US & English/European heating systems.

[Telecolor 3007]

In Romania we have 2 main principal heating sistems:
1) With fuel: luquid fuel (oil and derivates - tar fuel and Diesel fuel), natural gas or solid fuel (coal, cocke, wood or wood residues);
2) With hot water radiators.
In the '30's, there was some tendency by the electric companies (there where many back then) to introduce electric heating (I might put an add one of these days). But after W.W. 2, excepting some cases, the method was abandoned. During communist regime, they produced some electric radiators, but low power, to be used as sumplimentary heating source.

The heating sistems with hot water may be using:
1) A hot water generator, powered by natural gas, installed in apartament (flat) or a house. The ones for apartaments are a recent ideea around here... about 10 yrs ago. For houses are older;
2) Per bulding (in case of schools, office buldings... apartment buldings). At some prewar buldings you can see a small circular lid... that was the place to introduce liquid fuel in the old days. Have on bulding near me that escaped demolition and haves that stuff (almsot all houses in my area that escaped demolition durring communism didn't escaped carbord capitalism demoltion).
But in a country with many earthquaqes isn't a good ideea to have liquid fueled stored in the basement;
3) One bulding to have a generating sistem for up to 5 buldings. Very rarley used;
4) Neiberghood power plant. Extremly rare used. Floreasca neiberghood from Bucharest haves one plant like this;
5) A factory to generate central heating... extremly rare used;
5) Big C.E.T.'s (Centrale Electrice şi Termice = Electric and Thermical Power Plants). The big central heating sistem. Is very efficient... if the pipes are in good condition. If not, there are a lot of leaks and when a pipe brokes, a lot of people are saying bad words (happens to me few times a year). In some cities, this sistem was abandoned for apartament heating sistems.

[bgadow]

The house I grew up in had baseboard electric; it was built in the early 70s, before energy costs started climbing. Later we rented a house with radiant electric heat in the CEILINGS. How's that for inefficient? While I never thought baseboard electric was that warm, it is cheap to install and dead reliable. I have one upstairs room here and put electric in it instead of plumbing hot water. I rarely have to turn it on since it naturally stays warm enough in the winter, but when I do the room heats up fairly quick. That house with the heat in the ceiling? It was very comfortable, but the electric bill wasn't so hot! Once, one of the thermostats stuck on. Amazing how hot the surfaces in that room got. That was one of those "all-electric" homes from the 60s with plenty of gizmos, built by a woman who worked as a secretary for an electrical contractor.

You can still buy pretty much any heating system you want. I just bought a new hotwater register a couple weeks ago. There's a guy here in town that sells coal.

[Colly0410]

I lived in a right mixed up house a couple of decades ago: It had a gas fire in the lounge, a coal fire in the dining room, an electric night storage heater (run on economy 7 electricity) in the hall, an electric radiator in the bedroom & an electric hot water storage tank (also on E7) Oh yeah we also had a portable free standing butane/calor gas heater that we put in the bathroom & heated the kitchen by leaving the gas oven on low with the door open. It totally confused my mother when she came to stay..

[zeno]

Always think of coal & peat on the isles. Coal is still used
hear in NEW England. Fathers cousin used it in a few pot bellied
stoves & wood in a BIG Portland cook stove which was the
main heat. Never got running water til the 80's & also
added a HW heater. Future of coal is bleak. There is someone
that wants to kill the industry. If not he will drive the
cost sky high ! Nuf sed.
Oil is down to abt US$2 so pellets wont save much this year
if you use oil. But that wont last. Someone also wants to
drive fuel costs to Euro prices. After all we are rich greedy
Americans & what we have needs to be spread around. Gotta
be sure the lay-a-bouts & "guest workers" live for free.

73 Zeno

Originally Posted by Colly0410

I lived in a right mixed up house a couple of decades ago: It had a gas fire in the lounge, a coal fire in the dining room, an electric night storage heater (run on economy 7 electricity) in the hall, an electric radiator in the bedroom & an electric hot water storage tank (also on E7) Oh yeah we also had a portable free standing butane/calor gas heater that we put in the bathroom & heated the kitchen by leaving the gas oven on low with the door open. It totally confused my mother when she came to stay..

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

I lived in a right mixed up house a couple of decades ago: It had a gas fire in the lounge, a coal fire in the dining room, an electric night storage heater (run on economy 7 electricity) in the hall, an electric radiator in the bedroom & an electric hot water storage tank (also on E7) Oh yeah we also had a portable free standing butane/calor gas heater that we put in the bathroom & heated the kitchen by leaving the gas oven on low with the door open. It totally confused my mother when she came to stay..

There was a great explanation of the British heating methods, on the series, The " Secret Life of Machines".
AFAIC, that was one of the best series ever, on British TV.

