Radiators

Peter_9

I am replacing my old steam system with hot water. Which radiators should I go with? I know cast iron retains the heat, but the new flat panels transfer heat quicker.

ALH_4

Rads

Since you have already made the choice to replace the entire system, I would look at VEHA steel panel radiators. The price is very good, and the quality is high. I would also strongly urge you to consider thermostatic radiator valves, constant circulation, and a modulating condensing boiler such as the Viessmann Vitodens or Triangle Tube Prestige.

Steamhead (in transit)

Why

are you tearing out the steam?

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Peter_9

Fuel Costs

Yes I am. I have a 100 year old, 3 story house. With fuel prices only going up, a hot water system should cut down the amount of gas I neede. I will also use the system for DHW.

Steamhead (in transit)

The Urban Myth refuses to die

As has been stated many times on this board, it will take years and years, if ever, before you see a payback on something like this.

Not sure what people have been telling you, but as far as we know, there has never been a scientific, apples-to-apples comparison of the relative efficiencies of transporting BTUs from a boiler to the rooms of a house by steam as opposed to water, where both systems were in optimum condition, installed in the same building and had similar boilers. All of the "comparisons" I've seen turned out to be where a steam system in very bad or unknown condition was replaced with hot-water. This is not a valid comparison.

When you start to question these "comparisons" you don't get straight answers. I recall one case where it turned out the old steam boilers were being turned on and off manually, indicating a complete control system failure! In another case I was told to call someone else to find out! Uh-uh, if you're going to put these claims out there you'd better have the numbers to back them up and be able to answer any and all questions right then and there. You have to wonder what these people's agenda is. Here they want you to spend lots and lots of money, but start to squirm when you ask questions. That's not good business.

Now here's where the Wall comes in. If you click on the link below, it will take you to a write-up of a job we did where we took an inefficient 90-year-old steam system that almost never got heat to the ends of a building (this had been going on since it was built, from what they tell us), and not only fixed the heat-distribution problem but also saved them over 30% on their fuel consumption! These figures were calculated on a therms-per-degree-day basis and not only do we have them at our office, but we can give you the name and number of the gentleman who hired us to confirm the information. In short, we can tell you exactly what the problems were, what we did to fix them and what the results were.

I have some more links if you're interested. Don't sink mega-bucks into a tear-out until you know what else is possible.



To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

American plumber

panel rads

You may want to check out these brands also;BRANDONI,RADSON,RUNTAL & BUDERUS.