Will a Vaporstat work for me?

acl10

I have a two story house with basement. I have 3 small radiators and 10 big radiators.<span style="font-size:12pt">  Boiler is Enerjet 262,500 BTU input, 214,000 output and the Square Feet rating is something like 663. I currently have a pressuretol set at .05 and 1. Will aVaporstat improve my system or is it to weak? If yes at what setting. Thank you for the reply</span>

crash2009

acl

Steam is a pain in the neck when its not working right.  Many nights last winter I thought mine was going to blow up.  I borrowed a digital camera from my neighbor, and posted some pictures here for the guys to look at.  They told me what was wrong, and how to fix it.  Will a vaporstat work for you?  The answer to that is "It depends"  Lets begin with looking over what you got, and go from there.  Need pictures of the boiler and where all the pipes hook up to it and where the pipes hook up in the ceiling.

Jamie Hall

The real questions are...

is it one or two pipe steam?  (number of pipes going into the radiators).  And, if it is two pipe steam, is it a "vapour" system (designed to run on very low pressure) or a "regular" system.  Until we know the answers to those, crash is right -- it depends.



However, to be honest the only time I'd worry about getting a vapourstat -- and they are pricey -- is for a vapour system.  Your present settings should be fine for either one pipe steam or two pipe regular.

acl10

1 pipe

Its a 1 pipe. The reason I ask is because in the book Dan extolls the benefits of a vaporstat

acl10

It is also a gas boiler

Gas boiler whats the minimum pressure it can run on?

Jamie Hall

I don't disagree with Dan one bit!

A vapourstat will definetly give finer, more accurate control, and at a lower pressure.  The question is, do you really need it for a one pipe system?  And I would say that if your pressuretrol is working properly, and really shutting things off around 1.5 psi, no...  but then, I'm notorious for being slightly cheap...



On the boiler pressure -- I presume you are referring to the steam pressure?  What fuel is used makes no difference at all -- coal, oil, gas, even wood.