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| 1. Give your rads room to breathe. A radiant system relies on airflow to distribute heat. Furniture can block the air and trap the warmth. Leave at least a six-inch gap around each unit. | 2. If there’s no heat coming from a rad, check the inlet valve—it may be turned off. Conversely, if you find a particular room too hot, you can shut a rad off by closing the valve. | 3. Bleed the air from each rad at least once a year. Start at the top of the house and work your way down. Repeat more often for rads that don’t give off enough heat. |
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| 4. For perfect performance, each rad should be slightly sloped toward the outlet pipe. Check by laying a level across the top of each unit. You want somewhere between level and a five-degree slope. | 5. If any of your rads have settled on a slope away from the outflow, bring them back online by driving shims under the opposite side’s legs using a hammer and wooden shims. | 6. These Novitherm PVC heat reflector panels come in three sizes that can be mixed and matched to fit behind any rad. Apply double-sided tape to all the flat surfaces, then remove the backing. |
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| 7. Measure from the top of the baseboards. Size the panels so they’re slightly smaller than the width and height of each rad. Press the glued surfaces into place using a stick or dowel. | 8. Radiators give off dry heat, which can lead to lip-balm dependency. You could buy a humidifier, but the cheap trick is to place a tin bowl or pot of water on each rad for free humidification. | 9. It’s time to head to the basement. Some systems have an expansion (or cushion) tank to handle excess water. This should be drained once a year. Draining the entire system is a once-a-decade job. |
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