I was talking with my cousin this morning and she said that they were now starting to use their radiators which for those of us in the south are heaters! I have never lived in a home that use a radiator for heating and I will be honest and tell you that I have always wondered about them. I have seen them in older homes, especially those up north.
Radiators and convectors are heat exchangers designed to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of space heating. The heating radiator was invented by Franz San Galli in 1855, a Prussian-born Russian businessman living in St. Petersburg. ~Wikipedia’s Definition of a radiator.
Now all of that was a mouthful and let’s face it when the cold weather hits we all like to suddenly turn on as much heat as possible. Well most people do. I like it to be a bit colder in my bedroom at night when I sleep so usually I keep the heat on for the kids and elderly people who live in the house but I open my bedroom window. I have a hard time breathing when it gets too warm in a warm. That also means that when one of the kids sneak into the bed with me I must have another blanket handy.
[Tweet “When the cold weather sets in we all turn on the radiators!”]
My cousin uses electric radiators to heat her house and she said that they work wonderfully. She said she has had hers on fur a few days and the house has been nice and toasty. I will admit that when I first heard her say she was turning on the radiator my mind went straight to the one in the car. Again I think it is simply that there are few southern homes that actually use them. I’m not why that it is but I have discovered that is the case. To be honest I want to visit a place that has the old-fashioned type of radiators just to see what they are like. Of course with my luck they probably wouldn’t work and it would be below freezing! 😉
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It’s been years since I’ve lived in a home with radiators, but they were really common when I was a kid here in the Northeast. They give off a nice, gentle heat. They’re also a great place to leave mittens, which get warm and toasty before you put them on, and when they’re wet, the radiator dries them out quickly. I don’t know why radiators aren’t in use any more; maybe they’re not as efficient as today’s baseboard heaters.
Here in the Midwest they arent common, at least for a main heating source. I know when I have been in more temperant temps that they work fine. We have space heaters to take the chill off, but thats about it. We have a gas furnace. We also have a small woodburrner , it is used in November, and maybe in April when its still cold, but not unbearable. We dont keep our house really warm though, maybe 64.
I have never lived in a home with them before myself and honestly did’t know anyone still used these! We use CH&A but it doesn’t get very cold where we live. It rarely ever snows either. Beautiful photo!
It has been years since I lived in a house with radiators. I did not know that they had these anymore, And I thought you were talking about a car. I have lived in a house with radiators and they really do warm the whole rooms in the house really well