[legohead]

While visiting a friend in Russia I was perplexed by the candle in his flat - it had zero flicker, was stable and unmoving. Eventually I learned how they heated the flat, with water flowing through pipes and heat radiation - so little to no air movement.

[pjerem]

Isn’t it like this mostly everywhere ?

[viraptor]

No, central heating + radiators are somewhat region specific. For example Australia runs almost entirely on split system reverse aircons and electric heaters.

[gdbsjjdn]

In northern North America forced-air natural gas is pretty for single family homes. You have a gas furnace that blows heated air through ducts. It's supposed to be relatively inexpensive compared to electric baseboards, presuming you have all the natural gas infrastructure (or a big tank outside).

[adaml_623]

I will Google but wanted to point out that I have no idea what "electric baseboards" are.

It's funny how different houses are around the world. Even in similar latitudes/climate.

[unwind]

Same, I had to Google it too but didn't even understand the pictures since they were so alien.

Eventually found this page [1] which includes a basic description:

A baseboard heater is a convection heater. In such heaters, cold air coming in from a window enters the heater through a vent and hot air is dispersed through metal fins that are heated through electricity.

But it's still confusing because if it's cold outside (=you need heating) why would you have your window open to let in the cold air? That would also make your already-heated air escape ... duh.

Agreed, it's amazing how something that "feels" like it would get the same solution everywhere it's needed still does not, due to cultural differences, history, and stuff.

[1]: https://www.cadet.glendimplexamericas.com/en-us/articles/ele...

[stephen_g]

Maybe it’s single glazed windows so it’s talking about air that has been cooled by the massive heat loss there?

[mvcalder]

My Massachusetts home has both radiant floor heating (water pipes in floor) and baseboard water pipe heating (separate part of the house). My son’s New York home has radiators driven by hot water. I can’t recall a home where heating was vented air and not circulating hot water in North East USA.

[pixl97]

I've never had a house heated with pipes in the US.

[quesera]

Circulating hot water radiators are pretty common in older cities/neighborhoods in the US.

But I suspect the Russian example was radiant heating in the floor slabs, which will cause less air convection than hot water pipe radiators.