Hi all! Please help me to understand ! I moved to Germany and renting apartment for the first time! So my problem is the heating. I have the heating with thermostat and tubes which goes through all the flats (see photo)
So the tubes are ALWAYS warm , so I barely turn on the heater . My problem is that I tried for several times to turn on the heating to 3 but it doesn’t simple heat , stays cold . It made me think what if the warm tubes are the heating and I will be charged AF because they are already warm and .
Just for you to know , thanks to the tubes my flat is always warm , as it’s very small . But the thing that heater is not turned on while tubes are warm makes me scared .
Thanks!

by Weird-Study-5015

17 comments

  1. You see the small thing on the heat exchanger? That measures how much heat you have used. If the heat exchanger stays cold, the detector stays cold and you are not charged anything.

    But independent of that, if the thermostat doesn’t work, talk to your landlord or to the Hausmeister. Need to know him/her well anyway. Maybe it’s just air that needs to be let out, or something more complex.

  2. The knobs are a thermostat, which regulate the flow based on the perceived ambient temperature. If your room is already warm just from the pipes themselves, it may not turn on because, well, it’s already warm enough. In that case, probably good for you, since your usage is measured by that small box on the radiator; and if little to nothing happens there, you shouldn’t get charged much.

    If you’re afraid your radiator may be broken, try turning it all the way up to 5 or whatever it is. If it _still_ remains cold, you should ask your landlord if it might need repairing.

  3. You need to vent the heater once. There is a valve at the bottom. You can look up on YT how to do this or call your house master for assistance. It happens more often than you think. Its not bad, its just the design that causes this.

  4. First of all, don’t panic. Your heating costs are almost certainly counted and billed via the small device on the radiator. The thing is called a „Heizkostenverteiler“ and measures the heat emitted by the radiator.
    You therefore do not pay for the heat given off by the pipes. This is probably calculated for all apartments, usually you pay 70% for consumption and 30% pro rata of the floor space. It is best to look in the rental agreement.

    Secondly, there may be several reasons why the thermostat is not regulating. The valves behind the thermostat are sometimes stuck. The best way to do this is to unscrew the thermostat (don’t worry, no water will come out) and press the valve in with a flat object. Turn to 5 to unscrew. When the thermostat is off, the heating should be fully on.

    Hope this helps you!

  5. The tubes circulate hot water from the central heating.
    Opening the thermostat allows the water into the radiator. The thermostat opens based on the temperature in the room. Each number is roughly a set temperature. So if your room is already warm, it won’t open the valve.
    The calculation of the heating costs is based on the actual consumption measured with the little tubes mounted on the radiator. They measure if the radiator gets warm and the overall costs of heating from the building will be divided according to the shares measured from the little tubes.
    So if you room is already heated by the pipes running to your radiators, your share will only increase a little bit, but the overall costs per share will rise (as it still consumes energy for the house as a whole). If all flats share the same open piping, it should even out between the tenants. If you are the only one with open pipes: good for you, your neighbors get a greater share because they have to actually turn on their radiators while you get heating without turning on the radiators.

  6. You should probably inform your landlord. They should be able to send someone over to check (or check themselves). Chances are the heating hasn’t been used in quite some time and the body needs to be vented once. Takes only a few seconds but i guess the landlord would like to know anyway.

  7. If it does not heat at all, there might be air in the heater. You need to let out the air.

  8. Behind the dial that has the numbers, there is a valve with a pin. The dial mechanically presses that pin to open the valve. Sometimes that pin is stuck.

    You can unscrew that dial counterclockwise on the nut behind the dial and perhaps some gentle persuasion or wd40 loosens the pin.

    Perhaps there is air trapped in the radiator. You can buy keys to open that valve on the other side relative to that thermostat valve.

  9. So turning the knob to 3 will be 20°C. So maybe your radiator does not need to heat because the flat is already Hot enough 🙂

  10. The valve is probably stuck shut. Happens on old heaters if they’ve been turned off for a while. Take off the thermostat. Below you will see a metal pin. You should be able to push it in using something hard and it should pop back out again. If it doesn’t, give it some taps until you can move it. 

  12. It looks like an old Einrohrheizung.
    That means the hot water flows through the tubes from top to bottom. That’s why the tubes are always warm.

    Only if you open the thermostat it will also flow through the radiator.
    Depending on the thermostat it might not be enough to open it to 3 to heat.
    Open it all the way to check if the radiator works. If it doesn’t tell your landlord

  14. Well, the incoming pipe is hot, as you say because weirdly enough, the landlord hasn’t put insulation around the pipe to prevent exactly that.

    As others have said, the little box in the middle measures your usage. They use that to calculate your utility cost. If your radiator doesn’t heat even when you turn it on 3, then your apartment is already warm enough and you also don’t accrue any costs

  15. An easy way to debug this would be to turn it to the max and listen for any noise of running water or any increase in heat on the exchanger

    If it works at anything above 3, it could just mean that your apartment is already warm enough

    And no as they said you are not getting charged because that thing on the exchanger is measuring the exchanger’s temperature

  17. The hot tubes are there as some sort of safeguard to ensure that people who are broke will not freeze to death.

    If the main body, the heater, remains cold, then the thermostat will show it, and you are not charged.

    Regardless, if you want to turn it on and it doesn’t get warm it may indicate that there is something wrong with the system, i.e. air is in the pipes. How long did you turn it on for? Turn it to max and leave it for some time. See what happens. Then lower it to what you need it to be.

    If it continues to remain cold, then talk to your Hausverwalter/Hausmeister about it and see what they can do. If it is air, then it is a simple thing to fix.

    Last but not least, it may be that your apartment is already decently warm (i.e. over 20°C) and the thermostat does not turn the heat on.

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