Boiler not heating all the rooms

robert_23

Thanks for responding Scott.

1) pressure is about 14.
2) there is only the one zone.
3) very very halfassed job: they tapped into the pipes going to the cast iron radiators.

What seems to be happening is that the down stairs, where the cast iron radiators are gets hot so fast that the thermostat shuts off before the upstairs can really get hot.
I realize its hard to figure it out from an amateur’s explanation like I am giving, but even I know some one messed up big time when they put this in, and I really don’t know if it ever worked at all.


I really did want to avoid the electric heat. Right now we are putting in a second bathroom up there, and the HVAC people said since everything is open now, it would not be hard to run duct work through the ceilings (its a hung ceiling now with plenty of space), and I could just drop the ductwork in before putting up the dry wall.

Is this guy right or is he just trying to sell me a system I don’t need?

Like I stated before they have a pretty good rep with the BBB and other contractors.

robert_23

Boiler not heating all the rooms

We recently bought an older house built in the 20s. The boiler was installed in 1984, and heats the first floor just fine.
The problem is no heat gets up to the second floor.
There are two base board radiators upstairs which are feed by the cast iron radiators on the first floor. One doesn't even get warm and the other gets a little heat going but not much.

I had two different heating companies come out and look at it.Both have good reputations but one said not to bother fixing it because it would cost too much money. They recommend installing an electric base board unit to the rooms as extra heat.

The other company said don't bother pull it out and put a small forced air unit in.

Now the forced air unit would run about $4000, but be cheap too operate, and the electric baseboard would be about 900 for one room and would be expensive to run.

Neither company was really able to tell me why the heat isn't getting up to the second floor.

Any one have any ideas as to what I should do?

scottPW

don't do those things, fix the current system!!

what's the pressure gauge on the boiler say?

scottPW

make sure there is no air

in upstairs baseboard, make sure you have enough pressure in the boiler to raise water to second story. about 1 psi lifts a column of water 2.3 ft. and follow how the circulation moves from boiler out to piping that's not heating and back to boiler. is there another circulator? is it running? are there zone valves? it must have worked at one point, it can work again unless it was really a half-**** amateur job that is. electric base?? hot air? yech

robert_23

BTW He did try to blled off the line and water came out, so its not air locked.

scottPW

there are too many issues

that affect the job,without seeing the house to say whether or not your contractor is right. but you could use that copper that goes upstairs and connect a separate zone with a circulator cheaper than putting in a new fha unit. but, then again you could have A/C up there if you had fha.

robert_23

I figured it would be difficult for some one to figure it out without actually seeing it.

From what both contractors said it would be about 2500 to put in another zone (because of all sorts of repiping needed to get it seperated from the cast iron), and about 4000 for a 90% eff fha about 3300 for 80% eff.
The second one said I could save money by running the flex venting myself, he would tell me about where they should go.

You are correct in that I could add A/C later, which does have its pluses.

Thanks again Scott: ii needed some one to bounce this off and you were the guy!!