[Colly0410]

Brilliant replies. I love reading how & why different Countries/Regions use different methods of heating their homes... When I was a kid Dad worked for the National Coal Board in a surface workshop & got 12 tons of free coal a year. We had 2 living rooms with open fires blazing away all day in winter, we never went cold, except when the delivery trucks at the storage yard caught fire, deliveries were delayed for a few weeks. We had a one kilowatt electric fire & went a bought electric blankets & a kerosene heater, what a smell that made..

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

Brilliant replies. I love reading how & why different Countries/Regions use different methods of heating their homes... When I was a kid Dad worked for the National Coal Board in a surface workshop & got 12 tons of free coal a year. We had 2 living rooms with open fires blazing away all day in winter, we never went cold, except when the delivery trucks at the storage yard caught fire, deliveries were delayed for a few weeks. We had a one kilowatt electric fire & went a bought electric blankets & a kerosene heater, what a smell that made..

Just about All of the portable electric heaters sold in the US are at least 1.5 KW at high heat setting. Some of them have three watt settings, .5, 1.0 and 1.5 KW. Considering the fact the lighting circuits are only 15 amp @ 120 volts.
Regarding non-vented kerosene heaters, in some states, they're illegal and not to be sold. Of course, with the internet sales, it's hard to prevent.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Regarding non-vented kerosene heaters, in some states, they're illegal and not to be sold. Of course, with the internet sales, it's hard to prevent.

And some ventless gas heaters are the same way - illegal to install/sell in certain jurisdictions. I use a 18K BTU one with two windows cracked open for cross-flow ventilation, and I shut it down at night, even securing the gas feed line for additional safety. I gotta get a CO monitor before I use it again. I can see why they are dangerous - so many don't take the extra precautions.

[Colly0410]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Just about All of the portable electric heaters sold in the US are at least 1.5 KW at high heat setting. Some of them have three watt settings, .5, 1.0 and 1.5 KW. Considering the fact the lighting circuits are only 15 amp @ 120 volts.
Regarding non-vented kerosene heaters, in some states, they're illegal and not to be sold. Of course, with the internet sales, it's hard to prevent.

My electric fire is 2.72Kw's = 3 x 666 watts radiant bars, a 600 watts convector & 2 x 60 watts fireglow bulbs & the fan heater is 2.4 Kw's, both run off 13 amp sockets at 240 volts..

Modern European legal ventless gas heaters are fitted with a catalytic converter to eliminate carbon monoxide emissions, they also have a device that detects low oxygen levels & shuts it down if it's triggered. There are still some older ones round without cats, the government encourages people to scrap them..

[Olorin67]

The really scary systems were hot water, using a Honeywell heat accelerator. Basically, hot water systems circulate faster if you can run them at higher temp and pressure. So what honeywell did was come up with a device that was like a big iron manometer, filled with a bucketfull of MERCURY to place an additional pressure head on top of the normal water pressure. This was back when hot water systems had no pump, and used an open expansion tank in the attic. This way the radiators and piping could be slightly smaller, due to the higher water temperature.

[Electronic M]

In Florida most of the houses 1970 and newer (did not enter many older ones when I lived there) had forced air air-conditioning, and electric heat thrown in for the cold part of the year (around January IIRC) when near frost temps at night were too much for people who think the mid 60's are positively fridgid.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

In Florida most of the houses 1970 and newer (did not enter many older ones when I lived there) had forced air air-conditioning, and electric heat thrown in for the cold part of the year (around January IIRC) when near frost temps at night were too much for people who think the mid 60's are positively fridgid.

Every home built in the last 10 years or so, have heat pumps.
They have back up resistance elements, as heat pumps can't be used when the outside temp is 30 degrees F or lower. Probably more common in northern Florida.

[Username1]

You'll have to show me that one.... CO Converter...? I don't think there is such a thing..
But I can see a shut down device when CO gets high in the living space....
I don't think you can eliminate CO emissions from a non vented gas or other fuel
burning heater....

There is always CO from fire. I think in some cases the fire is small and they
think it will not rise to lethal levels because of air leaks in the house, but
that is a gamble....

.

[Telecolor 3007]

But I'm curios: why in U.S.A. showers are using an fix (non-moveble) pipe (sometimes inserted into the wall), and not a hose protected by an armour, like here, in Europe. I hate that non-movable shower.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

But I'm curios: why in U.S.A. showers are using an fix (non-moveble) pipe (sometimes inserted into the wall), and not a hose protected by an armour, like here, in Europe. I hate that non-movable shower.

They have both here. My former home had one.
It was called "Shower Massage" by Water Pick. It had several settings on it for pulsating and steady flow, etc.