Steam Heat Problems

Mark Custis

and now comes the IAQ guy

Tiffany:

I learned a long time ago that women are in charge of the world. My life is simple and plesant since I learned this. You are holding your own with the best of the best here.

This is a good group of caring people. I have yet to find better. We will help you help yourself. Keep up the good work.

I almost lost my marriage to spending too much time here when I first signed on. It is better now since she and I are our business together.

Without being there I have two possible ideas for the IAQ, (Indoor Air Quality), issues.

1. A stand alone air cleaner. A Canadian company, or used to be, manufactures a true air cleaner. It was developed for use in TB wards. It has been tested to remove air borne organic and inorganic particles to .03 micros. It will remove enviromental tobacco smoke, and anthrax spores. Think that your hair is 125 to 150 micros wide. I will check, but I am sure they have a UVC light version. I would put one in the ill childs room. Canada considers these cleaners to be durrable medical goods. So might your heath insurance carrier.

2. Your home was designed by the dead men to bring in large amounts of outdoor air. Over the years the home has been "sealed" by those who know not what they do. The home was designed to breath and I think no amount of sealing or seeling with stop it from trying to make it's designers happy.

What to do?

Allow it to breath, but control the heat content and humidity with an air to air heat recovery unit. It allows fresh air to enter but retains your conditioned air tempurature and humidity.

Bring fresh outdoor air into the boiler area, enough to cover what the boiler burns up heating the home. National fuel gas code should have the numbers. We use the SKUTTLE M/# 216 with its barometric damper on forced air systems, and they make a unit with a thermostatic trap for your application.

All that said you can pressurize the home. Without forced air this would take a small blower to force air into the home. The concept is that under pressure the only filtration will be exfiltration, blowing the bad stuff in the walls out, not sucking them in. Your home was built before we invented power ventilation, like bath fans, kitchen hoods, and clothes dryers. We need to replace that air.

On IAQ I tend to start with the cheap proven fixes first. I know you can not live in your dream home if it is making you and your family sick.

I then if needed take the next step and do the lab testing.

A rule of thumb for mold, stop feeding it or stop watering it and it will stop growing. If the bricks are still moist then spray with bleach 10 parts water to 1 part product. We use the bioguard smell good stuff.

If anyone wants more info on the above rant email me.

rich pickering

Hi Mark and thank you for your information. I bought a few about a month ago a dehumidifier because besides the fact of being 80* down there the humidity was a 75%. So since that has been running I got it down to 20%. The one thing I learned like you said no moisture no mold. But my big problem is the well in the basement in the crawl space area I think maybe be leaking in the basement along with all the leaks in the foundation. I need to grade all the earth away from my foundation and then I guess clean and retuck point inside. I also have water coming up from every crack in the basement floor.

I would been interested in info on the air cleaner your talking about just let me know when you find it.

I had a home inspector some and do the indoor air quality and sent it to lab that was how I found out how bad the mold spores where in our home. I never would of dreamed black mold in the basement. Nor the mold count over 18,000 that blew me away and almost gave up just because I new then that was making my daughter worse and myself. But I just keep researching and preparing to fix the basement, heat, air quality and I guess take it all on.;-)
So I wonder you talk about the fresh outdoor air indoors if that was a big reason they used the in-direct radiators down there. I'll have to get more info from you on how to help the IAQ. I truly appreciate you posting and taking the time to help. Thank you so much.
Tiffany

rich pickering

Steamhead,
So are than many of those radiators still used in homes, the late 1800's ones. What do you mean that the vents are in the wrong place? That would be great if you every come out this way. Thanks.

Mark Custis

IAQ guy again

rich pickering

Mark,
Sorry I was going to ask what type or is the bioguard you can use to spray? Thanks.

dennis8

Balancing radiators

I am new to this but this is my advice which worked for me: replace the air vents with Varivalve vents. Try here
http://www.pexsupply.com/categories.asp?cID=362&brandid= found they had the best price. These valvea can be adjusted and my plumber told me they are the best.

Mark Custis

IAQ guy again

Tiffany when you finish this project you will be able to get a job in the industry.

Lets take it one at a time in your order.

