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Keep ondol(floor heater) on 24 hours a day???
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shamash



Joined: 02 Jun 2012

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I'm a bit confused. My ondol has the power button, two dials that have two settings, and a temperature gauge in the middle. The right dial with two settings has left for floor heating off, and right for floor heating on. Do I need to keep the floor heating on for the pipes not to burst, or can I just leave the ondol on? When the ondol is on and the floor heating is off, the water will still get warm for showers and such. I'm trying to avoid massive gas bills, and I don't know how to use ondol, so I'm living on sweaters and blankets.
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toddt82



Joined: 28 May 2009

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shamash wrote:
So I'm a bit confused. My ondol has the power button, two dials that have two settings, and a temperature gauge in the middle. The right dial with two settings has left for floor heating off, and right for floor heating on. Do I need to keep the floor heating on for the pipes not to burst, or can I just leave the ondol on? When the ondol is on and the floor heating is off, the water will still get warm for showers and such. I'm trying to avoid massive gas bills, and I don't know how to use ondol, so I'm living on sweaters and blankets.


I agree with you. I am interested in knowing how to set an ondol to "away." I will be leaving for a few weeks during winter vacation and don't want to come home to frozen pipes (which is what I've been reading will happen), but I also don't want to leave the heating on the whole time that I'm gone and be billed heavily for it. As Shamash said, can you just leave the unit on, which would provide hot water for showers, etc, but leave the floor heating off? Would that still freeze the pipes?
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shamash



Joined: 02 Jun 2012

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One more thing. I keep hearing leave it on 24/7, and don't leave it on 24/7. It's starting to get really freaking cold so I'm starting to want to use the floor heating, but if I leave it on 24/7, am I going to run ridiculously atrocious bills? From what I'm aware, it only turns itself on when it needs to, so it shouldn't really actually be on too often? Or am I naive and I'll end up with 100s of 1000s of won in bills?
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young_clinton



Joined: 09 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Smithington wrote:
Have you any idea how many chemicals, glues and other nasty stuff get released into the air every time you turn on the ondol. Stop and think about it.

I never turn on my ondol. I'd rather be cold than inhale all that crud.


How do you get throught the wintertime? I'm curious to know that.
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young_clinton



Joined: 09 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shamash wrote:
One more thing. I keep hearing leave it on 24/7, and don't leave it on 24/7. It's starting to get really freaking cold so I'm starting to want to use the floor heating, but if I leave it on 24/7, am I going to run ridiculously atrocious bills? From what I'm aware, it only turns itself on when it needs to, so it shouldn't really actually be on too often? Or am I naive and I'll end up with 100s of 1000s of won in bills?


The only thing I can suggest is try leaving it on all day for one month and see what the cost is. I don't really know what the difference will be. How atrocious your heating costs will be depends as much on what you use to fuel the heater as leaving it on all day. Anybody that uses heating oil will have to use the ondol as little as possible.
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orosee



Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Location: Hannam-dong, Seoul

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hot water and ondol water are on separate circuits. So as long as your apartment doesn't cool down below freezing, the (internal) ondol pipes should be safe from freezing and bursting.

Water pipes often run outside the building and are exposed more than your in-floor ondol pipes. Common advice in Korea is to leave the tap(s) running slightly to prevent ice build-up, I believe you can do this on the "cold" setting (i.e. you don't need to leave the tap(s) on AND set the faucet control to "warm") because most of the exposed pipe is before the heater anyway.

There are a few weeks in Seoul where temperatures go as low as -15 to -20C, I guess an apartment can get very cold then if you're not living in it, but if you're sandwiched between a (heated) neighbour above and below you, there should be sufficient thermal radiation to protect everything inside your apartment. Don't take my word for it please.

The reason why I'll keep my ondol on at a minimum setting is simple: When I return from Thailand in January, I don't want to wait half a day for my home to heat up from say 4C to 22C! When I used the "away" button last year, I came home to an apartment at around 8C which was really not comfortable.

One way to make the apartment feel relatively warmer while you're heating it: Go out on your balcony wearing only shorts and a t-shirt (Canadians may have to take a shower and go out wet & naked for the same effect) and stay there for a few minutes. Go back inside. It will feel considerably warmer than before you went out. Repeat until apartment is warmed up or you have developed pneumonia.

Seriously though: I'd consider Winter gas bills around 200,000 Won normal. Very little of this is dues to water heating for shower, kitchen etc. A normal Winter in Korea should set you back roughly one million Won for heating cost for a normal sized apartment (50-60 sqm). That's the equivalent of one wild night in a room salon, paid in 4-5 installments. Not a bad deal for feeling comfortable.
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Zyzyfer



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

toddt82 wrote:
shamash wrote:
So I'm a bit confused. My ondol has the power button, two dials that have two settings, and a temperature gauge in the middle. The right dial with two settings has left for floor heating off, and right for floor heating on. Do I need to keep the floor heating on for the pipes not to burst, or can I just leave the ondol on? When the ondol is on and the floor heating is off, the water will still get warm for showers and such. I'm trying to avoid massive gas bills, and I don't know how to use ondol, so I'm living on sweaters and blankets.


