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Steam pressure range

Jack_49
Jack_49 Member Posts: 3
in THE MAIN WALL
OK, this message may be a little long, but I have been reading these posts for a while, and I have also purchased the books and I still can't seem to determine what I need to do. I am pretty good at physics and mechanics in general and have performed a lot of improvements on my heating system over the years including most recently changing my beckett oil burner out for a riello gas burner. Anyway, this question still haunts me. What pressure should I run at and what should the differential be? Let me start of by saying I have a one pipe steam system. When I moved into the house 7 years ago I had all in the wall convectors virtually under every window. Since then I have added two cast iron, in the wall radiators and converted two convectors into cast iron radiators as well. This was because the convectors would get cold too fast where as the cast iron hold heat longer. Also, The two radiators that I added were in areas of the house that were notoriously cold. Well, let me get on to the problem I have. Once again I have to start off by saying ALL my radiators and convectors are getting hot, so air trapped in the system is not a problem. My problem is that the rooms are still cold. I truly belive that my heating system us undersized. On a cold day when it's 20 degrees, my thermostat calls for heat all day long and the warmest it gets is 66 degrees. This is a far cry from other homes that I have been to that are too hot like 80 degrees. I would rather have a hotter house than a colder one. So when I moved into the house, Petro was my oil service before I resumed servicing it myself and they had the pressuretrol set at 5 psi cutout with a cutin of 2 psi. Now after reading various books and going on this site I reduced it to 2 psi cutout with a .5 psi cutin to save fuel. Anyway, I do know that running at higher pressures assuming everything is working correctly will yield higher temperatures at the radiators. Of course I know that this will also raise my fuel bills, but this is ok. Ultimatly my question is what is the correct differential to have. My vent are rated at 15 psi max pressure. Should I run at 5 psi cutout with a .5 cutin or run at 3 psi with a 2 psi cutin. My point is, how low should I go and what is the ideal differential so the vents operate properly. Just so you know, I initially ran lower pressures of 1.5 psi, the problem I had then, was that by the time it reached the cutin pressure of .5 psi, I have a prepurge on my burner which last for one minute and by the time the burner fired and started heating the water again, the system would go into vacuum. This is why at a minimum i need a 1 psi cutin to prevent the vacuum. Anyway, thanks for any help you can provide. I have a few other questions but I will tackle them one at a time since they are unrelated. Also, thank you for your patience in reading this long post.
-Jack

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