1 boiler zoned or two

nicholas bonham-carter

is this system 1-pipe or 2? i agree that the single boiler supplying steam will have to be sized for the complete collection of all radiators, even though the zone valve may cut off one zone, or the other. why not have 1 boiler with no zone valves, but so perfectly installed, with low pressure, and ample venting, so that the gas bills will be smaller than they are now?

i presume that the boilers are next to one another now for ease of installation--nbc

Yosef Guttman

1boiler zoned or two

I have a house now with 2 steam boilers in it totally piped seperately. We have to replace one of the boilers due to a leak and I am considering replacing both with 1 and running the two systems seperately with a zone thermostat. They heat 2 different floors in the house (bedrooms/living area) We usually have the steam come on upstairs at night and the 1st floor living area during the day. Please give me some opinions on 1 system vs 2. The house is in Scranton and fairly large
thanx

JK_3

a lot to concider

The first and most obvious problem would be sizing. steam boilers are sized to the radiation and in a zoned system the radiation changes as zones open and close. Unless both zones are close in size and would never be operating at the same time you would have to size for the both zones meaning that most of the time it would be severly over sized.

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Jamie Hall

I thought about this

when replacing the boiler in the place I take care of -- but didn't do it.

I think you will be better off, and get better heat, with two boilers, nicely sized for their respective circuits. As the guys have noted, one boiler is going to be horribly oversized for either circuit alone, if it's properly sized for the whole thing.

The downside is, of course, the extra capital and maintenance on two boilers vs. one. However, I think that you will still be better off with the two separate...

Charlie from wmass

2 properly sized, installed, and vented boilers will save fuel faster than they will cost in upkeep IMHO. This is assuming both zones are each larger than the smallest availible boilers. if the 2 zones combined are quite small then it is a toss up. So that would be under 287 square feet for the 2 zones total. I am guessing you will be above that?