Heating Help

Lot of good thoughts

@ April 18, 2012 9:14 AM in Ventilating a Cape attic

but there seems to be some disagreements.
FYI, I had cellulose blown in last year so should be good in terms of insulation. There are no eaves or soffit vents. There is a smallish vent placed low on each gable.
Some specific questions I have.
1. how large should the gable vents be, should they be the same size and where should they be placed (same placement on both sides?)?
2. Insulation seem to be stuffed down bays to the knee wall. Should this be cleared or does it matter since there is no venting to the kneewall from the soffit?
3. should I go to the extreme and try to add venting somehow through the vertical facia? There is no overhang, so it would essentially directly behinf the gutters.
4. Does the addition of a fan change any of the parameters or is that just a nice to have add on.

Ventilating a Cape attic

@ April 16, 2012 9:31 PM in Ventilating a Cape attic

HVAC includes ventilation but it seems very hard to find companies that specialize or at least know what they are doing, when it comes ventialtion, which is strange as ventialtion can make or break a heating/cooling systems. In some areas of europe houses are built with minimal heating/colling systems and take advantage of the the elements (wind, shade, sun) to be as self sufficient as possible.

I guess it is harder to sell a hole in roof compared to something the is measured in power or output units in the american market.

Anyway, I have a 1937 Cape and I am pretty sure that the gable vents are not providing enough ventilation. Today was a pretty hot one on long island and the temperature controlled attic fan came for hours (and very loudly - so I am guessing the fan is not the most efficient one either.

Does anyone know anyone that know ventilation in old houses and can recommend the proper solution. Last thing I want is someone to recommend installing bunch of whirleybirds on the slate roof...

Suspend riser

@ March 5, 2012 2:44 PM in Suspend riser

At the end of a 30' main run where it makes a 45 there is a run out to a 2nd floor rad. Due to the house settling etc the 90 elbow from the run out to the riser is dug into the sill with the weight of a 2 floors of 1 1/4 black pipe. Because the run out is esentially a continuation of the main it is seeing all of the expansion from the main and therefore rubbing against the sill as the main expands lengthwise (at least this is my conclusion) and making some not so pleasent noises. Sliding a piece of milk jug under the elbow did not help (sorry Jamie) but standing a 2x4 under the runout just so the elbow is lifed of the sill did work.
I don't want 2x4s standing in my basement so what are the options. Is there any type of clamp to put on the sill that would suspend the elbow just enough so that it can move freely? A hanger seems tough to position in the joist bay as you need it close to the sill so that you don't but a bow in the run out.
Any suggestions?   

Hoocuspro to 1 cph?

@ February 25, 2012 10:19 AM in Tstat "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems"

SO I just put int he Focuspro 5110D1006 and it is working right out of the box but I don't see any settings to set it specifically to steam and to 1 CPH. Anyone has any insight as the manual is very sparse.

EDIT: nevermind, found it. Why wouldn't they include the installer setup instructions in the box?

I went with the TH5110D (Focuspro)

@ February 21, 2012 8:18 PM in Tstat "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems"

also nonprogrammable and looks about the same. Hopefully I will have the same good results.

If the boiler only comes on once an hour doesn't that create some temperature swings or are the rads able to keep the heat constant that long?

basement just over 910 sqft

@ February 20, 2012 9:31 PM in Venting boiler room

Boiler room takes up a little over a third of it. The rest is laundry/ unfinished and empty but i will be refinishing it so I will need to close the door to the boiler room.

I did find a lot of black insulation (looked like dirty wool) in the rim joist bay) before sealing them up with rigid foam and expanding foam.

Im sure i won't get it air tight but still a big difference from before when it was leaking as a sill (3 inch gap in the window frame only sealed with fiberglass insulation. But maybe this is not a worry in this case. Will have the tech check it out next tune up.

Venting boiler room

@ February 20, 2012 6:44 PM in Venting boiler room

After spending some time winterizing the basement in a '37 cape and sealing all noticeable air infiltration points I was just wondering if there would ever be a need to vent the basment/boiler room to make sure there is sufficient supply of air for the boiler. WHat happens if the basement/house is too tight?

