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Re: Question About Header Pitch Flat Spot (one pipe steam system)
Furthermore, the wet (low) return doesn't need any pitch — so if you could get a little pitch on the flat section by lowering that you'd be fine.
Insulation won't make much difference in how much fuel you use anyway — the main benefit is reducing wet steam and getting the steam to your radiators faster and more evenly. Any heat lost into the basement keeps the first floor warmer, unless your basement is very draughty.
Re: Question About Header Pitch Flat Spot (one pipe steam system)
@alexh Do you get banging associated with the main with the flat spot? Water coming off the radiator connected near the flat spot? No heat off radiators on that main?
If not, it's not a problem.
Re: Question About Header Pitch Flat Spot (one pipe steam system)
Header pitch is something I just laugh at. For the average residential boiler with a 2' header no pitch is required. In fact
I did commercial boilers with 4"-8" pipe and I never saw a pitched header even on huge jobs.
If you tell a pipefitter to pitch a header they will just laugh. Not needed.
Re: EDR Calculation Questions
"There's a consistent mismatch between the thermostat set temp and temp it's reading."
Need clarity on this. Are you saying it is set for one thing, reading something different, and not calling for the boiler to run? Or, is it that same case and it is calling for the boiler to run? Those are very different scenarios.
If you are having to drain water, that isn't a slow return, it's new water being added incorrectly. Leaking valve, bad auto feeder, failed internal coil for domestic hot water, several possibilities. If you also have a slow return, that can be clogged wet returns, those tend to corrode the most of anything in a steam system.
KC_Jones
Re: Pressuretrol setting on 1-way steam system
Leave it as is your fine.
The second pressure control is a manual reset high limit. It is only needed if the first control fails or is plugged up.
If you want you can remove the pressure gauge and install and additional low pressure gauge by adding a tee. Put both gauges back on. In the spring/summer remove the pressure controls and gauges and make sure all the connections and pigtails are clear. Replace any black pipe fitting for the controls and gauges with brass.
With the new LP gauge you will be able to see what pressure are running.
Pressure is only a concern if it is too high. No pressure or lo pressure is good.
Re: Old Boiler Completely Blocked with Soot and Blew out Pilot
Probably nothing wrong with the mercury switch pressuretrol, probably the pigtail was clogged.
mattmia2
Re: Normal boiler therm usage?
While you are looking for heat losses — be very suspicious of the fancy new windows. Poor installation can cause them to leak like sieves.
Re: Air to water heat pump system design
R-290 and R-600 ARE legal in refrigeration just restricted to no more then 5 or 6 oz total charge.
pecmsg
Re: Air to water heat pump system design
R290 refrigerant, for those who haven't read the data sheet, is just a very highly refined propane. It is a good refrigerant — it has some very desirable properties from that standpoint. Unhappily, it also happens to be highly flammable as well. In fact, a somewhat cheaper and less refined version is sold as "LP gas" as a fuel. It forms explosive mixtures with air over a remarkably wide range of concentrations.
A minor detail, perhaps.
There is another aspect to this discussion, however, and I must apologise to @Erin Holohan Haskell in advance here, and ask her to either edit this or take it down, if she feels it's out of line. That aspect is economic, and can be seen both in the resistance in much of the US and Canada to the idea of air to water or air heat pumps, but perhaps even more dramatically in Europe, where regulators and government have more power to attempt to force change. The plain fact is that a substantial minority — if not indeed a majority — of the population simply can't afford to make the necessary upgrades in their housing to make use of heat pumps even remotely feasible, nor can they afford to purchase a heat pump system if they could. The money simply isn't there. As has been seen in Europe (particularly the UK), if people are forced to stop using their old fossil (or wood) fueled heating systems, they will simply be cold.
If I consider my own parish and the region in which it is located, I estimate that no more than one in four of the houses and other housing units in the area could be heated adequately with a heat pump only without major upgrades to the house or unit (and that may be optimistic) and I am quite certain that no more than a fifth of the population could afford to do the upgrades and install a heat pump — even with the government subsidies.
Mind you, I am not opposed to heat pumps. There is one in an apartment where I live and it takes the edge off the cold for the lady who lives there (Cedric does most of the work, though). In their place, for those who can afford them, they are a very good way to provide heat (and cooling!) and comfort. For those who can't, they are in the same class as filet mignon, vacations in Spain, BMWs and Lexus cars, and so on. Either nice to look at or a source of anxiety and fury, depending on the situation.
Re: 30 year old boiler losing lots of water?
Bluntly, that is more water use than it should be — half a gallon a day is excessive.
It might be a leak in the boiler, likely above the water line; if so, on a cold day, you may see steam clouds from the exhaust. Take a look.
However, it might just be cumulative steam leaks all over the system. While it is excessive, keep in mind that just one drip every ten seconds somewhere is two gallons of water per day — four times what you are seeing. The most likely culprits are the valves on the radiators; the packing often gets tired and leaks small amounts of steam which aren't visible. Another likely spot is the radiator vents, if this is one pipe steam. They also can get tired and leak small amounts (or sometimes copious amounts!) of steam.
Start looking there.