back down two degrees, but now the water is so hot, it is going to take time to adjust again. I sent a message to tell my wife that it is so warm, I am dehydrated.
It is now going to be interesting to see what kinds of changes this is going to make on our winter energy consumption, because earlier it was very high, even for a house of this size. I assumed it was because being so old, it leaks a lot of energy, but it could have been just the heating system not performing well. We changed it to save energy. Which is also why we changed the windows also, which at the moment I feel like I need to open to get some cool air inside.
But I won't.
By evening, the water in the radiators should have cooled a bit and we will get a better idea of what is going on, as we need to "relearn" how we heat the home, so that it is more regulated and steady. Hopefully though, it isn't going to be another winter of rugging-up inside and still having cold toes despite woolen socks. Most importantly though, I might be able to escape some of the complaining of the cold.
Just a little switch, and life changes.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I have seen moments like this a lot in my home country, where people buy technology and assume they know how it works and take the manual for granted and don't even read it.
Even if it is a brief manual, every product and even more so, machinery and tools come with a user and service manual that is generally not read unless you find yourself in situations like the one you mention -that switch they forgot to pass on-.
Here in Canada, depending on where we settle geographically, there are two types of heating systems. Like in Finland, a boiler that heats water or air based on fossil fuel-gas (rural usually) and electric (urban usually).
Yep, it is common. There is nothing in the user manual for this, but there likely is in the installation guide for the installers. However, it seems that they have just realized this is an issue in transport, as they come from Germany.
Do they use geo-thermal there? Here it is "common" for those who are able to pay. It would have cost us around €35K three years ago - likely more now. But, they don't take much electricity to run once going. just a little pump to circulate the water down the well pipes and then through the house.
Yes, the systems installed here are from Germany or Russia (urban), the designs in the farthest and northernmost areas are from Canada, with some similarities to the imported ones. The average cost is about forty thousand US dollars. The important thing is that they are guaranteed for fifty years.
Toes should always be cozy in the comfort of one’s home!
For sure. They are a bit sweaty at the moment though!
Result! I can't stand being cold and when you are in the house even more so! It seems that if in doubt you really do just have to start flicking things :OD
This is my bedroom methodology.
This one was a switch inside the casing, so not a user accessible one. Something for the installers only it seems.
Hehe, yup!
Yeah, that's a truly weird thing. My new boiler has the preferred for adding water to it inside and under the casing. I said to the guy, how can I do it myself now when I bleed the radiators and he was like, you can't.
FFS!
It's incredible how a small switch inside the machine can have such a significant impact. The relief of finally having a warm and cozy home must be fantastic. It's understandable that adjusting to the newfound warmth might take some time, but it sounds like a welcome challenge.
It is just going to take some time to get used to adjusting it down again. It is far too warm now!
I completely understand. It's all about finding that comfort level.
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My wife and I have our heat set at 66 degrees in the house right now. It is much colder than that in the basement even though there are vents down there. We really need to get some new windows, but they are so expensive. Where we work the building have water boilers for heat and I know how finicky they can be. I feel like maintenance is always fighting with them. I am glad it turned out to be a quick and easy fix. It's just too bad they couldn't have found it sooner!
I know!! Here, the size of the window doesn't impact the price as much as the number of windows. Our basement ones are small, but has almost the same amount as the rest of the house, so it is almost the same cost to do them. It is a weird pricing system.
This one should be pretty reliable for the next 15 to 20 years, but it is amazing that they hadn't found the problem earlier and, it was a bloody switch!
We only have seven windows in our house, but I have a feeling the cost is still going to be over $10K. Two of them are very large and they might not even be able to find a replacement without going the custom route.
All of ours are custom, because back when they built this house, they had no standards. The original windows we replaced were actually handmade, which was quite common. We have them all in the basement still, because we might build a glasshouse from them.
I should take some pictures and show you what they are like here. Ours are wooden framed and have three panes of glass, one on the outside, and then a gap of about 4 inches, then another two panes for the inside.
Interesting. My buddy keeps saying he needs to come over and measure our windows so he can get some numbers, but he still hasn't yet.
We have the similar sytem here in my country. Wall-mounted radiators especially under windows, the boiler heat the water and let it circulate in the opened radiators. Cleand and relatively cheap heating method.
Yeah, it is a good system overall and this is far cleaner now than when it was heated with oil.
good they finally found the reason causing the problem. It is important to be comfortable at home and complain free :)
This is the most important part perhaps :D
I have actually never imagined myself using a heater or even used it. My country is always hot so there is no need for that, lol
If I may ask, do you think Finland is more cold than Canada?
I have always heard that Canada is another crazily cold country…
It depends where in Canada. The arctic circle runs through the middle of Finland, so it gets pretty cold up north. It is only the start of the winter and it was -35 two days ago up there. That is the coldest I have ever experienced, but it can get to close to -50 and then there is the windchill factor on top.
I have been considering installing a heat pump in my house in Harrison Hot Springs since last year, when it was 40 degrees Celsius inside the house.
It will probably be a ground source heat pump that will pulse air in the ducts throughout the house, both for heating and air conditioning.
Currently, the heat is from propane. I have a 500-liter tank on my property.
yep! That ground source heat pump is the same as the geothermal. Our neighbors have it and love it. However here, they don't use it for cooling in the summer.
I am guessing that propane isn't too expensive there, but I assume making the change is for other reasons too?
No. it's not, but it is still an important expense, especially now that my daughter lives full-time there.
Yes, there are three reasons: reducing carbon footprint, air conditioning, and saving money.
Well I like 22 degrees and everything over 18 is too hot for my wife, we leave it at 20 usually, but sometimes is magically moving to 18 somehow.
I guess it might be wishful thinking to expect them to reimburse you for their mistake? As you've said, the heater was working harder and drawing more power because of it. But it is a good thing that it was finally fixed after all this time. The adjustment period should be better compared to when you had to suffer the cold.