Let’s face it. We take our heat for granted. Unless you’ve been without heat for long enough that the charm of it all wears off, you just plain don’t notice that your house is toasty warm. And if you have radiators, you can thank “the radiator guy” for that.
I’ve always lived in old house. (Well, except for those years right after college when I rented circa-1970s townhouses.) And that means I’ve depended on radiators to keep me warm in winter months. I love radiators. Giving up some wall space is worth the even, constant heat. But until I started renovating my current house, I didn’t understand the calculations required to plan for the right size and number of radiators in a room.
Along came Frank “Steamhead” Wilsey — who has been our “radiator guy” since we moved to Baltimore. He may not like math, but he does use it in his job.
Can you explain what you do for a living?
I install, service, modify and repair steam, vapor and hot-water heating systems.
When do you use basic math in your job?
I use math for many things–accounting, invoicing, heat-loss calculations, radiator sizes and total amounts, flow rates, pressure drops, pipe and pump sizes and capacities. They’re almost all basic arithmetic- addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
Do you use any technology to help with this math?
Yes, we use calculators and computers for a good part of it. Accounting and heat-loss calculationprograms save a lot of time, since they store a lot of things we commonly use so we don’t have to memorize them or look them up every time- such as heat transmission factors for various building materials and combinations thereof. Other things, like pump performance curves and oil burner nozzle capacities at different pressures are shown in charts that we keep with us.
These technologies help us work faster and more accurately. For example, most times our accountant doesn’t even have to come to our office- we just e-mail her the proper file. But we try to do the basic stuff in our heads, so we don’t lost the ability.
How do you think math helps you do your job better?
It helps us avoid guessing. It’s way too easy to guess wrong!
How comfortable with math do you feel?
I’ve never really been comfortable with math, but it’s part of my toolkit.
What kind of math did you take in high school?
I took some algebra, consumer math and I think some business types of math. Again, it wasn’t my best subject.
Did you have to learn new skills in order to do this math?
Mostly, I had to re-discover things that I forgot I’d learned in school.
So there you go. The simple quest of warmth requires some kind of math. Have questions for Frank? Ask them in the comments section. And stay tuned to Math for Grownups for more about the math involved in winter heating.