Stahlke Adoption

It's Alive

This morning, our radiators were warm. At least this year, it wasn't such a shock . . .

We bought the house in August 1999, after it had sat vacant for over a year. At the time it was just shy of 100 years old. In the basement sat the original boiler, converted from coal to gas back around 1910. The term around here for these monsters is the "octopus." My mother calls it the "sculpture."

Fully expecting that the heating system wouldn't work, Jonathan and I researched firms that could give us an assessment of its condition. But moving into a new/old house was time-consuming, and that item on the to-do list didn't happen. Imagine our great surprise one September morning to wake up and feel heat in the radiators! We hadn't lighted a pilot, flipped a switch, set the thermostat, or done absolutely anything.

Now it's 2011 and the heating system continues working fine. In fact, it's quite reliable and even functions when the electricity is out. We've been told that when it finally breaks, there are no replacement parts available. But there are also no moving parts that can malfunction. And even though everyone tells us the old boilers are less efficient, our heating bills are not high by Chicago standards. The house was well-built to hold heat, with radiators in front of windows, and only two windows upstairs from which heat can escape.

Sometimes the old technology really is better.

posted by Stahlkes @ 1:35 PM