Steam heat problem

scrook_2

for hot water demand, shut off before it gets to steaming temperatures, say in the 160-190° range, well below the 212-214° range required to produce any steam. Something's amiss -- likely the aquastat, but could be a bum T-stat or something else. It may have been this way awhile, but went unnoticed as T-tsat also called for heat in the colder weather of the winter past and/or hot water use wasn't heavy. Have your service guy check it out.

MASON24

I have an oil burner that also heats our domestic hot water. It's a steam system and yesterday I noticed a problem. We had some friends over and were getting ready for a big birthday party so about 5 people in a row took showers. Then we noticed how hot the place was getting. I checked the thermostat and it was set for 65 and the temp was 75! And all the radiators were cranking out heat. What's going on here? Is there a valve that should be stopping the steam from getting to the radiators unless the therostat is calling for it? Or is it something else?


S

Jamie Hall

and that

is the downside to having the boiler also do the domestic hot water. Nothing wrong, and the system was doing just what it thought was wanted -- heating the water. What usually happens, though, is that there isn't enough demand for hot water to get the steam really going, and you don't notice it. 5 showers in a row would do it, though...

The only solution is either separate hot water, or a really big (and insulated) storage tank for the hot water -- that is, of course, if you plan to do this often!

Or open the windows...

Steamhead (in transit)

Maybe

the aquastat is bad, or set wrong?

Time to call a pro. Try the Find a Professional page of this site, under Resources at the top of the page.

"Steamhead"

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