Best Of
Re: Which fuel is cheapest to heat with?
Every time I look at my propane bill, I feel like I'm losing my virginity again.

shout out to mad dog plumbing
i recently had @Mad Dog_2 plumbing come out to my home for a steam consultation. he inspected the system and gave me his recommendations on what to change/add. He drew them out with the pipe sizes and fitting etc. Im happy to report my system is running much happier now. If you need some input on your system I highly recommend him!

Re: Replacing 30 year old boiler with Navien combo 240/110H
R.I.F....remember the commercials? 1970s Mad Dog
Re: Heat pump mini split question
I hope he enjoys degreasing that head once maybe twice a year!

Sometimes something good happens
I have been selling some tools on FB for $.10 on the $ LOL.
One thing I listed was a tool pouch with about 30 tools for $25. No bites at first then "Rocco" responded a real wise guy with a Worcester cell phone # (50 miles away). Made a couple of wise comments and said he was "workin at da Town Hall and could I drop them off". Out of curiosity I asked "what Town hall". He never responded and I wasn't about to deliver anything.
Then I had an 18 year old kid who wanted to come over and buy them. Said he was in the Voc Tech school in the Electrical program.
I said come over and get them there yours for free. I went downstairs and got the bucket and threw a half dozen xtras in there, folding ruler , jack knife, non contact voltage tester etc.
Nice kid. Made me happy😊
Once Upon A Time, In The White Mountains of NH....

Then along came a benefactor with a concept for repurposing the beautiful building into a scholarly think tank.
The next thing that happened was we received a phone call inquiring about refinishing the church's radiators, something we do during the summer months. Northern NH is quite a bit out of our range. But the benefactor was persistent and persuasive, and we agreed to take the project on. He also mentioned that the steam boiler was long gone, and maybe we'd like to take a look at that as well, when we come up. Of course, we replied.
Upon arrival, we were in for a big surprise. Not only was the boiler gone. Every inch of steam piping had also been removed. Even the radiator valves. Only the radiators themselves remained to tell the tale of what had once been. Sitting silently in their original locations:

In the basement, only the boiler slab remained, and a disconnected Biasi boiler that had somehow heated an apartment in the building.

Under the sanctuary was a crawlspace where once the steam main had run, now devoid of any hint of steam:

Of course, the next question was: Would we care to install a new steam system? Well, we didn't think that was a good idea. Our thoughts ran to Napoleon's march on Moscow. Our supply line would be over 200 miles, and at the end, just like Napoleon, we would find nothing. The area was too rural and sparsely populated to support any sort of steam supplies. We'd have to be perfect to pull it off. We suggested they find someone more local, and heat the radiators with hot water.
But this didn't go over too well. They are big on preservation, and they wanted steam. And once again we acquiesced, agreeing to quote the job. But where to even begin quoting a job like this? But quote it we did, keeping in mind the old adage "becareful what you wish for".
And, naturally, they accepted our quote, otherwise we wouldn't have much of a story would we?
And that is when we became infinitely familiar with the word "logistics". Everything had to be planned down to the finest detail. We could not afford mistakes, missing, or wrong material. No errors, unforced or otherwise, or we'd be doomed by our supply line. We spent the next three months preparing. The entire company would go up, all six of us. We planned to do it in 5 days.
The steam mains would be 2-1/2", the returns 1-1/4". We needed a million miles of it. Our pipe supplier agreed (for a fee of course) to deliver it for us. For the boiler we choose a Weil 480. The last Weil 80 we will ever install, given its discontinued status. Our boiler distributor likewise agreed to deliver it, for a fee.
Finally the day arrived. Countless lengths of pipe, fittings, hangers, and boxes upon boxes of supplies mercifully all arrived at the same time we did, late Monday morning.
The refinished radiators arrived as well. It was quite a feat.

Now there was nothing left to do, but the doing. And 4-1/2 days in which to do it.
The main concern? "A" dimension. The ceiling in the crawlspace is lower than the ceiling in the boiler room and the main would be 80' long. The stone wall separating the crawlspace from the boiler room was 24" thick. There were two existing holes for the supplies at the correct height. Then there was a 3rd hole on one side only, 18" below the supply holes that was currently being used by a DWV pipe. The return hole was 30" above the waterline. Do the math, and you'll find there's not an inch of margin available, or we'd need a pumped return. Which of course we did not bid. We figured if the old guys did it with gravity, we could...
But could we really?

Re: Combi-Boiler Correct Sizing for Home

Re: Restoring One Pipe -- finally
Saturated steam —which is what we are dealing with — will always have liquid phase water droplets in it. They are constantly forming and evaporating. And no, usually you can't see them. They will coalesce on cooler surfaces, such as pipe walls.
If there are larger droplets — in the visible range (still pretty small) that's when bends and such are helpful, as if the velocity is anything reasonable they won't make the curve.
The best research on all this actually comes from aviation, as a lot of work has been done on icing on airfoils, enough of which can ruin your whole day…
Re: Steam Near Piping Equalizer, EFM S20 to SteamMax
The equalizer size is the least of the issues. And not, you can not tie into the flange with a drop header. The condensate will have zero means to escape and you will have steam piping, 100% filled with water. Rip out that abomination of a header and start from scratch.