today is the important day of the year where i bleed the radiators. like a medieval physician employed at the court of the boiler. i have a wadded rag of fabric and this special brass implement which i twist. i have to ensure the 4 humors of the central heating system are in balance: clear water, rusty water, methane, and some kind of fluming effluvium. i think the rusty water represents blood, but don't take my word for it, i'm not an expert. speak to a bearer of the crest of the hound of wales
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@jk That reminds me. I should bleed my air compressor tank.
@jk late at night on Midwinter the ghost in the furnace will tap 22 times
@jk May the fates be with you, boiler-man
@jk If the rusty water is excessive, you may need to sacrifice some more base metal.
@jk my least favourite thing about bleeding radiators is that there's a knack to doing it without soaking the floor or your sleeve, and every year I've forgotten it, and every year, the point at which I get the hang of the technique again is just when I've run out of radiators that need bleeding.
@simontatham i think you have to listen to the sound. there's a point where it goes from 'hiss' to 'gurgle' and you have to be ready. it's sort of like tuning a radio, except if you overshoot you get a load of weird shit on your jeans
@jk @simontatham if your heating is on then you can also note the radiator slowly warming at the water level from the bottom up. When it appraches the top loosely refit the key. And have something absorbent to hold just below the vent and catch any leak as you rush to screw in the key.
@jk UK people would do anything to not use heat pumps 😂
@thomasfuchs are heat pumps quiet yet? i was extremely heat-pump obsessed, i thought they were amazing. and then i heard one. it was awful. theres like 12 flats in my building, and 50+ buildings on my street. i imagined looking out the back window and seeing a thousand boxes on the back walls of all of them. BOSCH. SAMSUNG. with huge fans spinning, screaming all night. if that comes to pass, i'll have to leave the city probably
@jk @thomasfuchs I have an off guess that the difference between the quiet and loud ones is older single speed compressors with a single speed fan (think typical american air conditioners from about the past 50 years) versus newer ones with variable speed fans and compressors (most american minisplit systems)
(Yes i'm american, i've never experienced how European climate control systems are laid out. TIL bleeding radiators was a thing.)
@jk @thomasfuchs I’m about to have one installed so I hope so. Word on the street is things have improved a lot over the last couple of years.
On a side note, why would a heat pump remove the need to bleed your radiators? Most are still air-to-water as far as I know.
@jk @thomasfuchs My heat pump is quiet. I have to stand within a couple of metres of it to be sure it's running!
my pipes are phlegmatic
my boiler is bilious
its manifold melancholy
and all its sensors sanguine;
o pray humor me
with humidity
and heat.
@jk The bearer of the crest is never in when I call, or can't make it over to London, so I have to struggle on myself, untrained, ignorant, fearful.
@jk You made my day by using the word effluvium: as a non-native speaker it is literally never used in any English-speaking context I'm in. But it's the name of a level in one of my favorite games in the past, Hexen, and reminded me of it.