Mark

@ February 20, 2012 11:40 AM in Tstat "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems"

I have a Peerless ECT03 rated for 283 sqft and my estimate of the radiator load is approximately 260 sqft using the generic charts. I am trying to get a more precise estimate but I can't find the edr for all my rads, which is a mix of sunrads, richmonds and an Aero and even a fintube. But this should be close and it doesn't seem that off from the boiler. I am also missing a rad in a walk in closet that I am planning on replacing.

But again, I don't generally have pressure problem but on cold days (especially cold mornings) when the rads are saturated but the tstat is not satisfied the pressure can raise to the cut out point.

I was wondering if the steam designed tstat would work differently or what would the difference be if I replaced the magic stat? Longer cycles and longer off periods?

Basic tstat it is

@ February 19, 2012 11:40 PM in Tstat "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems"

As I mentioned, my low pressure guage does show up to 2psi even though the ptrol is set to cut out at 1.5psi and vents become noisy. Will the way a proper steam tstat work remedy any of this or is the only solution a vstat?

If anyone has the time, I would be very interested in how exactly the boiler/tstat will work together with the proper settings as compared to the Magicstat.

Tstat "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems"

@ February 19, 2012 11:03 PM in Tstat "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems"

So I was looking at the tstat earlier in the heating season and set it to the setting that seemed best. It did not have a steam or CPH setting so I knew it was not optimal but have not paid much attention to it until today when I was looking through the manual and saw the words "will not work efficiently on steam or gravity systems". Its a Magicstat/32 CT3200.

Things are working well but I do notice some weird cycle patterns where it runs for 10-15 minutes and shuts off but not due to pressure and start back up in 5-10 minutes.

My question is if its worth plunking down $100+ on a decent steam tstat. How would it really make the system run better? I have been considering a vaporstat, as making sure that system stays under 1psi seems to be the next priority. Ptrol is not very accurate and sometimes on cold days (and nights) it pushes 2psi and the vents starts to act a bit crabby.

Let's just say 'mom'is is with you in the candy store and you can only pick one, which one will it be? New Tstat or a Vstat?

Radiant floors

@ February 10, 2012 3:02 PM in Question about insulation on mains in basement

My experience from insulating the mains is similar in that I miss my radiant kitchen floor. But it hardly seems worth over heating the basement for it.
Also, from my half bath that sits on a unisulated crawlspace I have come to realuze how much floor temperature rather than space temperature has to do with comfort.

Good point

@ February 9, 2012 1:47 PM in Hammer with Gorton #4 but not with Hoffman 1A

I will try another 1A and see if this one has just gone bad.
Before I put the gorton on there was a unknown vent on there (no stamping on it). It looked kind of like a vari valve but instead of the slider there was a ring around it with holes of increasing size that you could slide over the orifice to adjust the venting rate. i will see if  I can upload a pic.
It was working fine and was set to a huge vent hole but it gave of a fog horn type sound under just a little bit of pressure.

Pressure is low

@ February 9, 2012 7:08 AM in Hammer with Gorton #4 but not with Hoffman 1A

Have 2 gorton 2s on the long main and pressure is low, just above 0 until saturation.

Could it be that with the low pressure the steam is travelling to fast up the riser with a gorton 4? This rad is just after a 90 bend on the main and the steam has been picking up some speed by then?

Hammer with Gorton #4 but not with Hoffman 1A

@ February 8, 2012 8:40 PM in Hammer with Gorton #4 but not with Hoffman 1A

I have a small sunrad in the bathroom on the second floor (3rd to last on the long main). A few months into the heating season I switched all vents to gortons and put a 4 on this one. I never heard any noise from this rad prior to the switch but started to hear faint water hammer (if that is what it in fact is). It is not very loud but very faint thumps and they started slow with several seconds in between in the beginning of the cycle until it ended in a drum roll. But it will keep you up at night (mostly because I am going over all the potential causes in my head). It also sounds like it coming from the run-out from the riser (about 5') or he riser it self as it runs from the wall under a closet into the bathroom.

I put on a Hoffman 1A a few days ago and have not heard a noise since. But it also doesn't heat unless it's cold out and cycles are long. I am assuming this has to do with Hoffmans bing slower, even at 6? Is it that there is too much steam too quick with the gorton? Any other ideas as to what is causing the noise? Pressure is low and rarely above 1psi (at the end of a long cycle).

