Combining Steam and Hot Water

John H_4

Nassau County, Long Island

John H_4

Need Help on Oil Company Recommendations

I'm a home owner with limited technical abilities. I have a VERY old monster Richmond converted coal boiler that runs steam heat and supports three seperate zones of hot water baseboard heating in newer sections of the home. It fires at 2.00 gallons per hour and is incredibly inefficient. I also have a separate oil fired hot water system for the showers, washers etc. that works fine but probably has a limited lifespan. It's a Bock that's been running for 12 years.

The recommendation I'm getting is as follows:

1. Replace the Richmond with Peerless ECT 5 section with a Riello burner. I believe they've sized the house properly and are projecting a need for between 700-800 sq feet of steam to support their recommendation. I have 11 rooms and around 12 steam radiators in the house including a bedroom, family room and large bathroom heated by the existing 3 hot water zones run off an ancient extenal coil that used to service all the hot water in the house years ago before we built the new rooms.
2. Run the 3 hot water zones off a new external heat exchanger
3. Replace the separate hot water system (probably maxing out anyway in terms of age) and run hot water off of a 10 or 12 gallon internal coil in the Peerless which will feed necessary hot water into a large insulated holding tank.

Does this sound logical? Are external heat exchangers effective running three separate hot water zones? From my perspective this all seems to make sense and I'm committed to putting in a replacement boiler, but I have no frame of reference to base my gut feelings on.

Steamhead (in transit)

What I'd do

is replace the Richmond boiler with one sized to the steam load ONLY, and add a small hot-water boiler for the baseboard zones as well as an indirect tank. This would be more efficient in the summer since you wouldn't have to heat the bigger boiler up to provide hot faucet water, and would give you some redundancy in the winter if one boiler broke down.

If the steam radiation load was under 629 square feet EDR, I'd use a Burnham MegaSteam instead of the ECT.

"Steamhead"

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bill_97

I agree with Steamhead

The best way to do it is separate the hot water zones from the steam boiler . Adding an indirect or an aquabooster to the water boiler makes alot of sense too . But ............ you can run the 3 zones of heat from an EC coil and maybe pipe an indirect heater directly to the steam boiler . You'd need to prioritize the indirect and make sure the baseboard zones will not keep steam from producing for a long time ( you have to figure the heatloss for the part of the home with water heat ) . This way wouldn't be my first choice , but it can work well if it's done right .

You said you have 12 radiators on the steam side ? Going by gut instinct , an EC5 sounds way oversized for that many rads . As a general guideline we'd use an EC3 up to around 12 rads . After finding the EDR of the home we're usually close to the mark with that guideline .

Has anyone counted up the true square ft. of steam you need ?

P.S. The Peerless EC is an amazing boiler . Here's one we installed recently .

John H_4

Thks - The estimate I got is that I need around 800 sq ft of steam to support both the steam and the baseboard systems.

The people I've had in seem to agree I need the ECT 5. I have this behemoth Richmond that is from the 1920's firing at 2.00 gallons and feeding 4 inch pipes. The house is not a mansion but it's around 3000 sq ft.

Do you still think an ECT 3 is adequate if I was to go the route you suggest with the hot water zones?

Steamhead (in transit)

We'd need to know

how much steam radiation there actually is.

Where are you located?

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Steamhead (in transit)

You have a Steam Expert near you

Matt "Mad Dog" Sweeney, of Triple Crown P&H in Floral Park. He has an ad in the Find a Professional section of this site.

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