Heating Help

Is Lit available yet?

@ August 25, 2006 12:47 AM in New Burnham Steam?????

Is literature, specs etc available yet? I've got a couple of "steam" clients for whom I am about to recommend replacing boilers. You know, the type that continue to function (the boilers, that is), but are eating them alive in fuel costs but your afraid to descale them for liability purposes... I'll hold off recommendations. This looks like the answer! Its also one of those instances where "vaporware" is a good thing (hey. I've been saving that one for years. promise not to use it again). Thank you, thank you for paying attention to the STEAM market. As we all know, its the hottest thing out there. ;) -Terry

legs.

@ August 12, 2006 2:23 AM in seen these radiators before?

Jeez. Another case of the obvious totally escaping me. Yup, its a legless model. I didn't think about it until now. Particularly unusual. Which brings me to the next question. The rest of the house has flush mount covers reminiscent of Arco/American standard fair. Except that the top openings are vertical, not horizontal. Some of these cover an Arco-like tube radiator, and others cover convectors. Were these kinds of items part of the W-M line? Or did the builder mix a bit... -Terry From the LIBRARY section:

Thanks...

@ August 11, 2006 12:53 AM in seen these radiators before?

Its funny that this should come up now. I took a look at a job this spring and this is what I found as the garage radiator. Its the only one in the house like it. Took care of that vent issue. This rad really throws heat nicely. Over the weekend I was perusing photos and thought "Maybe I should post that for identification." Lo-and-behold this thread pops up! Its just like the others pictured, with the convector innards and radiant "outers." -Terry

Thanks...

@ August 11, 2006 12:49 AM in seen these radiators before?

> I'd say that's what they are.

Base boards

@ August 8, 2006 12:24 AM in Steam Heat

My first thought is that the baseboards are a retrofit to eliminate the radiators. Now, this required the baseboard installers to reengineer parts of the system. Sounds like trouble to me. I am currently unbungling such a system. Really, its not that hard to correct problems like this. The hard part is knowing what you are looking at and why its acting the way it is. Okay, maybe it is hard. But with Dan's books and a little help from around here, you might find some amazingly simple but bone-headed mistakes that were made on this system. And hoooo-boy can a few bungles destroy the effectiveness and efficiency of a steam heating system! Digression: The current job I'm working on has baseray-baseboards-in-the -bay window. Angles are 22 1/2 degrees. So the installer used copper to connect the baserays and apparently bent the copper lines over a saw horse. Kinks at every bend. I kid you not. The main complaint was that everything leaked around there. The second complaint was that they had very little heat. So here we have a single pipe system that was partially converted to two-pipe, and with other baseboards drained on the same line into ONE steam trap. The vents are still on the baseboards. So this bay window setup with the kinks is slooow to begin with then the other baseboard exit steam right past that single trap up into the return of the bay set-up, closing the Hoffman 1A. The whole thing in the front of the house would bottle up, with poor heating as a result. Oh and the pressure was up to 7 lbs to rectify the problem. And its been like this for 30 years! Truly, I love jobs like this. Take a few things apart, reassemble properly, re-plumb a few returns, balance the vents, clean and adjust. Then I'm a hero. Don't even have to take the cape out the phone booth. -Terry

vacuum heating

@ August 7, 2006 11:50 PM in Steam/water's boiling point??

The rationale for vacuum steam heating was (is) that the typical steam system was sized on absolute worst case cold outdoor temps. You can look at some of Dan's notes on the turn of the (last) century desire for fresh night air during the winter. Also, many steam systems were built during the coal era and of course, coal often goes out. So fast recovery time was important too. My point is (and i do have one) is that these large systems are difficult to control during mild temperatures. Overheating and balance problems could crop up under low demand conditions. Enter: Vacuum heating. The vacuum operation lowered the boiling point of the water, increasing the steam volume. This lower volume steam could travel effortlessly far and wide. It eliminated overheating and balance problems. Without these troubles greater economy was obtained. Though fewer pounds of steam would be in a radiator, the latent heat held by each pound is actually somewhat higher at lower pressures, allowing for gentle yet effective heating. The most sophisticated of these systems were true subatmospheric systems, whereby the vacuum induced upon the system largely controlled room temperature. Systems like this could be operated at levels approaching or exceeding atmospheric under extreme conditions so that -20 pedal to the metal operation was still possible. Really a very civilized set-up. See the LIBRARY under "Steam Vapor/Vacuum Heating" and also of interest (to me, anyway):

