Hot Air

Have you cleaned your radiators lately?

Dust radiators (covers and coils) or registers; clean thoroughly when necessary.

My bedroom is due for its monthly cleaning tonight, so I'm headed in there shortly to strip the bedcovers and get things started. The first time I came across any mention of cleaning radiators or registers in the bedroom, I said, "Hurrah! That's one chore I can cross off the list." My 1980s apartment doesn't have anything of the kind. I do, however, have a vent-y kinda thingamajig in each room as well as a larger one [maybe a return register?] in my hallway. The more I read up on the care recommended for radiators or registers, the more I realize how important it was that the vents to my own joint heating/cooling system be properly dusted and cleaned. Here's an excerpt from America's Housekeeping Book (1945):

RADIATORS

Exposed radiators must be kept clean for the protection of walls, curtains and draperies. During the season when the heat is on, this special cleaning should be done once a week. In the summer months less frequent cleaning is needed.

If you are not using a vacuum cleaner for cleaning, place dry newspaper under the radiator to protect the floor. Cover this with a layer of dampened newspaper. Brush the coils downward with a radiator brush, so that the dust collects on the damp paper. Fold the paper carefully and dispose of it.

If you have a vacuum cleaner, use the blower attachment to dislodge the dust and blow it downward. Then use the suction attachment to gather the dust into the bag. The dampened paper may be used if desired, but is not really necessary.


The exposed radiator took up a lot of space in this living room.

Recessed radiators are not a dust problem during the season when they are in use, because air passes through them so rapidly that dust does not collect. In the summer, dust is apt to settle on them, and they should be cleaned every two or three weeks. Most recessed radiators have removable fronts which facilitate cleaning, and many have an arch at the base which admits the vacuum cleaner. The method for cleaning is the same as for exposed radiators.


Just to the right of the door, you can see a recessed radiator set into the wall.

HOT AIR REGISTERS

Once-a-week cleaning should be the rule, during the months when registers are in use, and at least every two weeks during the summer.

Spread dry newspapers on the floor and cover them with a layer of dampened newspapers. Lift the grating from the register and set it on the damp paper. Brush the grating and the opening to the hot air shaft, or use the suction attachment of the vacuum cleaner which does a much more thorough cleaning job.

I've never lived in any homes with radiators - recessed or otherwise - still intact, but I did live in a turn-of-the-century home in New Hampshire during my early twenties where the furnace pushed heat through cast-iron registers laid in the floors of various rooms. If you just couldn't shake the cold on a winter's day, all you had to do was stand near one of those registers when the heat came on. Whoosh! You'd be warm in an instant. Those registers must've been awful heavy to remove for cleaning, though.

Home heating technology may have changed dramatically over the last sixty years, but dust hasn't. The vents in my apartment are more similar to the "hot air registers" of yesteryear than to radiators. There's no steam involved, for one. Between the heat needed during our brief winter and the air conditioning needed the rest of the year, my vents are always on the job --- so I'd say they need a good dusting with the vacuum cleaner once a week. Once a month, they could probably use a cleaning with a warm, soapy rag. The vents also appear to be removable - though I haven't tried that myself! - so it might be a good idea to get in there on a seasonal basis and vac around the opening to the shaft.

Displacement

39 ounces down, 25 to go!

You know, one of the side benefits to drinking all this water on a daily basis is that I'm going to be drinking less of the other things I'd normally drink to quench my thirst. Like Vitamin Water. I love this stuff, and - truth be told - it's not nearly as bad for me as some of the other things I used to drink. Like Pepsi or Gatorade or Coffee Coolattas. Vitamin Water contains 125 calories to a 20-ounce bottle, and I'd guess I was drinking about 1 1/2 bottles per day before I started on the water. I haven't sworn off Vitamin Water, but I do have a quota when it comes to the real stuff and that competitive edge in me feels driven to make that quota every day. So it's water first - and by the time I make my quota it's bedtime and I'm not thirsty any longer. That's 185-190 calories a day I'm turning away. Hey, that's gonna add up --- more than 1,300 calories a week, more than 5,200 calories per month. YIKES!!! I'd better stop. I'm freaking myself out!

The weather is really heating up here in the American Southwest and, with it, my routine is adapting a bit. I can only keep the windows open from about 11 p.m. 'til 7:00 a.m. Which puts a crimp on all the fresh air I'm used to putting to work for me when it comes to housework. I can't open the windows to air out my mattress when I'm changing the bed linens on Thursday evenings. I just hung my quilt and blanket and pillows outside to air on the landing, but it's still in the high 80s, so I know they won't feel quite as fresh and crisp afterwards as they used to... On the plus side, if I put a freshly washed garbage can or wet bucket out there on a sizzling Saturday afternoon, it's dry in a flash!

Now I understand how housewives in four-season climates must have felt when after being cooped up indoors all winter they threw open the windows and dragged everything outdoors for a breath of fresh air. Beating the dust out of carpets, cleaning out fireplaces, letting the sun shine in on even the darkest corners of the house. Things just work a little backwards here. Think how happy I'll be come December!

The biggest change with these temperatures is that I've taken part of my weekday walk indoors. There's a basketball stadium about a ten-minute walk from where I work and the building is open during the day to walkers. You can walk laps around the stadium on one of the upper tiers and savor that lovely air conditioning. What it means is that I'm spending about 20 minutes in the broiling hot sun in order to get to and from the stadium - where I only have time to spend about 10 minutes! - but even taking 10 minutes off the time I have to spend in the noonday sun is worth it. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to make this work. Maybe a month. But what matters is getting it done now. I'll let next month worry about itself for a change.

Open Windows

Day One - or should I say Morning One - was a great success! I'm not crowing too loudly as I know that these early morning tasks are just the tip of the iceberg. These are the kinds of chores that the authors of my manual expected from every occupant of the 1945 household. Even the youngest school-aged child would probably have been raised to take care of these duties before sitting down at the breakfast table.

Open windows in bedrooms, top and bottom, on arising, for free circulation of air (except in completely air-conditioned houses). (This should be done by the person occupying the room.)

The weather here is finally cool enough that I can open my bedroom window and let the fresh air indoors. What a blessing after a summer of air-conditioned stuffiness! Even women living in a northern climate have to give up opening bedroom windows during the winter, though, so we all have to endure stuffy air at one end of the year or another...

The authors of America's Housekeeping Book make it clear from Chapter I, "When You Hunt a Home," how important fresh air was to the modern housewife. "Cross-ventilation in every room" was the very first item on the checklist designed for the woman inspecting a home for sale. Women were encouraged to budget time every day in order that their children get "exercise and fresh air." Most women by far still dried their laundry on clothes lines, and they were encouraged to air all their bedding outdoors once a week.

I find it interesting that the manual referenced air-conditioned homes. I've always thought that air conditioning was only found during the '40s in hotels, restaurants, or other public facilities. Digging a little deeper into the manual, I find that the term "air conditioning" was being used to refer not just to cooling, but to systems that circulated, purified, and humidified (or dehumidified) air. In other words, somebody who lived in a "completely air-conditioned house" in 1945 would never have had the luxury of a freshly-aired bedroom!