Moisture:

The dehumidifiers will help. Get the steam pipes in the basement insulated and get the heat into the home. Warm air holds more water than cool air, so insulation will lower the temperature in the basement and reduce the amount of water in the basement air. This house was designed to breath so lets help it do so, but to your advantage.

Brick foundations will leak. We have homes in out area that were made of sandstone, and they all leak. Try and divert any storm water from the roof or landscaping away from the foundation of the home. I have been in local basements made of sandstone that have channels cut in the floor to move the water away to a sump pump rather then let it dry up into the air. Cheaper than outside or inside basement waterproofing.

THE WELL is what it is. Not being a well digger I have no idea what to do with that other than throw a bunch of pexa tubing into the water for a geothermal heatpump/a-c system then cover it and seal it from evaporation as best as possible. I think even if you filled it in the water will want to return.

If it is leaking under the basement floor, buy your husband a pick and shovel and have him dig a pit in the lowest part of the basement floor, the area that gets wet first and stays wet the longest. go get a sump crock and a sump pump and pump out the water before it evaporates. That will help the water bubbling out of the floor.

Bringing in controlled outdoor air to the basement will also help with the moisture problem.

Air Cleaner:

google dynamic air cleaners. With your daughters health it could be covered by your health insurance. I am a dealer so if you have trouble getting one let me know. Get two. One for your room too.

Venting the home:

With hat in hand, bowing to the born wetheads, this converted airhead thinks most here do not know much about venting, (they seam mostly to be chasing steam, god bless them), a lot of steam buildings used open the window thermostats which may have been OK when fuel was free. The fuel guys found out they make more money charging more than they used to charge and as a result we no longer open windows.

Your home was designed to vent and/or change the air inside the home "X" times an hour. We can not stop that but we can control how it happens. In a perfect world I would install enough energy recovery units to allow a reasonable amout of natural venting to occur. You, not the house will control heat loss and RH. When the home was built there was a nut in Battlecreek Michigan with wild ideas about fresh air and eating cerials. That is why all of the intake vent radiators.

Lastly I am sure you will be dirrectly in charge of your HVAC needs shortly. I wish you and yours the best.

Mark Custis

Clorox

Makes a smell good biocidal bleech. 10 to 1, water to bleech, more is not better here. Laundry bleech will work but it stinks

Mark Custis

Oh by the way, (BTW)

Mark Custis

Oh by the way, (BTW)

No one has ever helped me here, NOT. Get the job done then pay it forward. Mr Beckett wrote a great book on the subject.

Steamhead (in transit)

Pipe radiators

do turn up sometimes. They were top-of-the-line when they were installed!

On the newer rads, you notice the air vent is at the top of one end. It should be mounted down lower, there's a place to tap the hole which should be obvious once you look for it.

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Brad White_191

Way Cool Rod!

That is incredibly helpful. Nice job!

rich pickering

air valve maybe found hole

Steamhead,
Sweet so when I was looking I see a screw in the middle lower part of the radiator that looks to be the same diameter of the air valve above could that be the hole and some just put a screw in it? Thanks.

rich pickering

Thank you Mark I appreciate the responses. I just do the best with what I got and that is most of the time, only my brain and some labor;-).

Steamhead (in transit)

That's right

but it would probably have to be drilled out and tapped 1/8" pipe-thread. That slot-head plug is likely frozen in place. A standard 1/8" square-head plug is what you'd need to plug the existing hole.

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The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

I was thinking about some of your issues.....

and I would suspect that the thermostat anticipator or cylces per hour setting of the thermostat is not correct for your boiler. Boiler on cycles of only 5 mimutes, uneven heating of radiators, thermostat set for 75, but only holding 68, and high fuel bills all point to this as a potential problem that is very, very commmon and very, very easy to fix. If you have an old round thermostat, take off the outer ring and underneath on the bottom right, there should be a pointer on a stamped metal scale labeled from about .3 to 1.2. Move the pointer towards the 1.2 end and see if the boiler runs longer and the thermostat meets its setting. If you have an electronic thermostat, you need to read the instructions regarding cycles per hour or system types. Generally, steam systems work best when the boiler cycles on about once to twice an hour.

There may be other issues, but this is a start.

Boilerpro

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