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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 202 responses total. |
tod
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response 108 of 202:
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Oct 17 16:17 UTC 2000 |
Good luck
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drew
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response 109 of 202:
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Oct 17 17:50 UTC 2000 |
Re #106:
If you're buying, that's something to worry about. But presumably ashke
will in the near future be able to walk away from it. 900 square feet???
That's bigger than the upper floor of my house! If it's less than $515, *land
on it*! Stay away from electric heat, though, if you can.
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tod
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response 110 of 202:
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Oct 17 17:54 UTC 2000 |
I agree..avoid electric heat and even better..avoid heat registers
and go with blown heat from ducts.
Also, ask about water..if it's free and how big the water tank is.
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rcurl
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response 111 of 202:
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Oct 17 18:12 UTC 2000 |
My blown heat from ducts comes into the room through heat registers. (?)
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tod
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response 112 of 202:
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Oct 17 23:38 UTC 2000 |
I meant the steam radiators..sorry..avoid steam cuz it's tought to
adjust.
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rcurl
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response 113 of 202:
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Oct 18 00:54 UTC 2000 |
I had a house with steam radiators. I liked the creaking made as the
pipes expanded and contracted. The system really worked well, and
the house maintained a much more uniform temperature than with forced
hot air. It is also nice to stand in front of a radiator and get
*radiated* on a cold winter morning.
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mdw
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response 114 of 202:
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Oct 18 01:53 UTC 2000 |
The two big problems with steam radiators are: no real way to add a
humidifier, and no way to do air conditioning. Especially in older
houses, it's common to find little tin reservoirs hanging behind the
radiators that can be filled up in winter with water, but these don't
work all that well. About the only way to add A/C is to put one of
those window units in. Some would argue that's no bad thing.
'Course, it's just as easy to botch steam heat as forced air - apartment
rental companies tend to be particularly good at doing this. I spent a
good part of one winter with an apartment that was 90+ degrees all the
time, because the valve was stuck open. I finally had to withhold rent
to get them to fix it.
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scg
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response 115 of 202:
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Oct 18 04:12 UTC 2000 |
I heard the argument from a former landlord that steam heat was impossible
to regulate (and this was the excuse for most of the heating problems I had).
I've had other apartments with steam heat where regulating it worked quite
well. I think the landlord who claimed wasn't regulatable was just trying
to avoid having to fix something.
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rcurl
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response 116 of 202:
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Oct 18 05:34 UTC 2000 |
When I lived in a steam heated house, the air vents on the radiators
leaked enough steam to keep humidity up, and we were tough in those
days and didn't even think about air-conditioning: for sissies. 8^]
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mdw
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response 117 of 202:
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Oct 18 05:44 UTC 2000 |
One other thing to watch for: there's steam heating & hot water heating.
The systems look quite similar. The hot water systems have larger
radiators and no vents, and are quieter in operation. Steam heat has
smaller radiators usually with vents. I think steam heat came in one
and two pipe versions, depending on how the return was designed.
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rcurl
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response 118 of 202:
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Oct 18 06:41 UTC 2000 |
Mine was two pipe (steam feed and condendate return). It had some advantage
- which I cannot now recall.
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scg
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response 119 of 202:
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Oct 18 07:10 UTC 2000 |
Oh, mine must have been hot water, both in the two places where it worked well
and in the place where it didn't, then.
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bdh3
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response 120 of 202:
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Oct 18 07:31 UTC 2000 |
Steam heat isn't hard to regulate, it is hard to balance. Steam heat is
a very slow system thus when the heat is changing rapidly outside it can
often be too hot or too cold especially if you keep playing with the
thermostat. In a multistory structure you have to make sure that the
valves in the upper story registers open first, otherwise the upper
storys don't get steam to heat. Older use was a valve with a dial on
it, modern is a uniform valve with a replacible varying diameter insert.