just get one of these

@ August 6, 2006 9:43 PM in Dishwasher question

Looks like this would do the trick:

Dangerous Dan and the Hole in the Ground

@ August 5, 2006 12:06 AM in Dangerous Dan and the Hole in the Ground

Wow! Dan, you're quite a gifted writer but also --Fortunate. What a story! For anybody who's wondering, HeatingHelp's email news came and there's a wonderful story there. Give it a read. http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=196 Terry

My wet kit

@ August 3, 2006 10:56 PM in Digital Combustion Analyzers

My wet kit involves licking my finger and sticking it in the combustion gasses. Painful and not at all accurate:) Digital would be a great improvement.

My wet kit

@ August 3, 2006 10:51 PM in Digital Combustion Analyzers

> Actually UEI is owned by Kane-May a British
> Company. Some of their earlier models had their
> problems but the ones that my students have
> brought to class recently perform quite well or
> at least the hand held models. Just spoke with
> one of their product development engineers and
> they are heading in the right direction. I still
> think it is the person using the analyzer that
> will determine how good it is, not the meter. No
> matter how bad a electronic analyzer might seem
> to some they are a whole bunch better than a wet
> kit could ever be!

UEI Analyzers

@ August 3, 2006 12:59 PM in Digital Combustion Analyzers

Has anyone used a UEI (Canadian company, I think)? If so, any impressions? Any useful rumors?

It so hot today

@ August 2, 2006 12:27 AM in So how hot is it?

[How hot is it?!] It’s so hot, I saw a robin use a pot holder to pull a worm out of the ground. --Johnny Carson, as I recall. -Terry

Backflow valves

@ July 27, 2006 1:05 PM in High Pressure Steam Boiler Equalization

If the backflow valves at the steam outlet are of the proper disk type, they may require rebuilding or replacement. Also make sure there are no irregularities in the boiler feed systems that can allow pressure to back up through the feed piping. Unlikely, but occasion bungles are not unheard of! It seems to me the best way to set up multiple parallel boilers is with a sequencer that operates a motorized gate valve on the steam outlet of each boiler in addition to its firing controls. Check this out: http://www.spiraxsarco.com/learn/pdf/gcm_28.pdf One thing has me scratching my head: You said, When header pressure enters the off boilers, it causes overflow and activates the boiler feed pumps. Now I've seen pressure push boiler water backward into the feed system through a leaking check valve, activating the feed pump because the LOW water level requires it to feed the boiler. Flooding under these condtions has me mystified. Have the water level controls been blown down regularly?

insomniac wonders

@ June 13, 2006 2:15 AM in steam boiler fills when fails

if boiler one is half the distance to the main, is boiler two's steam traveling past boiler one's outlet and filling it from the top through steam condensation? I'm not sure I'm visualizing it properly tho' so a photo or several would be helpful, yo. -Terry

Interior storms.

