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Re: a way to get the return water hotter?
Physics is such a nuisance. Your delta T and flow determine -- very exactly -- how many BTUh you are putting into the slab. The slab characteristics determine, then, whether its temperature will rise, stay the same, or fall.
You have two choices. First, increase the flow rate. That will give you a smaller delta T and, for the same source temperature, a higher overall slab temperature (eventually) -- provided, of course, that your boiler can produce enough power. Second, reduce the heat loss from the slab.
You have two choices. First, increase the flow rate. That will give you a smaller delta T and, for the same source temperature, a higher overall slab temperature (eventually) -- provided, of course, that your boiler can produce enough power. Second, reduce the heat loss from the slab.
Re: New Main Vents
I had a plumber master vent the risers. They taped the riser pipe before the shutoff valve of the radiator with a Gorton #2. This way the entire riser vents quickly.
question
2
Re: How to replace a 2" pipe leaking between two fixed t's
There are perfectly round small holes that seem to have been plugged and were fine until they were subjected to an over fill of the boiler. Very strange. Definitely not corrosion. I have to check again but I do not think there is any play even to get a pair of flanges. Hmm did not consider 2 pair. That would leave enough space to get the ends in. Also means $200 of fittings. Beginning to think copper with slip coupling
will be the cheapest.
will be the cheapest.
Re: Boiler gauge
Please post some pictures close up and farther away so we can get a better idea of what you have.
If you have a steam boiler? And from your description you probably do.
If this is your first experience with Steam? Than those noises you are hearing are common.
If you have a steam boiler? And from your description you probably do.
If this is your first experience with Steam? Than those noises you are hearing are common.
Intplm.
1
Re: Boiler gauge
Whether it's steam or hot water, the best thing to do is to get a competent service provider to go over everything. You're going to need one anyway so you might as well get them now.
Then they can show you how to properly maintain your system-filling/bleeding, etc. And they can see if there are any issues that you should address before winter arrives.
Then they can show you how to properly maintain your system-filling/bleeding, etc. And they can see if there are any issues that you should address before winter arrives.
Re: Understanding heat flows in high mass heating systems in old houses
@PeteA, I forgot to mention that our boilers start cold, and run until the thermostats satisfy. That typical takes around 45 minutes, during which time the water temp goes from 68 to maybe 130-140 max in the boiler, and maybe 125 in the radiators.
Then our radiators themselves average around 300 lbs each, times 13 rads, for about 4000 pounds of cast iron. Even more thermal mass. (Since the specific heat capacity of cast iron is only 1/9th that of water, this is like 450 lbs of water or so in terms of heat capacity. So now we have an equivalent heat capacity of 750+450=1200 lbs water.)
So add up the masses of your cast iron rads and the water they contain. You may be surprised.
You may be surprised to find that most of the water volume is in the radiators themselves, not the piping. In our case, we have about 80 gallons in the cast iron rads, about 45 in the piping, and about 10 gallons in the boiler itself. So you can see that even if we replaced all the high-volume piping with Pex, we'd still have over 90 gallons of water, or about 750 pounds. That's still a lot of thermal mass.
I will be testing something similar this winter in my house but my setup is different since I kept the radiators but I've removed a lot of the thermal mass of water out of the system when I repiped everything to pex al pex.
Then our radiators themselves average around 300 lbs each, times 13 rads, for about 4000 pounds of cast iron. Even more thermal mass. (Since the specific heat capacity of cast iron is only 1/9th that of water, this is like 450 lbs of water or so in terms of heat capacity. So now we have an equivalent heat capacity of 750+450=1200 lbs water.)
So add up the masses of your cast iron rads and the water they contain. You may be surprised.
jesmed1
3
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Re: Antique cast iron wall hung radiators BTUs
I actually did a Load Calculation for heating that room. I did not do the Heat Gain because we are talking about heating only as you can see by the absence of Latent Heat numbers. It appears that with the Ceiling Glass and the wall glass along with a guess at the amount of door glass you might have, You will need about 27,000 BTU of radiation for that space. Since those 9 rads will only produce about 12,000 BTUh at 180° water temperature, you will need to go look for about 10 or 11 more panels. You could make the entire brick wall one big radiator. Or you might select to place 10 in the lower wall under the window like this.
. I'm not sure how your room is designed with some lower wall or ALL CLASS from ceiling to floor.
The attached diagram and load calculation would change if you do not have 2 to 3 feet of wall below the windows like in the picture above.
The load calculation is based on very little infiltration because of how well everything is sealed up when they make those rooms. I watched a couple of videos to see what I might be dealing with. To get the R4 equivalent rating from my software the windows actually say triple glass. That is not a mistake. That is the closest thing in the drop down menu for the windows you have.
I usually charge a lot for this service but I did it just to see how it would turn out. That is a load of almost 100 BTUh per square foot. To put that into perspective, A 100 year old balloon construction home with no insulation might be near 50 BTUh /sq ft and new construction would be less than 20 BTUh /sq ft.
So you will need a separate zone for that room and a separate thermostat.
Good luck on acquiring more of those radiators. If it is done up just right, it could look great.
. I'm not sure how your room is designed with some lower wall or ALL CLASS from ceiling to floor.The attached diagram and load calculation would change if you do not have 2 to 3 feet of wall below the windows like in the picture above.
The load calculation is based on very little infiltration because of how well everything is sealed up when they make those rooms. I watched a couple of videos to see what I might be dealing with. To get the R4 equivalent rating from my software the windows actually say triple glass. That is not a mistake. That is the closest thing in the drop down menu for the windows you have.
I usually charge a lot for this service but I did it just to see how it would turn out. That is a load of almost 100 BTUh per square foot. To put that into perspective, A 100 year old balloon construction home with no insulation might be near 50 BTUh /sq ft and new construction would be less than 20 BTUh /sq ft.
So you will need a separate zone for that room and a separate thermostat.
Good luck on acquiring more of those radiators. If it is done up just right, it could look great.
