Heating the Addition

Sparkybruno

We are in the process of adding 450 sq ft (with basement) to our house. I have a one pipe steam system and we had to remove one of the larger radiators as a result of the construction. We have not started work on the heating system yet but now the boiler is short cycling like crazy. Boiler is cycling on and off 10 to 12 times per hour until the TS is satisfied. (didnt have this problem before) My boiler is 150K BTUH and my current calculated radiation load is 48K. My question is, what would be the best way to go about heating the addition and basement?  I realize the boiler is way oversized for the load, would like advise as to what is the best way to utilize my excess boiler capacity?

1. Do I add steam radiators to the heat the addition and add a hot water zone off the boiler to heat the basement.

2.  Add a hot water zones off the boiler to heat the basement and addition.

3. Replace boiler (7~8 yrs old) with properly sized boiler and do 1 or 2 above? 

Jamie Hall

If it were mine

I'd be inclined to do 1 (you already have one nice radiator at least!) and then 3 if it needed it.  Maybe put TRVs on the addition... although I would try to balance it as closely as I could to the rest of the house (surely we can do almost as well as the Dead Men did, here a century later?  Surely?!)

Big-Al_2

How hard would this be?

Just thinking out loud here . . . How about installing a single wall-hung steam radiator in the basement addition.  It could be piped in like a two-pipe radiator, except with an air vent.  The condensate line would be piped back to the boiler as a single-radiator wet return.  If the radiator could be located high enough above the boiler water line, the condensate line wouldn't even need a steam trap or condensate pump.  The equipment would be simple and much less expensive than creating a hot-water zone.

Am I thinking right here?  Is there any reason that it wouldn't work?

Jamie Hall

No reason

not to install a wall (or ceiling) hung radiator in the basement -- the building I supervise has two of them.  The trick is, as Big Al notes, to get the thing high enough so the condensate can drain reliably.  If you can do that, it should work just fine.

Sparkybruno

Boiler capacity

OK, so Im getting the feeling that continuing with steam radiation is the way to go, but my real concern is the excess boiler capacity. I am thinking that even with the addition of more steam radiators both in the addition and the basement, that I will never get close to matching the radiation load to the boiler capacity. I want to trying to resolve the issue now while I have the oportunity. Everyone's ideas and opinions are appreciated.

Thanks  

jpf321

you need to ..

you need to measure the radiation load currently installed .. for info about measureing your EDR .. look at my post here with links to books .. http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/129085/Uneven-Heating



and have a look at the boiler ratings for your brand and model .. you can use Dan's rating books available here: 

1959-1972 http://www.heatinghelp.com/article-categories/122/Beacon-Boiler-

Reference-Book-1959-1972

pre-1959 http://www.heatinghelp.com/article-categories/121/Beacon-Boiler-Reference-Book-Prior-to-1959

DavidK_2

I'm no expert,

But the radiators should be sized to handle heat loss, the boiler should be sized to the radiators. Once you put that "big" radiator in place again your problems might go away.