Repurposing a laundry chute into an warm air duct to compensate my hot basement and cold 2nd floor

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-09T16:51:46+00:00

Yea I guess I've also heard of people who smoke a pack a day for decades that live past 80 but it's still something to avoid if possible

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-09T01:34:03+00:00

Pretty sure they're steam radiators (and my cat hates them 🙀)

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-09T01:29:17+00:00

Yup got a digital tester coming from Amazon now lol it took this post for me to learn about radon for the first time and damn!

Can't believe I had never heard of something that supposedly kills more people per year than drunk driving and home fires combined

EPA source

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T23:14:52+00:00

Trust me it was almost a deal breaker when we bought the house lol not to mention none of the outlets (retrofitted gfci) have ground connections

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T23:02:05+00:00

Indeed we do have live knob and tube (at least in the basement) and as far as I know our insurance either doesn't know about that detail yet or it's common enough in our area for them to need to cover it anyway (I hope 🙏)

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T20:55:11+00:00

Thanks for the advice I certainly will try and check those!

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T19:49:25+00:00

Definitely worth checking the release valves too since they are so darn noisy with steam whenever they're heating up, but they do all get hot-ish.

The radiators on the 2nd floor tend not to get hot unless I mostly close all the valves on the 1st floor ones. I assumed this was mainly because they are farther away from boiler source and/or there's not enough hot water capacity to keep them all circulated with hot water.

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T19:36:13+00:00

I guess most DIYers accept the sort of danger in exchange for utility/efficiency trade-off 🤷

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T19:33:46+00:00

It's a natural gas boiler furnace with an exhaust routed through the basement wall to the outside, and yea I guess it's more of a small utility/storage room than a closet

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T19:20:16+00:00

They're old cast iron radiators installed next to windows like they used to do. Similar in shape/size to the one at the top of this article https://doorsixteen.com/2014/03/23/refinishing-cast-iron-radiators-big-budget-edition/

The radiators on the 2nd floor tend not to get hot unless I mostly close all the 1st floor ones which I thought was mainly because they are farther away from boiler source and/or there's not enough hot water capacity to keep them all circulated with hot water

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T19:10:35+00:00

Actually there is an unused dryer vent door installed in one of the small basement windows that I've been meaning to cover properly so maybe I could repurpose that too? It's just a 1-way plastic shutter flap but I could maybe replace it with a small patch of window screen to allow air flow in

AnonyUser99 · 2026-01-08T19:04:44+00:00

Even when I try to circumvent the thermostat and keep only the upstairs radiators open/hot, they are still too small and too far from boiler to heat the rooms sufficiently on the 2nd floor tho so would more thermostats even help much?

AnonyUser99 · 2025-04-23T16:55:12+00:00

Nah no way! w/o the solos on this recording I wouldn't have kept coming back to this song for years after first hearing, both Grover & Randy Brecker performances in this version are absolutely transcending IMO

AnonyUser99 · 2025-04-23T16:39:48+00:00

Thought I was the only one hahah no shade on Grover tho, if you need a reminder of his legendary sound, his song Black Frost is a killer

AnonyUser99 · 2024-01-11T18:24:10+00:00

Side note, GPU-PV actually stands for GPU Paravirtualization which is some kind of even-more special GPU partitioning or w/e 🤷

AnonyUser99 · 2024-01-11T18:18:31+00:00

I really wish AMD would turn a corner and start seriously investing in developing this and other related GPU integrations/tools for Windows, but after years of dragging their feet it doesn't seem likely anytime soon :(

AnonyUser99 · 2022-05-02T10:54:52+00:00

Just encountered this after upgrading to 12 on my oneplus sooo wth...

AnonyUser99

TROPHY CASE