I've not heard of a damper being called a register before.
Some British houses have hot air vent heating, my Aunt & Uncle's house had them but the dust (& occasionally fumes) in them wasn't good for one of my cousins. Also the company serviced it used to charge a lot each year, so they cut their losses & had central heating fitted.
One problem with hot air systems is they cool down quicker than central heating
My sister had a flat with night storage heaters, & found them hard to set up. They also made things cold in the evenings.
At University she shared a house that had hot air vents, which would only be switched on when it was very cold to save on heating bills.
For many years she had to sleep with her dressing gown on.
The word "register"
Re: The word "register"
At least one point of a humidifier is because once it gets dry enough, which it certainly does in the winter back in Wisconsin, the dryness literally destroys your skin (at least if your skin is prone to it), with the main other choice to prevent it being constantly using moisturizing lotions. (Maryland is not as bad as Wisconsin in this respect, but even there there was a period this past winter where it was like that in Maryland.)finlay wrote:Another thing that I find weird is the humidifiers that some of the schools I work in have – to be honest, I say if it's dry then keep it dry, because that can take the edge off both the cold and the heat as far as I know.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.
Re: The word "register"
I've also found that low humidity exacerbates respiratory issues. We used to run humidifiers in the rooms we spent the most time in in winter for just this reason, but last year we had a humidifier installed on the central heating. The few times it went on (we had an absolutely bizarrely mild and wet winter this year) it seemed to do a good job.Travis B. wrote:At least one point of a humidifier is because once it gets dry enough, which it certainly does in the winter back in Wisconsin, the dryness literally destroys your skin (at least if your skin is prone to it), with the main other choice to prevent it being constantly using moisturizing lotions.
We haven't had the ducts cleaned out in a while, but we change the furnace filters monthly and we haven't had a problem with the central heating stirring up dust and dander.
Re: The word "register"
My dad's house's heating system Used to be (there have been a bunch of changes since, i believe) something like this:
there was a wood burning stove with what was called a 'wetback', which was a chamber behind the firebox which was filled with water (we had this spring a leak INTO the firebox so the whole thing had to be hauled out and taken off somewhere to be repaired right before the biggest snowstorm to hit the country in decades before or since, from memory). a pipe lead from this to the Hot Water Cylinder (not called anything else. the name is purely descriptive). this cylinder was also full of water. the pipe from the stove entered the cylinder, and to the best of my knowledge, traveled through it and back out to the stove (without letting the water in it out, only the heat transfered) another pipe did the same thing in the cylinder and lead to the radiators through out most of the house (the house was huge, all the rooms were huge, something about how it was designed meant the radiators were actually the best way to heat the place.... though some of them had electric fans as well to distribute the hot air through the larger rooms faster). that was the heating system. the Hot Water for taps and showers and things.. well, the cold water came from the water mains and into the hot water cylinder, and then went from there to the taps etc.
for various reasons the hot water cylinder was also setup to be heated by electrical means, but for various reasons that was Very expensive. many things have changed since (including some emissions laws) which mean the stove is barely used now and the heating runs on electricity.
the place i Currently live still has a hot water cylinder, but it is used purely for water to the taps (including showers etc) and is only heated by electrical means. the house DID have a setup where the main living rooms each had a pipe in the floor with a vent (the metal panel covering the hole) at each end, and an electric heater and fan just before the vent at one end, so it would suck cold air in on one side of the room and blow hot air out on the other. no fancy system there, just a standard electrical heater tucked out of the way. they had thermostats on the walls as control systems. ... two of them didn't work right when we bought the house, the one that Did and one of the ones that didn't crapped out completely since (and you can't get replacements for that system anymore) and the remaining one is stupidly placed (it's almost impossible NOT to step on the output vent coming in through the external door to that room)... so basically we use those electric fan heaters you plug into the wall for the most part (well, I don't bother... my desktop computer makes a decent heater... and the PS3 could probably replace the electric system in our hot water cylinder if it was waterproofed, it puts out so much heat... so far i can actually keep my room warm even with the window partially open on cold days just by leaving that thing running.... well, not that i've tested that in mid-winter yet.)
