Best Of

This post is a continuation from an earlier post this year:

I was contacted by Scott (@karsthuntr) about evaluating the steam system in this church. It’s the oldest Presbyterian church in Virginia, founded in 1740.

The steam system was installed during a renovation in 1920. The current Burnham was installed about 8 years ago and it was a chop and drop by another contractor. It’s probably the third boiler since the system was added, the original being coal.

There are numerous issues and mistakes that have been made over the years. It’s a simple one pipe system.

Issue # 1. The boiler is severely oversized. The rating is for 2021 square feet, but the connected radiation is 882 square feet. Compounding that is the fact that it was split into two zones with the smaller one having less than 200 square feet. Some radiators have been removed and two large indirect rads have been disabled.

It appears that the system was split into two zones when the boiler that was previous to the this one was done. It was an attempt to heat the smaller office areas without heating the large auditorium. Again, less than 200 square feet of radiation.

Issue #2. The near boiler piping is wrong.

As can be seen, the equalizer is tapped out of the middle of the header and only one riser (3”) is utilized coming from the boiler. The header is also trapping water at a low spot on the left due to the misplaced equalizer.

This last pic shows where the small zone was once tapped into the 6” main where it’s now capped.

Issue #3. The dry return piping.

Notice how the 2” return pipe in the opening has been recently replaced with three 1-1/4” flexible lines.

I’ve never seen anything like this done and I told the church that the lines had to be at the proper height with the proper pitch and no traps or sagging. They tried to straighten them, but I think that I’m gonna recommend doing it over with iron pipe. There’s also another return from the small zone behind the boiler. It’s still iron.

Issue #4. The condensate pump.

The boiler is currently not running because the pump is bad and not putting water back in the boiler. Someone recently replaced the motor, but the pump is bad.

The copper line on the left is the vent and the one one the right is the fill line connected to a VXT controlled by the LWCO. I’ve never seen that done before with a condensate pump.

This pump holds under 10 gallons and I’m questioning whether it’s needed. Please give me some input guys.

If it’s needed to hold excess condensate, it will get set back up as a feed pump. I believe it was added when the previous boiler was done and the system split into two zones.

Issue #5. Traps and venting.

I believe the two return traps were also added when the system was split into two zones and therefore I see no need for them if the system is returned to one zone.

Issue #6. Firing rate

The rating tag calls for a 5.6 gph nozzle, but the burner has 3.0 gph nozzle. That’s within the burner’s range, but I doubt if Burnham would approve.

Professional advice and recommendations are welcome, please.