How many rads should I have?

Stewy_2

It heats up but not great. I have the thermostat in the upstairs hallway set a 65. When its 65 upstairs it about 62 in the dinning room and 59 in the kitchen. The thermostat used to be in the dinning room but the boiler had to run forever to statisfy the tstat and the heat loss in the room caused it to cycle more frequently.

Stewy_2

Should I add some radiators

I have a one pipe steam system. In my downstairs I have a 14x14 dinning room with a 9x20 kitchen open to that. I have one 44wx38hx6d rad that heats the(376sqft) space. Should I need another rad or should that one handle the job. Also if I have to add more, is there a such thing as "bull heading" the branches (I know its a bad thing for the main). Whats the best way to effectively add more rads. to a room?

Jim Pompetti

Radiation

What problems are you having, I'm guessing the room does not heat . But there may be other factors involved . Give us more info.

Harv_3

Here's How it's Done

This may be no help to you, but I'll tell you how radiator sizes are determined.

A heat loss calculation should be done for each room of the house. There are charts available that give the different coefficients of heat transmission for each type of typical building material. You find the construction that best matches your walls, floors etc. You multiply the coefficient by the square footage of the wall... get the picture?

When you are done you know how many BTU's are needed for each degree that you want to raise the temperature. The maximum temperature increase you need is judged by a "design temperature" which is generally standard to your part of the country.

Once you know the amount of BTU's you need to supply each room, you choose a radiator that will closely supply that amount.

Each radiator should be piped to the main or to a riser that is properly sized to handle all the radiators attached to it. Too much radiation on a pipe won't work. Now will too many radiators for a specific boiler.

A "bullheaded" supply to radiators may work if the supply pipe is large enough. But don't be surprised if only one radiator chooses to heat. That happens sometimes and the vents have to be slowed on both.

That's how it's done.

Only by going through these steps with each room will you get a properly sized system.