2nd fl steam 1st fl water same boiler

Steamhead (in transit)

if you look real close you'll find tees on those steam mains or in the runouts, that fed first-floor rads. It doesn't make sense that the steam only served the second floor, unless the first floor originally had gravity hot-air, and in that case the steam was likely an upgrade to the whole house rather than a second-floor addition. We find this a LOT.

And one can usually get good used steam rads fairly cheaply.

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Matthew Grallert

off the page/out of the box

Is this crazy? I have a customer with an old victorian. Steam on the second floor with a load of about 210sqft of rad. The first floor is serviced by a warm air furnace. I dont care about the furnace but the boiler has got to go. I would like to replace the boiler( she cannot afford conversion to water yet)with another steamer for the second floor and potentally add panel water rads to the first floor and supply these with the condensate at the bottom of the boiler. The idea being to convert the whole system to water as her money tree grows. I have done similar things with steam makeing water but on a smaller scale. Any input would be great.
Peace
Matthew

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

That will work fine

Just go to the library and make sure you pipe it correctly.

Thanks, Bob Gagnon

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Steamhead (in transit)

You might need

a heat exchanger if the first floor load is more than a 3/4" pipe can handle.

Did the steam system heat the entire house in the past? If so, why not just find some used radiators, restore the steam and get rid of the furnasty? This would certainly be less labor-intensive and would give as good results.

Converting steam systems to hot-water is risky enough that my company does not recommend or perform these conversions, and will not work on a system someone else has converted.

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Matthew Grallert

as far as I can tell the first floor always had air of some sort. Maybe steam although there are no visable riser holes so who knows. there are no rads on the first floor so clean slate. Second floor has original rads steam only. I do lots of conversions but i never use the old pipes. Pex and manifolds always. The rub is she cannot afford to run this boiler and she cant afford a complete conversion. So I thought I'll use a Burnham MST and convert to full water in the future. Fact is she can't afford the rads for the first floor so its hot air for now.
Peace
Matthew