Heating Help

2types of radiators in the same house?

I just bought and started to read Greening Steam which for a layman is very easy to read. Upon looking at our radiators more closely it seems like we have one large radiator in our main room that has two pipes but all of the other radiators in the house are one pipe steam radiators. Is that possible? It's a radiator that has 21 columns, could the size be a reason for this?

rads

can't see it from here, but could be 2 rads butted together, not actually connected to each other?????????????

Possible? Yes

  I read about hybrids here quite often.  Some of them get real complicated.  Likely, as you pointed out, the second pipe on that big rad was installed to help it work better.  Is it working OK? 

further investigation

upon further investigation and referencing "Greening Steam" it's a two-pipe, air-vent radiator, all one piece with 21 sections across. all of the other radiators in the house are one pipe radiators, is that normal to have this one random, two-pipe radiator? it doesn't heat up very well at all, our system has alot of issues as I'm finding out from reading this book.

steam issues

don't worry about those steam problems, as we will help you fix them one by one, starting with main venting!--nbc

Lets see a picture of it then

  Maybe there is something obvious that will jump out at us.  If possible get a shot of what it looks like under the floor, in the basement, need to see the pipes coming out of it downstairs. 

2 Types of Rads

Hi, I have one of those "hybrid systems". I have 4, 2 pipe radiators with NO traps. I have 5, 1 pipe radiators. I believe my 2 pipe rads are Crane rads, I have a mix of 1 pipe rad manufactures. My system heats very well here in Maine.

Nice rads!

 What do you think Jeanne needs to do to get hers running good?

The first two pipe systems did not use traps

as they were not invented yet. They do use vents when set up like yours. It is  good system for a vaporstat as the low pressure helps keep the steam from short circuiting back through the returns. Ideally the returns should drop to a wet return individually. 

Pictures would help

I found mine in Dan's book EDR, right in the first 10 pages or so. I guess there could be many, many possible 1 and 2 pipe configurations out there. All my 2 pipes have air vents also on them. JeanneB do you have a little vent device on one end up by the top of the rad?

Yes

I have a vent on the same side as the return side, it's a Vent Rite which we have on all of our rads. This rad happens to be behind our sectional couch so I haven't been able to get at it to take a pic. I looked down in the basement thought and it does have a return pipe unlike all of the other rads.

I have the same situation!?

Hi,
I was browsing the web trying to find out some info on this and bumped into this site. A lot of great info here.
In any case, I have a similar situation. Our house is run on a one pipe steam system, except for what I'm guessing is the last radiator in the house. It's a beast of a radiator-- the largest in the house-- and it's used to heat up what used to be an enclosed porch-- now it serves us as a small den. It's horribly inefficient, it only seems to work when the heat has been on for quite some time. We are actually considering shortening the length of this radiator and installing a wood burning stove as a supplementary heat source. My question is, if we do decide to shorten it, do we still need to keep it as a two pipe system? And Why is it configured as a two pipe system?

Welcome to heatinghelp

  Shortening the rad may not be a good idea.  It was likely manufactured 100 years ago and you never know if you will get it back together again.  Normally, if a rad is too big for a room, you put in a smaller rad, or you adjust the one you have, to make it heat less.  These adjustments would likely be less than the cost of the wood stove. 

The best way here at heatinghelp, to get a thourough answer to your questions, is to start a new thread explaining what you have, and where you want to end up.  Include a few pictures.

thanks for your reply

thanks crash-- once I get my camera returned from the shop, I will certainly post pics on a separate thread...