Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Key to Keeping Warm

It's cold.

That's really an understatement.  Yesterday the bank clock down the street from my workplace read -1F when I was arriving just before 7 am.

Add in the "wind chill factor," and it was more like -20.

That's cold.

Key to warmth.
I could feel the wind freezing my legs through my thin polyester pants during my short stroll from car to the office back door.

Brrr. It's cold in my bedroom too.  When I checked the last two mornings, it was 62 degrees up on the second floor.  That's another reason I find myself warm and cozy, wrapped in a handmade blanket, on the couch.

My house is heated by a hot water boiler that circulates the warmth through radiators scattered around the house.

I've noticed the bedroom radiator was pretty much cold as ice.  I figured the circulating pump wasn't doing it's job.  Just another of the many necessary, but sometime unaffordable, repairs my nearly 110 year old home needs.

As I made my way up the stairs this morning, my modern techno world jumped into old world common sense.

I remembered when I bought the house that the previous owner had given me several keys and other things necessary to, according to him, maintain the house.

One of those things was a radiator key.

It's a little wrench type key that opens a small valve on the top of a radiator to bleed out any air trapped in the lines.  I've bled the lines in years past and only got water in return.

Today was different.

I opened the value on my bedroom radiator with a whoosh of air that continued for several minutes.  As this air was flowing out of the radiator, I placed my hand near the bottom and could feel the heat of the boiler's water entering to share it's warmth with the room.

A simple metal key.

The key to keeping warm in an old house.

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