unique near-boiler piping

Stuart Rogers

Every day I learn more about the history of my co-op. The really old boiler cracked several years ago (in the middle of winter, of course) and the only unit available on short notice was a WM 978, so in a panic, it was installed. In 2005, a WM 1280 was added, and the 978 left in place as a backup. What do you think about this clever near-boiler piping? I'm thinking the only thing that's saving us from hammering the whole building apart is the generous 50" from waterline to bottom of header. Is that enough to give us dry steam (at least from the main boiler, if not the backup)?

thanks,
stuart

Tony Furst

Stuart,
First a question, what is the distance from the ormal water line to the bottom of the horizontal steam mains coming off of the boiler?

Now onto the ugly part I really dont care for the equalizer line connection as detailed for the RH boiler. My reaso is that is really has o way to collect condensate from the header since it is at the point of highest steam flow. What does the return system look like, is there a boiler feed unit?

Tony

Stuart Rogers

the ugly parts

Hi Tony,

The mains coming off the boiler go straight up to an 90-degree elbow and then across to the header, so there's more than 50 inches from water line to the first horizontal piping. I think that's what is saving us on the main boiler. And at least the steam is travelling in the same direction as the water needs to go to get to the equalizer.

Yes, there is a boiler feed pump on the return.

I would have thought the backup boiler piping would have drawn the real criticism -- the equalizer is at the back of the boiler, but the take-off is at the opposite end, so all the steam flow is heading *away* from the equalizer. There's good height (>50 inches) from waterline to header there too, so again, maybe we're saved by that. And the fact the backup almost never gets used.

I've read in more than one source that it's critical to have the order of pipes on the header be boiler mains >> steam takeoff >> equalizer. I understand the intention is that the steam slams the water into the equalizer elbow, where it drops down into the return water. Surprisingly, the pro's who came to evaluate our system yesterday said they saw no problem with the arrangement we've got. So how critical is this 'wet steam' concept then?

thanks,
Stuart

Tony Furst

Stuart,
Please e-mail me proivately at ajfurst@heapy.com regarding the steam piping. I have several diagrams that I want to share and they are too big to put here.

Tony