Cedric II up and running

Jamie Hall

A few clean up, tidy up, neat up issues remaining -- including another skimming session -- but Cedric II is up and running very nicely.  It will be interesting to see if there is fuel economy -- same boiler, but much better insulation and a drop header, and Charles downfired from 3.25 gph to about 2.75; still gets steam to the whole system in good order.



System's nice and tight, too -- we remarked on a funny noise after the burner shut down; found out it was air coming back in through the main vents as the system dropped to about 5 inches of vacuum!  We don't suppose that that will hurt a Gorton #2?  Any comments on that one?



I'll post some before and after pictures after we get the whole thing neated up some more...

gerry gill

shouldn't hurt the gorton vents at all..

can't wait to see the pictures!

Charlie from wmass

I do recommend that Jamie needs

to add a few more Gortons to spread out the load on both venting and vacuum relief. Gerry do you think a vacuum relief would help as the whole system is going through one Gorton # 2 for vacuum relief, the Hoffman is still helping with the venting but is a vacuum style so is no help on cool down.

Jamie Hall

I think...

a couple more #2s will do the job -- system didn't go anywhere near as far into vacuum today, but didn't run it all that long either!  (just long enough to cross check the relationship between the vaporstat and the Hoffman Differential -- it's correct).  There's room for them...

gerry gill

Charlie- I would think, as you and Jamie already deduced,

 that a few more Gorton 2's would work better than a vacuum relief..where is the gorton 2 situated? is it on the return pipes or is this a one pipe job?

gerry gill

Jamie- is this a standard Hoffman vapor system

with differential loop? if so i'd make a minorah of air vents on top of the loop..

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

I agree about the venting...

with that kind of input on a typical one pipe system, you need about 4 vents ( about 1 per 100,000 input).  I know you have two pipe, so the mains may be smaller, but one vent is probably not  enough.  If you can hear the vent venting, its too small for the job.

It will be interesting to see if you can downfire right to the heat load and still get balanced heating.  You'll definitely want your extra venting before trying this, I suspect.  You may  want to seperate your main venting from your radiator return so you can keep the venting for the radiators shut off until the mains are completely full of steam and then open the venting for the radiators.  This is how some of the guys did it in the old days....

Steamhead

Also check

the crossover traps between the steam mains and dry returns. These serve to vent the steam mains into the dry returns. If they're too small, they can be upgraded with traps having higher air throughput such as the Barnes & Jones #122. In extreme cases you can remove the trap and install one or more Gorton #2 vents there.



If possible, I prefer the crossover trap/dry return vent in boiler room arrangement. This cuts down on the number of places where steam could leak from the system.

Jamie Hall

The system...

is going to get at least one more Gorton #2, at the boiler (where the present vents are).  There's room there to do it quite neatly -- that's the next project.  See where we go from there... there's always something which can be done to make things work better, and it's rather fun to fiddle!