@ June 9, 2006 2:51 PM in Window heat loss

I've built nothing but interior storms, as the windows I've restored are all pre-wwII steel casement windows. Usually Truscon or Fenestra. The interior storm covers the entire daylight opening. Since the storm window is on the interior you can use acrylic since it won't see very much dirt, weather, and UV. On the interior, the acrylic won't yellow prematurely (at least 18 years before visible yellowing). I always recommend the scratch resistant coated acrylic. The acrylic's R value is better than glass, its much better at blocking UV, and it has better low E properties than glass. Particularly since I use 1/4" glazing with minimal framing, or no frame at all for moderately sized windows or smaller. The low carbon content of the steel used in those old casements can weather very well. The house I live in has these. As they were, they were intolerable to use, or live with. I used an aircraft lubricant on hinges and hardware, stripped most of the paint off with a razor (it was surprisingly easy), knocked most of the glazing compound out, primed everything with oil base paints, reglazed, repainted. Whew! Oh. and I made my own seals with caulk (ask if you want details). Its really easy but no one thinks of it. But I did these windows 16 years ago and they are just now starting to chalk a bit. They are no worse for their wear after 68 years in the weather. Subjectively (comfort level near the window) and objectively (thermal imaging) these windows are outperforming my neighbors' replacement windows (with the exception of the ones with so many coatings and shadings that the interior of the house is downright gloomy. Could never live with that. I'll close the drapes at night for the same effect, thank you). And the sound isolation is much much better also. But I agree, more fragile historic windows, particularly wood with lead-came inserts should get tasteful exterior storms. -Terry

Interior storms.

@ June 9, 2006 2:46 PM in Window heat loss

> Anyone have opinions on performance differences
> between interior versus exterior storm
> windows? Thanks, Patrick

I've built nothing but interior storms, as the windows I've restored are all pre-wwII steel casement windows. Usually Truscon or Fenestra. The interior storm covers the entire daylight opening. Since the storm window is on the interior you can use acrylic since it won't see very much dirt, weather, and UV. On the interior, the acrylic won't yellow prematurely (at least 18 years before visible yellowing). I always recommend the scratch resistant coated acrylic. The acrylic's R value is better than glass, its much better at blocking UV, and it has better low E properties than glass. Particularly since I use 1/4" glazing with minimal framing, or no frame at all for moderately sized windows or smaller. The low carbon content of the steel used in those old casements can weather very well. The house I live in has these. As they were, they were intolerable to use, or live with. I used an aircraft lubricant on hinges and hardware, stripped most of the paint off with a razor (it was surprisingly easy), knocked most of the glazing compound out, primed everything with oil base paints, reglazed, repainted. Whew! Oh. and I made my own seals with caulk. Its really easy but no one thinks of it. But I did these windows 16 years ago and they are just now starting to chalk a bit. They are no worse for their wear after 68 years in the weather. Subjectively and objectively (thermal imaging) these windows are outperforming my neighbors' replacement windows. And the sound isolation is much much better also. But I agree, more fragile historic windows, particularly wood with lead-came inserts should get tasteful exterior storms.

Interior storms.

@ June 9, 2006 2:13 PM in Window heat loss

> Anyone have opinions on performance differences
> between interior versus exterior storm
> windows? Thanks, Patrick

roofcalc indicative of solar gain

@ May 31, 2006 7:18 PM in CCFs vs. DDs

Its interesting to play with roofcalc. You even see what a difference the color of the roof makes with regard to solar gain. http://roofcalc.cadmusdev.com/RoofCalcBuildingInput.aspx Might come in handy someday. Have a nice diurnal anomaly. -Terry

pumps.

@ May 22, 2006 4:09 PM in 2 pipe steam and condensate pumps

Hmmm. How many boilers, how many pumps. If one boiler, methinks (depending on the altitude of the water line vis a vis the returns) a condensate vented receiver and a boiler feed pump would give a more predictable water line. Unless these are vacuum condensate pumps, where it is advisable to leave them in place. Of course the best set up (but not the cheapest) is an arrangement with vacuum return pumps feeding a receiver and separate boiler feed pump. If I don't respond this evening, its 'cuz I'm at Dan's Steam night School in Cleveland. Woohoo! -Terry

pumps.

@ May 22, 2006 4:04 PM in 2 pipe steam and condensate pumps

> I lokked at a condo building today consisting of
> 4 buildings each building has 4 units each
> building has a 2 pipe steam systeam with traps
> and condensate pumps are the condensate pumps
> really needed?
>
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