Some background - I own this multifamily house and live in the 3rd flr. Singly metered, the steam boiler services all three floors. This top floor, although very well insulated only has two radiators. The smaller radiator that I am focusing on, it relatively quickly heats up and then the vent heats up and closes off. So once shut off with the heating cycle still having another 15 minutes of steam, no new steam enters the radiator. The radiator just radiates the existing steam energy it received until the vent shut off. If this were a larger radiator - one that had more fins, it would take a much longer time for the heat to reach the vent and heat it up and close off. Thus allowing new steam to keep entering the radiator for most or all of the heating cycle, thus radiating more heat into the apt. I am trying to be creative, trying to enable this small radiator to transfer some more heat than it has been doing so far. One idea is to place a heat sensor to turn on and control a small fan to blow air across a few of the fins, which would include the fin the vent is screwed into. In this way increasing heat transfer to the apt and allowing more steam into the radiator because with the cool air blown across a few fins and the vent, (1) those cooled fins would transfer more steam heat than it would otherwise and the vent would either not shut off or the shutoff time would be delayed. That is my idea. Any thoughts? Or any other solutions? Like maybe I should get somewhat of a larger radiator you will probably say. Well these are the original 200 year old radiators, recently sanded and spray painted. I guess I would prefer not getting a new or refurbished old radiator. I guess they would come with a guarantee. I would have to be certain they would mate with the valve stem too... Much thanks!

Hi everyone - I have a boiler setup in the house and what looks to be a fairly complex set of piping, circulators, valves, etc. Certain valves are opened/closed depending on the time of year and now that winter is approaching I need to get the heat rolling. My normal technician is MIA right now so I need help to figure this out. Is there a virtual service that I can pay a professional to go over the system with me on camera and ensure it is configured correctly? Thank you.