My boiler quit

[Frank Cox]

Here's a new experience. My boiler quit this afternoon and needs parts that won't be here until Monday.

When the plumber told me that my first thought was, "Oh shit", and my second thought was to make a quick run to the hardware store. Luckily, they had some plug-in electric heaters that were even on clearance special, so I bought some for 1/3 off of the regular price.

I put three in the auditorium, one in the lobby and one in the projection room and somewhat to my surprise there wasn't much difference in how warm the rooms were during tonight's show compared to when the boiler is running. It's only -10^oC right now, though, so it's not particularly cold. But this worked fine so I'm not too worried about heat for tomorrow night's show either.

I don't think anyone even realized that the heaters were there. None of the customers said anything about it and a few of those guys are regulars who are pretty big talkers so I'm sure they would have had something to say about it if they had noticed it. I did kind of hide them in the corners to some degree.

[Stephan Shelley]

I know the Castro Theatre's heating system had to be replaced some years back. During the time it was out they had several industrial 220 volt electric heaters but did not really heat the place that well. This is a 1200 seat balcony house the the auditorium ceiling is 30 feet tall.

[Jim Cassedy]

A long time ago the owner of a theater whose heating system had failed asked me if there was some way
we could divert the exhaust from the Xenon lamphouses into the auditorium. He had read somewhere
that Xenon bulbs reach a temperature of over 1000°F, and suggested that with a little creative re-ducting,
I might be able to get the heat from both lamphouses (This was a 2 proj film system) into the auditorium.

Although I'm not a heating & air conditioning tech nor an expert in thermodynamics, I had to explain to him
that "yes" it would be possible to divert that heat into the auditorium but that it wouldn't make any difference
in the temperature there because I was sure that the rate of heat loss in BTU's of that large, old, high ceiling,
poorly insulated, drafty auditorium far exceed the amount of heat put out by the lamphouses.

Apparently I wasn't very convincing, as I later found out he went & got a 2nd opinion- - who of course agreed
with what I said.

They had no heat for 3 days while they waited for the parts to repair their ancient heating system. They
stayed open, but put a "NO HEAT!" sign at the box office. I went downstairs a couple of times and it was
damn COLD in that auditorium. In fact, the booth was the only place in the theater that was comfortable
thanks to some heat radiation from the lamphouses, large Xenon power supplies, & the amplifier racks.

[Randy Stankey]

Don’t forget that xenon lamps can create ozone while they operate.

That ozone needs to be vented to the outdoors, not circulated through the building. It’s potentially toxic or carcinogenic.

While most xenon lamps manufactured today are supposed to be “ozone free” one can’t be 100% sure that there is nothing harmful in the exhaust stream. I suppose that some kind of heat exchanger could be devised but I think that the cost of constructing such a thing, plus the cost of maintenance, would far outweigh any benefit received.

If the projector burned carbon, the potential of creating indoor air pollution would be even worse.

While it sounds like a good idea on the surface, venting a projector lamp house into a room for heat, thirty seconds of thinking about it should tell any reasonably intelligent person that it’s a pretty bad idea.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Pumping in the vented air from your projectors into the auditorium is probably illegal in almost all "Western" jurisdictions, where there are clear rules for such things. If you want recover heat from the exhaust of your projectors, you could do so using an air-to-air heat exchanger, which you then can include into your air-conditioning system, at least if you have a centralized system and not a stand-alone system per auditorium. If you're running a multiplex, such an investment might be somewhat worthwhile, but I doubt you'll ever recoup the cost for such an installation on a single screen.

[Scott Norwood]

Ugh. I know of a theatre that had this happen and didn't bother to fix the boiler for a while. They handed out blankets to the patrons in the meantime. Everyone thought it was some super-nice, cozy thing, even though the theatre owner was just being cheap.

[Frank Cox]

My electric heaters seem to be keeping up surprisingly well. It definitely helps that it's not really cold outside right now. If it was really cold I think the heaters could probably keep the place from freezing (which is good) but I would be surprised if it could warm the auditorium up to a point where I could be playing movies.

I haven't heard a single comment from anyone about the heaters; I really think that nobody has noticed them. I'm pretty sure my electric bill will notice them, though.

A new gas valve is supposed to be here sometime today (or so I've been told) so hopefully I'll have the boiler back up and running by tonight. Then I can put the heaters in a box and have them ready if it ever happens again.

This is the first time I've ever had anything like this happen in 25 years of running this theatre, though.

[Mike Blakesley]

Our neighboring theater (45 miles down the road) is currently closed due to a boiler problem. I've heard they're going to reopen this Friday. Their heat system is from the 1930s or something, so they've had a hard time fixing it I guess.

I know of a theatre that had this happen and didn't bother to fix the boiler for a while. They handed out blankets to the patrons in the meantime. Everyone thought it was some super-nice, cozy thing, even though the theatre owner was just being cheap.

This reminds me of when we last put in new seats. We had two nights where we only had the balcony seats, the main floor was completely bare. We got on Facebook and apologized that we had no seats, and told people they could either sit upstairs, or they could bring in bean bags, lawn chairs, blankets or whatever and sit on the floor. EVERYONE LOVED IT! People were acting like it was a really cool thing. Made me wonder why we spent all the $ on the damn seats.