You have to make sure that both the inlet valves and the register valves
are working. When we bought our 1893 vintage home it took us about two
winters to get things properly balanced (some of the original valves I
think were still in use...) but since then its been nice and pretty
economical (our gas bills are much lower) compared to the 'modern'
condos next door (something to be said for 18-inch thick exterior
masonry walls). High ceilings with ceiling fans also help both during
the winter and the summer (reverse direction of spin accordingly). As
for humidification, a baking tin on the top or bottom of each radiator
kept full of water works pretty well.
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ashke
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response 121 of 202:
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Oct 18 15:23 UTC 2000 |
Good lord, Grex to the rescue. Thanks guys. Ended up not looking at the one
that was 900 square feet. Father, who is helping and getting the lease in
his name, weighed the advantages of the drive from Bellville and a cheaper,
albeit smaller place closer to where I wanted to be in the first place. Found
a place in Ypsi, but it's really still Ypsi Arbor, behind the Big K. $495/mo
garden level, $510 or $520 with patio. Add $20 for my kitty babies. Forced
air gas heat, but water included, big tank for bldg not individual for appt.
Room AC. 550 square feet. It's a squeeze, but doable. Need to condense some
stuff anyway, and won't require as much stuff if I think it through. Father
is getting money orders today, we might go tonite. He's gonna call me.
Move in is set for last week of November, just have to see which place and
when/if approved.
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eeyore
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response 122 of 202:
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Oct 18 16:04 UTC 2000 |
WOOHOO!
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mooncat
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response 123 of 202:
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Oct 18 18:02 UTC 2000 |
Very cool, Mary. :)
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drew
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response 124 of 202:
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Oct 18 21:26 UTC 2000 |
Can't a steam radiator be used for cooling by pumping chilled water through
it?
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goose
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response 125 of 202:
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Oct 18 23:39 UTC 2000 |
No, because you'll get a very wet apartment. The vent would leak. This has
happened in my home when the water auto-feed stuck in the open position.
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scott
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response 126 of 202:
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Oct 19 00:56 UTC 2000 |
A hot-water system can be used for cooling. I had this in my last apartment.
Basically, it was a closed loop hot water system with registers that had fans
to force air through them. In the summer they'd pump chilled water through
instead. It's important to note that the registers had drip pans with drains
to collect all the condensation, though.
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mdw
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response 127 of 202:
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Oct 19 04:29 UTC 2000 |
I am now worried about how sun plans to condense her stuff.
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ashke
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response 128 of 202:
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Oct 19 14:06 UTC 2000 |
Well, if I reduce my crap to stuff ratio, and by not living with this person,
I regain half of my overly large entertainment center, it's not that bad.
Dad put money down on apartment yesterday, and we'll know tuesday about moving
in the end of nov. I have the floor plans for thhe new place, the place now,
and the place before, so I have a good idea where things will have to go.
The stuff I'm worried about is the stuff we got together, and my storage
stuff, like my Christmas Tree and ornaments. I have them in our garage, but
that won't work at the new place. I'm going to a friends for the weekend,
and the idea is to arrange and plot in advance. It is about the same size
as the place I had in Brighton, and the only new additions to my stuff are
the 50 gal fish tank, a small chair, and a new small bookcase. So it's
doable.
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flem
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response 129 of 202:
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Oct 19 15:24 UTC 2000 |
Heh. I need to reduce my "crap to stuff" ratio, too.
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ashke
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response 130 of 202:
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Oct 19 16:09 UTC 2000 |
Yes, considering that we have cats and litter boxes <giggles>
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scott
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response 131 of 202:
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Oct 19 19:59 UTC 2000 |
Mixed day. Ended up spending a couple hours climbing up to and down from the
attic to run a TV antenna cable. Sounds easy, except that the attic entrance
is a 2 foot hole in the ceiling (no built-in ladder), and the space I was
working in has about 20" of clearance. Anyway, I got it to happen without
having to go back to the office for the fish tape. And now my reception is
about 5% better (given the number of channels that were at 94-95%, that's a
pretty good gain).
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flem
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response 132 of 202:
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Oct 20 17:11 UTC 2000 |
re 130: Well, that would be my crap to litter ratio, which is unfortunately
approaching 1...
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