I know it's a little late to be commenting on this post that turned up in my search for info on Loquat, Eriobotrya japonica. Although this thread didn't have anything to do with my question about Loquats, I couldn't stop reading. Scott, you did a great job on this article. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. I'm particularly interested in the cold frames you made with the PVC. Last year I made some out of wood for my mom and stapled plastic to it. I will not do that again. I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind. (1) What width or diameter PVC did you use? I didn't realize PVC was that flexible. What makes it hold that shape? (2) Did you just sink the ends of the PVC directly into the ground? I couldn't tell because of the blankets. I'd like to be prepared long before winter sets in this winter. Your frames are great because they look easy to construct and easy to dismantle & store when not in use. Thank you.

Baseboard electric has many positive attributes. But economy of operation is not one of them. In most cases, it will be the most expensive automatic heat source, in terms of operating cost. However, I once had a customer with 8000 square feet with forced air oil-fired which was on setback to 50 degrees most of the time. One room of about 420 square feet was used on an irregular schedule by different people for meetings. Heating the entire 8000 square feet to 70 degrees was necessary to make the 420 square feet room comfortable. So I added baseboard electric to that room with a 12 hour timer in series with the 24 volt thermostat controlling a silent relay that actually switched the 240 volts for the heaters. The thermostat was under a security cover. Anyone who wanted to heat the room could actuate the timer, but they could not adjust the temperature nor could they "forget" to turn off the baseboard heat. Electric heat to raise the 420 square feet from 50 deg to 70 deg was the more economical solution.

Thanks for the replies! baymee, the radiator in the picture is the one in the bathroom which works VERY well. The one in the bedroom is giving me the problem and it is level. Mr Havac, I've bled the radiator both with the valve opened and closed. I don't know what temperature you would consider as "overheating". With all the radiators opened it will be around 73-75 degrees in here on the second floor, probably 3-5 degrees cooler on the first floor (no insulation between floors, old building). There are a lot of old people in my condo so I assume they want to keep it warm. Out of all the things you mentioned, why would just one radiator not work? All the others work perfectly fine. None of them have the isolation valve left opened, I just bleed them once a year. My next project in the Spring will be replacing the auto vents so I don't have to worry about bleeding them, but for now I would just like to get the bedroom radiator working. Things such as "a faulty relay, a bad flow check, t stat out of calibration" would effect just one radiator in one unit of the entire building? I am not responsible for any maintenance of the boiler. I am on the board of directors of the condo association and brought this problem up at our last meeting. All the other board members agreed that thair heat is working fine and the problem is with my one radiator, which is my responsibility.

I also have been working on my "keeping room"--an 8x11 room on the northernmost corner of our 120 year old wood-frame home in Indiana (It has a window and about 1/3 of the floorspace is the stairwell to the basement. While the stairwell is "old" I am not convinced it is original to the house--it may have been added when a bedroom upstairs was converted to a bath as the plumbing runs through this room behind a false wall and the waste pipe is boxed in (and nicely stained to match the woodwork). This basement configuration is not the best because this is the cold part of our basement (and we haven't done a good job weatherproofing our basement yet) and there's no way to shut off the basement from the laundry room. Since there's plumbing in the basement and this room (it's a laundry room/pantry now, I need to keep my room above freezing even though it doesn't have a heat run (and I wouldn't want to heat it since it's really part of the basement), I need to keep it above freezing. The room had an ancient (1960?) in-wall space heater (from the time when it was a bathroom) which was broken, and since it's a laundry room and there is a lot of fabric in the room, I don't really want a space heater in there. The first thing I did was look at the window--it was 8' tall, missing its storm, rattled and the glazing needed some attention (about 40 years ago!). I realize that's not your problem--is the gas still good in your window? You could also try a thermal curtain on the window if that's not enough. The second thing I did was caulk the trim and patch every crack in the room. Then I painted. The paint wasn't necessary for R-value reasons, but it seems to me the room was "tighter" after I painted...it felt like all the little cracks in the plaster were "sealed" after I sealed, primed, and painted the plaster. Tomorrow we have a windy zero day coming...that's my test to see how much better the room is... my basement has offset rooms also, and they do not match the floorplan of the house above--and 2 of the front rooms are over crawlspace. I think that your next task should be to figure out what's underneath your keeping room since it could be wind blowing... if the floor in there is wood and has "gaps" maybe you can feel a draft (with wet hands)...or you could take a bright work light and point it at the floor, then go down in the basement (at night if it's not too creepy, lol)with the lights out in the surrounding rooms...so that the work light on the floor will be a "beacon" calling you to the room. A more invasive way to do this would be to drill a hole in the floor (in a place you don't want to look at every day, lol! maybe in the joint between two boards or in a knothole where you can patch it later. If that doesn't work, you may want to try to measure from some landmark like your kitchen water pipes...or if you're not afraid to pull up a floorboard (I am!)...that'd be cutting to the chase... The other thing I was wondering is...my keeping room's ceiling is a kneewall attic...it got much warmer in the room when we insulated the floor of that attic. All the rest of my house is 2 stories with a huge attic, but this room (and part of my kitchen) is 2 rooms below and 1 above with triangle attics on top of the 2 rooms below, so they are cold. What's the ceiling of your room?