Best Of
Re: Most reliable heating system for a home unattended for up to 3 months in winter.
what needs to be reset? most of the controls that lock out try a couple times before locking out, if they get to the point that they lock out, something isn't right.
mattmia2
Re: Most reliable heating system for a home unattended for up to 3 months in winter.
The simple boiler that you want can no longer be manufactured due the the energy efficiency requirements. if you can find someone that will be happy with converting a new boiler from electronic ignition to a standing pilot system that uses a pilot generator that requires no electricity to operate the burner. Of course the circulator pump(s) wont work without electricity but you can get gravity heat during a power outage.
As a repair service company I had several customers in your situation. So I mighr. recommend that toy find a installer that will offer your this service. monitor your heating system with a smart thermostat and have a service agreement with someone that has a key to your house. That way when you get an alarm from your smart thermostat that indicates a low temperature condition, you call the service company with your key to have the repairs made before the home freezes.
Re: Steam Boiler Help
OK, some more details.
Why is the pressure so high, radiation to boiler mismatch, radiator EDR vs boiler Square Feet rating. Is the gauge accurate ? Does the pressuretrol work ? Pigtail and path back into the boiler clear of any obstructions.
Your 5 PSIG is concerning. With your situation you may have an oversized boiler and/or other issues, my house heats fine at no more than 0.07 PSIG (2 inches of Water Column).
For best performance the boiler size should match the radiators' ability to dissipate the heat the boiler makes (the total of all of the radiators). The steam moves the heat. With the radiators they call it Equivalent Direct Radiation (EDR), with the boiler they call it 'Square Feet' on the rating plate, these two numbers should be close to each other. The EDR of each radiator can be calculated from charts of different radiator types then all the radiator's EDRs are added together.
A common situation is the boiler is oversized so the radiators can't dissipate all the heat the boiler is producing so the pressure rises, to me this is wasteful. The pressuretrol is suppose to shut off the burner when a certain pressure is reached, commonly 1.5 PSIG. Assuming the pressuretrol is set correctly and operating correctly it needs to be able to monitor the boiler's pressure, this is done through the pipes connecting it to the boiler. Very commonly the pipes (including the pigtail) between the boiler and the pressuretrol plug up with debris causing the pressuretrol to not be able to monitor the boiler's pressure. If you have an oversized boiler the pressure will keep building (until the thermostat is satisfied) since in this example the pressuretrol can't sense the boiler's pressure and shut off the burner.
A redundant pressure gauge like 0-5 PSI can be added as a second opinion of the system pressure and to verify the pressuretrol functionality.
Pipe pitch correct, can the system drain condensate back to the boiler properly. Any low spots that traps water. Incorrect piping that traps water.
Since you have odd noises and hammering and water coming out of the vents, besides possible excessive pressure issues there may be water (condensate) puddled in places where it should not be. So the steam pushes it along to places it should not be. In a steam system the pipes should be pitched so they drain correctly, minimizing the amount of condensate in a steam pipe. With age, renovations and other issues the pipe pitch may not be correct in various places trapping water where it should not be causing problems. The system's pipes should be visually inspected (possibly using a level if needed) for proper pitch.
Clean boiler water, skim to remove any oil.
The boiler works best with clean water that is not contaminated with rust or oil and other stuff. Draining the contaminated water can help remove the rust in the water however fresh water has oxygen so draining and refilling should be done as little as possible. Skimming is a process to remove oil contamination from the top of the water. Oil contamination will cause the boiler water to do strange things. Most boilers have a skim port which allows the oil to be drained away from the top surface of the water.
If you don't have the boiler's manual, with the make and model you probably can find one on the net and it should show where the skim port is.
109A_5
Re: Steam Boiler Help
OK, so what is the game plan ?
Are you going to learn about your steam heating system and do the work yourself ?
Be a knowledgeable homeowner and hire a pro to do the repairs ?
Understand the issues and just live with them ?
Other ?
This may be one starting point;
We Got Steam Heat!: A Homeowner's Guide to Peaceful Coexistence
109A_5
Re: Copper pipe radiator design
Just get an idea of your surface area using the circumference of your pipe times the length of it and you'll be fine. This ain't rocket science 😉
Re: Propane Tanks.
Getting tanks from your supplier may not be the absolute lowest cost solution, but can come with advantages. I've got a family vacation place in Maine and there the propane supplier provided the two tanks. When they get old and rusty, it will be on them to replace - but the main advantage was that the tanks came with remote cell/WiFi level monitoring. I can now monitor propane levels from the other side of the country, but just as importantly the supplier can monitor as well and deliver when needed.
JeffM
Re: Copper pipe radiator design
Love the rope idea. I would save it for a place that's not near the toilet, where I'd avoid porous materials…
Re: Copper pipe radiator design
It's hard to be sure, but with such short lengths of vertical pipe I think Matt is right that the steam would rise and displace the air lower where it will get carried/pushed to the vent.
Even if some air remains, the heat will conduct up to the cold pipes and result in a lot of good condensation of the steam as it gives up its heat to warm the pipe. I like the vertical pipe a little better for simplicity and space usage.
Regardless of what you build it will be easy to cool it off a little if you get too much heat off of it by such means as wrapping some of the exposed pipe with rope like the restaurants in NYC do it
Re: Copper pipe radiator design
There certainly are steam only radiators that have the sections only connected at the bottom that work. Black iron is much better than copper because it has more mass and less thermal conductivity so it will heat and cool more slowly.
mattmia2
Re: Makeup water causing boiler failure due to thermal shock
Will thermal shock hurt a boiler and how much thermal shock? Who knows?
We were told in school that you could drain and refill a steel boiler with cold water but don't do it with CI. That's good enough for me.
I also have had the experience that @retiredguy mentioned about draining a boiler that the steam is connected to another operating boiler.
You will only do that one time believe me. The idle boiler is cold and the steam rushing in condenses and causes hammer. 1700 times a volume reduction it is a noise you never forget. It is a lot more powerful than you would think.
But as far as thermal shock why take the chance?
It will not help the boiler, it will cause stress to the cast iron.
We had a CI boiler Smith 2500 that the lwco failed. My coworker showed up and the boiler was red hot and glowing. He went back the next day after it had cooled and the boiler held water. He installed a new LWCO and fired it up and made steam. No leaks so we let it run.
A few days later it puked water all over.
