VICTORIAN STEAM CONVERSION

Mad Dog_2

(Including in a former employee's home)the "travesty" of "retrofitting" a glorious Ol' Victorian home with an ill-fitting, modern hydronic subsistute....a DAMNED ugly shame. That being said....it could be done - and well. Radiant and Burnham Classic comes to mind. Other than that....it could be a hideous marriage...and marriage is hard enough. MAD dOG

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SAM_24

VICTORIAN STEAM CONVERSION

Looking for a creative enthusiastic heating engineer/architect who wishes to have their designs published in one of the many cooling heating engineering cooling articles.
The project is to convert an early 20th century home in central Massachusetts from an inefficient one-pipe steam system to a most efficient state of the art hydronic system,
Which would include solar/evacuated tubes, geothermal , radiant and a possible snow melt system.

I prefer to be contacted via phone or regular mial.
PHONE 978-355-2842 or Fax 978-355-9030
Or
S Lipson
P.O. Box 101
Barre Mass 01005-0101

Looking forward to hear about your enthusiasm

Brad White_185

Some thoughts before going much further

Hi Sam-

If I may raise and ask a few points of clarification?

1. Is the promise of publication the incentive here in lieu of a normal design fee? Too often a developer/owner or other entity would entice a design professional to submit schematic designs or a higher level of design on the promise of publication or other peer recognition. This is frowned upon in professional circles because it undermines the profession and gives away free design services (with waived future compensation) to be taken to completion by others.

There are many good designers, architects and engineers out there who are and should be paid fully for their time and also have no problem being published as perhaps a secondary motivation or because we just like to share.

I am not suggesting this is your motivation but because that was your lead sentence, I have to ask.

2. The second part is, why mention steam? I am not a "save steam at all costs" person but also have shown that bringing a steam system up to it's best operating efficiency is often more cost-effective than ripping out a steam system and replacing it with whatever.

To replace a system with another more modern type for no other reason than the new one is more efficient by X percent has to be borne out by a life-cycle cost analysis. May be attractive, may not be. If the steam system is failing at many levels, then OK, that is a "need to do it" factor. If the piping is good, there is more thinking to be done before one jumps in.

The presumption that "one-pipe steam inefficient" states a fact not entered into evidence and begs the question, "compared to what and replaced at what cost over what life-cycle cost?"

3. The third part also again asks, "Why mention steam?"

If the system is to be ripped out then what was there before becomes moot. It also sets up or rather reinforces the statement that steam is inherently inefficient and was replaced because of that. The project then just becomes an application of newer technology to a structure which could as much be a 1680 colonial, a Victorian or a 2008 SIP construction house.

4. If we can presume that the envelope will be brought up to snuff, perhaps foam sealed, certainly insulated and air-sealed, that is the proven single efficiency increaser, second only to adapting or installing a new heating system appropriately sized for the new loads. Thus the "system change-out benefit" becomes lost in the overall project.

5. I do have to comment on the addition of snow melting to your listing. Absent a totally solar or other renewable energy source, my inclination is that any savings for financial or altruistic reasons in a showcase project is entirely lost when a "thermal snow-shovel" draws from the energy mix so carefully crafted otherwise. One of those things that makes me go, "huh?" That is my $0.02.

Could you please elaborate on your overall objectives here?

DanHolohan

I had the same thoughts.

You said it better. Thanks.