Best Of
Re: New garage radiant floor
Many moons ago I did a garage to studio conversion that was about half the size you are looking at. Colder climate and nowhere near that level of insulation. The whole thing is heated and cooled by a 1 ton minisplit with a BOM cost under $1k. The operating cost is so low (~$20/month in the winter) that don't even bother to turn the heat down much when not in use. Recovery is quick as it only needs to heat the air. No water, no leaks, no glycol. Bonus, excellent AC in the summer. If you are doing dusty bits, you can get one of the slim ducted units and mount it like a shop heater on the ceiling without any ducts with a big filter on the intake.
The idea of hydronics and heated slab is all nice a good, but if you look at the BOM cost of the equipment plus all the bits, even with cheap gas, the ROI is never.
If you must have hydronic, I would do a small power vented tank with plate HX to tap it for space heat. The combi tank @hot_rod mentioned is nice but way too expensive. Your load is low enough that you can use a cheap recirc pump with a small plate HX on the potable side and small circ on the space heat side.
Kaos
Re: 1920s Two-Pipe Direct Return System?
you could use a micro bubble type air purger, pipe the air discharge to the Airtrol fitting in the tank
hot_rod
Re: Banging Hartford Loop
It's hard to imagine that steam goes down The equalizer. The equalizer is unvented. It would seem like it's pretty much impossible for steam to get past the last main takeoff. A hot equalizer is probably because there is hot water going down the equalizer. And maybe there is steam going up the equalizer
Re: Does metal radiator cover affect performance? Absorbs heat or passes it along?
Assume any changes made to the radiator will change output.
However adding a fan behind or below will "force" some convection and add output.
The air space between the radiator and the sheetmetal cover will prevent the cover from reaching the temperature of the cast iron, so radiation transfer is reduced.
Any change to the air flow design through the radiator will change the output.
Now you have a constipated radiator.
Any heat that cannot be "emitted" to the room by any changes, goes back to the boiler.
hot_rod
Re: New House, New Problems- Introduction and seeking help on new to me steam
Agree pretty much with @ethicalpaul . You are about 12% oversized which is not good but is not bad relatively speaking. I'm over 30% oversized but am managing fine. Get the Gorton #2 main vent on, fix the piping to that entryway radiator and either avoid doing setbacks and recoveries, or, if your thermostat programming will allow it break up the recovery into something like 30 minute on off increments. You could also wire in a delay timer which you can find information on in other threads. You want to avoid building the pressure and if you do most of your issues will subside.
Note your main vent isn't going to change alot from a full cold start. It improves time to get steam to the radiators significantly when the system is already warm. Cold, most of the time is eaten up heating the main pipes and condensing steam along the way (steam isn't just going to rush through a cold pipe all the way to the main)
#1 boiler killer you're NOT testing (Low pH will destroy your boiler fast)
In this weeks video I talk about pH in the boiler water, how to test, and why you should.
Re: High Excess Air on Vintage Boiler
I have not because honestly I can't figure how to get them out and once again I'm dealing with deadmen's great work. They don't really twist out like they do with more modern burners. God forbid the thing cracks. And HVAC companies in my area are hit miss for willing to work on my boiler sadly. One company would not even change out the thermocouple. They just wanted to sell me a new boiler. It's actually why I became so versed on my boiler and bought my own testing equipment (and taught myself how to change a thermocouple with help from Youtube).
Re: Do I replace my 75 year old in-floor radiant, or do in wall radiant?
Baseboards are ugly, fall apart after a few confrontations with the vacuum cleaner and dust collectors. Output is limited: 500 BTU's per foot.
Panel rads are pretty and output is vast depending on size and thickness. They are also expensive.
Re: New House, New Problems- Introduction and seeking help on new to me steam
That coupling needs to be replaced with an Eccentric Reducer. The outlet is lower.
Cast Iron, 2 in x 1 in Fitting Pipe Size, Eccentric Reducer Coupling - 4KVZ3|0300154804 - Grainger
pecmsg
Re: Do I replace my 75 year old in-floor radiant, or do in wall radiant?
And you have a basement under this concrete slab? That is very unusual.
In my area there are many homes that were built in the 1950's and 1960's with copper tubing embedded in a concrete slab. Of the roughly one thousand homes with this type of system, I would guess about ninety percent are still in operation. Boilers have been replaced in all of the ones I have seen. The replacement boilers appear to last about twenty five years on average, really depends on maintenance and of course how much make up water is added.
