Best Of

Dan:

My deep condolences for the loss of your soul-mate.

I have been following you since 1993, when I bought a row house in Hoboken that had a 2-pipe steam system. At the time, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 2-pipe steam system. But I was told that the prior owners paid very high heating bills.

I had a the house renovated before we moved in. Changes were made in the heating system. I knew the plumber was screwing up but didn't know why. So I fired the plumber and was on my own. I asked many questions of anyone who may have answers. That's how I learned about a book called "The Lost Art of Steam Heating" by a guy called Holohan. Out of sheer desperation, I ordered the book.

You were my game changer. It turned out that I really liked steam heating and just sucked in all the knowlege. Your book gave me the confidence to reconfigure all my near-boiler piping by myself. I learned that my steam traps had not been changed since 1940. Although I didn't have to, I even re-converted the system back to vapor-vacuum (young plumbers came to my house because they never saw a functioning vapor-vacuum system). When I was done, that system purred like my "silent friend" (just like your book said). And I knew enough to marvel at what all the Dead Men did before me.

Because I could, I branched out to hot water heating. This came in handy when, 25 years later, I moved into a small farm in western NJ heated with hot-water radiators. The house is over 200 years old and I marvel at all the additions and retrofits added since then. My main contribution to this on-going history is a hot water system being pumped away from the boiler.

I took your seminars (and identified your building in Seattle because it looked like the Met Life Building in NYC where I had worked). I helped many friends and should probably have earned a commission on your book sales.

In my small corner of the world, you made a difference. I am a lawyer by trade and a tradesman by heart. And you were the giver of The Sacred Knowledge. Now my sensei will be sorely missed.

Good luck in retirement with your family.

Peter Rozano

Dan, maybe in a year or so you will think of something you want to write. You're a writer.

I did use a prop when I was teaching electrical to the HVAC students at the union hall.

If you're in a cellar for instance and want to run a wire or a pipe to something upstairs and have nothing to measure from you drill a pilot hole. (A small pilot hole in case you're in the wrong spot) Take a metal coat hanger and cut a piece of it and put it in a drill. Cut the drilling end on a 45 with pliers. And drill away. The hole will be so small if you're in the wrong spot no one will notice.

I dragged a short piece of pressure treated 6 X 6 wood to class one night and asked them if they thought the coat hanger would go through it. No one thought it would so we made a few bets. I won but all the money went into the Pizza Fund.