edit: as for furnaces... schools have them, they burn a lot of the rubbish (and generally coal, from memory) to heat enough water for the radiators for the Whole School, which is often made up of many different buildings. (newer schools are designed differently, of course.), and i believe the Hospital has one, or at least used to (they use steam for a bunch of stuff, as well as their heating systems and what have you.) other than that i believe you'll only come across the term here referring to industrial level stuff or if someone is actually doing metal working or something. specific to a furnace is that there is actual FIRE, and it's usually very very hot. boilers specifically refer to large scale water heating systems where the goal is actually boiling hot water (or, more usually, steam) the hospital, for example, (if it still has one) would use a furnace to heat a boiler. specifically it refers to the part of the system where the water is... boiled. a heater is a device which heats the air in a room, with no other function. (a 'fan heater' is a heater with a fan... which is usually able to run just the fan without the heater if you want.).
so... yeah.
my idiolect of NZ English.
there was a wood burning stove with what was called a 'wetback', which was a chamber behind the firebox which was filled with water (we had this spring a leak INTO the firebox so the whole thing had to be hauled out and taken off somewhere to be repaired right before the biggest snowstorm to hit the country in decades before or since, from memory). a pipe lead from this to the Hot Water Cylinder (not called anything else. the name is purely descriptive). this cylinder was also full of water. the pipe from the stove entered the cylinder, and to the best of my knowledge, traveled through it and back out to the stove (without letting the water in it out, only the heat transfered) another pipe did the same thing in the cylinder and lead to the radiators through out most of the house (the house was huge, all the rooms were huge, something about how it was designed meant the radiators were actually the best way to heat the place.... though some of them had electric fans as well to distribute the hot air through the larger rooms faster). that was the heating system. the Hot Water for taps and showers and things.. well, the cold water came from the water mains and into the hot water cylinder, and then went from there to the taps etc.
for various reasons the hot water cylinder was also setup to be heated by electrical means, but for various reasons that was Very expensive. many things have changed since (including some emissions laws) which mean the stove is barely used now and the heating runs on electricity.
the place i Currently live still has a hot water cylinder, but it is used purely for water to the taps (including showers etc) and is only heated by electrical means. the house DID have a setup where the main living rooms each had a pipe in the floor with a vent (the metal panel covering the hole) at each end, and an electric heater and fan just before the vent at one end, so it would suck cold air in on one side of the room and blow hot air out on the other. no fancy system there, just a standard electrical heater tucked out of the way. they had thermostats on the walls as control systems. ... two of them didn't work right when we bought the house, the one that Did and one of the ones that didn't crapped out completely since (and you can't get replacements for that system anymore) and the remaining one is stupidly placed (it's almost impossible NOT to step on the output vent coming in through the external door to that room)... so basically we use those electric fan heaters you plug into the wall for the most part (well, I don't bother... my desktop computer makes a decent heater... and the PS3 could probably replace the electric system in our hot water cylinder if it was waterproofed, it puts out so much heat... so far i can actually keep my room warm even with the window partially open on cold days just by leaving that thing running.... well, not that i've tested that in mid-winter yet.)
edit: as for furnaces... schools have them, they burn a lot of the rubbish (and generally coal, from memory) to heat enough water for the radiators for the Whole School, which is often made up of many different buildings. (newer schools are designed differently, of course.), and i believe the Hospital has one, or at least used to (they use steam for a bunch of stuff, as well as their heating systems and what have you.) other than that i believe you'll only come across the term here referring to industrial level stuff or if someone is actually doing metal working or something. specific to a furnace is that there is actual FIRE, and it's usually very very hot. boilers specifically refer to large scale water heating systems where the goal is actually boiling hot water (or, more usually, steam) the hospital, for example, (if it still has one) would use a furnace to heat a boiler. specifically it refers to the part of the system where the water is... boiled. a heater is a device which heats the air in a room, with no other function. (a 'fan heater' is a heater with a fan... which is usually able to run just the fan without the heater if you want.).
so... yeah.
my idiolect of NZ English.