Tudor Vapor System Up Grade

ttekushan_3

There are no traps. Just union ells. Loop seals (sure looks like they help govern that 6 oz or so pressure!). I presume the counterflow main drains the piping load only. The returns are dry so there are no rotting underground return lines. The only moving passive device is an air vent. The active device is a vaporstat. Unbelievable.

I look at modern heating systems and think (with irony) "What could possibly go wrong?"

The obvious answer: "Everything thats not on a Tudor system, thats what."

And its not as if the homeowner is paying for this elegant simplicity with anything less than the absolute in heating comfort. Picture that with a MegaSteam boiler, and the fuel costs are competitive with even the most complex fuel efficient modern systems. Furthermore operational costs over time are far less when you consider systemic longevity and (lack of) repair costs. Add to that a system which will serve many more GENERATIONS than it has already served, and you have a benchmark definition of what efficiency really means in the use of resources from a total lifecycle point of view.

Now a few questions: 1)Where does the dry return tie back to the boiler? 2)Do those loop seals function to maintain a consistent inlet-to-outlet pressure differential at each radiator regardless of the distance from the boiler? 3)How do you adjust the valves/orifices? Do you start with them all open and then close them proportionally based on radiator size, or is there an optimum restriction you start from before balancing them?

Enquiring minds want to know...

-Terry

Steamhead (in transit)

Tudor Vapor System Up Grade in a 1902 Home

Here are some photos of another Tudor Vapor System we worked on. The first photos are of the valves to the radiator. They were repacked to stop leaks and set to their proper position to act as orifice inlets. There are no traps or any specialized outlets, just ordinary radiator ells.

A vaporstat was installed, of course! 6 oz/in2. Too high, maybe.

A Gorton #2 stands guard at the air outlet.

The supply piping is counterflow. There are also photos of the signature loop seals connecting the dry return with the steam supply. There are no wet returns. The Squick was there before we got there

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Steamhead (in transit)

Steam is Green

indeed. Your discourse on life-cycle costs is excellent.

In regards to your questions:
1) The dry returns are dripped below the water line just after the air vent, and just before the Hartford loop. So there is a "de minimus" wet return.
2) Not sure. We must note that these loop seals are the shallowest we've yet seen on a Tudor System.
3) We started the system up with a best guess of most of the valves 50% and the largest radiator at 40% closed. We tweeked the system on the fly. It seemed to heat up more or less evenly.

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Steamhead (in transit)

The height of simplicity

Frederic Tudor was a genius. He patented this system in 1885, and it became very popular in Europe in the early 1900s. We would now call it Orifice Vapor. You can read about the Tudor system here, along with a list of patents Gerry Gill found that were issued to him:

http://www.heatinghelp.com/pdfs/492.pdf

And here is a thread about another Tudor we encountered, but we didn't know its name when we worked on it. I added the Tudor info later:

http://forums.invision.net/Thread.cfm?CFApp=2&Thread_ID=43091&mc=13

To answer your questions: The dry return drops to the boiler near where the Gorton is located, the pipe is painted white. You can see this in photo 19.

The loop seals actually worked as safety valves- originally there was no main vent, just an open pipe. If the boiler pressure got too high, the seals blew out and the steam would escape. Remember, boiler safety valves weren't as reliable then :-O . There was another variation of this system in which a tank with a water seal, located near the boiler, did the same thing.

We generally start with the orifice plugs 1/3 to 2/3 open depending on the radiator size. This gives us somewhere to go either way when it comes time to fine-tune them.

EDIT: Great minds think alike, but some don't type as fast as others.

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