I agree with you. I am interested in knowing how to set an ondol to "away." I will be leaving for a few weeks during winter vacation and don't want to come home to frozen pipes (which is what I've been reading will happen), but I also don't want to leave the heating on the whole time that I'm gone and be billed heavily for it. As Shamash said, can you just leave the unit on, which would provide hot water for showers, etc, but leave the floor heating off? Would that still freeze the pipes?


orosee explained most of the answers. But to set it to "away" you need to find this in Korean:

외출

Some boilers seem to have it as the default lowest setting, but I think the newer ones require you to fiddle around with buttons. My boiler for instance has a button that cycles between heating, away, and hot water.

Also yes, don't forget to leave at least one faucet dripping to prevent frozen water pipes. I forget pretty much every year... Embarassed

It's vital if you go on a long trip in the dead of winter and live in a smaller building, but with some of these older buildings, they can even freeze overnight when the temperature gets low enough. Once it dips below -5 it's time to get a drip going.

edit: fixed Korean Embarassed
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Lazio



Joined: 15 Dec 2010

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

shamash wrote:
One more thing. I keep hearing leave it on 24/7, and don't leave it on 24/7. It's starting to get really freaking cold so I'm starting to want to use the floor heating, but if I leave it on 24/7, am I going to run ridiculously atrocious bills? From what I'm aware, it only turns itself on when it needs to, so it shouldn't really actually be on too often? Or am I naive and I'll end up with 100s of 1000s of won in bills?


Read my post on the previous page. Use the boiler on the water temperature/frequency setting and that way your gas usage will be consistent and easy to calculate. Find your gas meter outside of your house and read it. 24 hours later check it again, take it 30 times and that will be your monthly usage. 1 cubic meter of gas equals to about 1,000 Krw.
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young_clinton



Joined: 09 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="Lazio"]
shamash wrote:
1 cubic meter of gas equals to about 1,000 Krw.


Shocked Jesus! I was thinking gas was affordable.
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JustinC



Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="young_clinton"]
Lazio wrote:
shamash wrote:
1 cubic meter of gas equals to about 1,000 Krw.


Shocked Jesus! I was thinking gas was affordable.


It is, compared to wind power or unicorn farts.

Measure your square footage and ask home how much they pay to keep warm over winter, natural gas costs aren't hugely different like gas is, from country to country. Here we likely pay a little more so figure in 20% extra per square foot. If your apartment is really drafty then you need to seal it up before you go away for a long time, or pay lots extra when the final bill comes through.
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shamash



Joined: 02 Jun 2012

PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know, bumping an old thread, but I'm starting to die.

So I realized the away setting really wasn't doing any heating at all. Right now I'm trying to figure one thing out, so pleasepleaseplease trolls just stay away.

I've heard that ondol will be cheaper if you:
A) only turn it on at night, and turn it off when you wake up in the morning
B) leave it on all day, because then it doesn't take as much energy to heat up

Which one of these is true? I'd like to start using my ondol more often, but the big bills sort of scare me.
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NYC_Gal 2.0



Joined: 10 Dec 2010

PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We keep ours on a 2-hour cycle, but only because we've got a short-haired dog at home most of the time and leave the windows open a tiny bit to prevent condensation. Our gas bill is usually around 20-30k, but this month it was 115k. Ah well... We're home a lot, so at least we're comfortable.
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Lucas



Joined: 11 Sep 2012

PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I know, bumping an old thread, but I'm starting to die.

So I realized the away setting really wasn't doing any heating at all. Right now I'm trying to figure one thing out, so pleasepleaseplease trolls just stay away.

I've heard that ondol will be cheaper if you:
A) only turn it on at night, and turn it off when you wake up in the morning
B) leave it on all day, because then it doesn't take as much energy to heat up

Which one of these is true? I'd like to start using my ondol more often, but the big bills sort of scare me.


B + C

C being, when you go out, turn the setting down - to say 12-15 C, then when you come back turn it up to say 20.

If you're turning your ondol system up to 30, that is too high!

You really will get a huge bill then!

Try sleeping on the floor too, much warmer than being in bed which is 40-50 cm away from the floor........ or get an electric blanket for your bed....
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shamash



Joined: 02 Jun 2012

PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://stomy.tistory.com/entry/Rinnai-RBMC-12

Issue is this is my heater. I think I set my water temperature, not the room temperature, so I was only told to turn it up all the way. I don't think there's a setting to have it turn on every 2 hours.
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Lazio



Joined: 15 Dec 2010

PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On the left side of the big knob there is your timer. With the one, two, three little flames.

There is the explanation on the right side of your thermostat: 3 flames � 15 minutes, 1 flame: 4 hours. It�s hard to figure out where exactly would be say� 2 hours but should be somewhere in the middle (2 flames)
Although I�m not exactly sure how you adjust the water temperature and the time at once with the same knob.
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