Adding Steam and Hot-water Radiation to a Steam System

Steamhead

This is an ongoing project that we've been working on as the owner's budget allows.



It's a modest three-bedroom cottage, originally heated by one-pipe steam. Previous owner built two additions with no heat at all. A heat-pump pusher said he could heat and cool the entire first floor with a heat pump, which didn't work too well.



He removed the steam elements from the two remaining first-floor convectors and disconnected them from the mains. We put everything back.



The mains are counterflow in this system, and had been replaced with copper that was too small. We re-piped them properly. The street ell you see going up into the drop ceiling is for one of the main vents.



The last pic is how the heat pump wasn't ducted. The boiler room was going negative, drawing flue gases into the ducts. Whoever did that should be shot. This unit has been replaced with a properly-sized A/C unit and proper ducting.

Steamhead

Finished Basement- Hot-Water Loop

These are standard Beacon-Morris convectors and commercial-style fin-tube, in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. The piping is run in trenches below the floor, there was really no other way to put it in. The last pic is the circ and bypass. The aquastat is located at the boiler, where I couldn't get a good picture.

Steamhead

TV Room- Extension of Steam System

We just finished this part today, fired it up and tested it. Talk about sweating for our money!



We used Beacon-Morris commercial fin-tube again, this time with 1-1/4" steel elements. Note the use of 45° street ells to get the proper pitches on the element and supply piping on the longer one.



The steam main is 1-1/2" parallel-flow, pretty standard. It's short enough that a Hoffman #4A is enough main vent. The addition basement it runs thru will eventually be finished, but for now it's a storage area.



The lower left and right pics show the covers in place. The owner wanted the shorter one offset so she could put a small table there.



The side addition is next on the list. That will also be steam.

gerry gill

nice looking job guys!

you made it look like it was always supposed to be that way..well done.

Charlie from wmass

Wow a propane turbo torch!

I am one of the few running them in my area, good to see another one out there. Nice job too but you knew that.

Gordo

Don't Worry, There'll be Propane for Everyone!

Cool of you to notice!



I've been running "propane" for years...it's safer than acetylene (C2H2),and the tank holds more fuel and it's lighter than a "B" tank.  Nota Bene: Acetylene becomes spontaneously explosive at pressures above 15psi.



I used to run MAPP gas (almost as hot as C2H2), but they've stopped making it, so now I burn propylene...not quite as hot as MAPP,  but hotter than straight propane.