I was wondering if pitch could be the cause, either in the run-out or the rad itself. But how do you pitch a small sunrad as the supply doubles back so if you pitch toward the supply you actually restrict drainage?

Radiant floor with steam

@ February 5, 2012 10:55 AM in Radiant floor with steam

Since insulating the mains I miss the the radiant floor effect I had going in the galley style kitchen from the main running directly under it. I am wondering if there is another way to steal some heat from the main? I've thought of a couple screwball ideas:

1. Remove a slit of insulation from the top of the pipe (but this may have detrimental effect to the insulation value and once I finish the basement ceiling heat will be deflected)
2. A runout to go into the joist bay and act as a hidden radiator (you probably don't want the steam pipe against the floor plank boards though)
3. Aluminum plates against the floor that are attached to the main to conduct heat

Maybe these are just 'pipe' dreams but I sure I am not the first to think about it on the wall?

Let's hope

@ January 29, 2012 5:15 PM in How to drain boiler without a floor drain

I don't get a leak in the sewage line or I will be up a certain creek. If I get a sump it wouldn't protect against a sewage line leak I guess as that is the only way out but it may be good to have for draining the boiler and water main brakes. And I am 1 mile from the Atlantic...(not in flood zone but still)

That would be fine

@ January 29, 2012 4:38 PM in How to drain boiler without a floor drain

but as NBC pointed out, will the boiler drain all the way or only to the rim of whatever vessel I use?

Afraid what I might find

@ January 29, 2012 3:36 PM in How to drain boiler without a floor drain

Just as the drain is there for a reason I suspect the previous owners filled it in for a reason. I know they had alot of work done to the sewage system and that may be why they filled it in. On the other hand they may have fixed the original problem so that it would not be an issue to open up the drain again. Is there any chance that raw sewage may back into the floor drain? come to think of it, I actually don't see where the drain is connected to the sewage pipe so could the floor drain be just open to the ground?

Sink is raised up

@ January 29, 2012 3:32 PM in How to drain boiler without a floor drain

Good suggestion. Unfortunately the sink is raised up on a footing so there is still going to be 10 inch difference. Boiler drain is literally as close to the floor as you can get.

How to drain boiler without a floor drain

@ January 29, 2012 12:05 PM in How to drain boiler without a floor drain

So I have been skimming my steam boiler to get rito flush out d of the droplets in the sight glass but I am seeing some murky water when I do the weekly flush so I think I need to completely drain the boiler to flush out sediment. I have drained the wet return, which was not a problem as its up a foot from the floor but the boiler drain is just an in or two off the floor.

The floor drain has been plugged with sand for some reason by the previous owners and I don't have a sump pump (or a sump hole for that matter) so how do I drain the boiler. I'm thinking there may be a way to siphon the water to the wash sink but I am not sure how that would work. ANy ideas?

Think you are confused

@ January 26, 2012 11:11 PM in High Pressure, new Gorton #2s

BobC is not telling you to turn down the pressure while the boiler the is running but rather manually activate the pressuretrol while the boiler is running to see if mechanically the switch works.

With the cover off, follow the pigtail straight up where it enters the ptrol. The diaphragm at the base of the ptrol is connected to the rocker switch via a small rod. Gently insert a flathead screwdriver under the rocker where it is connected to the rod and use it as a lever to move the rocker up (gently). The ptrol should cut out the boiler as you are simulating high pressure. If not, you have a problem with the ptrol.

Rationale

@ January 16, 2012 8:12 PM in Pushing the envelope with a pressuretrol

IN the morning when it is the coldest, say 20 degrees, I found by using setback that the system would make a lot of noise as it was raising trying to raise the temp from say 65 to 70 (taking the inside outside diff from 45 to 50 degrees). The noise was in the form of very loud vents (one rad sounded like a tuned boat horn) as the rads where condensating like crazy at that temperature and this was at 6am. By not fighting the temperature, and instead letting the inside temp drop when it was the coldest outside I am minimizing the increasing diff in inside /outside temp as it is getting colder during the night.

When I bring it back to 70 I don;t think really matter but the sun is directly on the house at1 and by 4/5pm it is behind the trees and I feel it cooling down. Feel free to disagree but it seems to be working well for me. No more noise in the morning and I can sleep until the alarm comes on instead of the vents.