Why is it constantly 10 degrees hotter on my second floor?

gmurphee

Hi.  My husband and I live in a house built in 1897 with single pipe steam heat.  We're encountering a problem we've never had before.  Even though the thermostat is set to 66 or so downstairs, it gets as high as 78 degrees upstairs.  (We know this b/c we recently had two zone central air installed, along with a handy thermostat on the second floor).  While normally we would just suck it up and open a window (like we used to do when we lived in a prewar apartment building) we have a 6 month old infant in the house, and we're concerned for her safety (it can be dangerous for infants to sleep in such warm conditions).  It's been so bad some nights that we've had to turn the theromostat way down on the first floor and run the air conditioning on the second floor just to cool off the second floor.  We've had two technicians out.  One didn't know what the problem was (and I'm pretty convinced didn't have a clue about steam heating in general), and the second, while knowledgable, didn't fix the problem.  He cleaned out the pigtail regulator, which was really clogged with debris.  This seemed to fix the problem at first, but now a week later we're back to square one (with the A/C running at 3 a.m.)  Any thoughts?  Is the only solution to install a TRV?

Jim Pompetti

Vari vents

one on each rad, they have a slide on the side to reduce venting they will work just trail and error

icesailor

Steam Heat:

I'm not the steam heat expert here but I believe that they make thermostatic air vents that open and close the air vent on the radiator that you want to control. I guess you could say it is like a varivent that is controlled by room temperature. It would work well for you because the room is hotter than the rest of the house. I'm sure that someone here will tell you about them.

Mike Kusiak_2

Strictly Steam

You might post your question in the Strictly Steam section of the forum, where it will get a lot more attention from the steam specialists.

GREENMAN

10 DEGREES

WELL FIRST REMEMBER THAT HOT AIR RISES SO THAT WILL AFFECT THE DIFFERENCE BUT CHECK THE VALVES ON THE RADIATORS MAKE SURE THEY ARE BALANCE FOR FIRST AND SECOND FLOOR IF YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO GET A STEAM PRO. GOOD LUCK

Patrick_North

Try balancing the venting.

Steam is lazy. It will take the path of least resistance, going where it is easiest to push out air. If the second floor radiators are heavily vented compared to the first floor, the steam will favor these radiators- creating the situation you speak of. Some things you might check:

*Are your mains adequately vented? Chances are good that they are not. You want your mains to fill with steam quickly and completely, and this requires amply sized vents- generally much larger than what was used when your system was new.

*Are the vents on individual radiators appropriately sized? As was mentioned, vari-vents are available that will allow you to fine tune the rate that each vents air. Are they all working? Some vents are know to trap water, becoming plugs instead of vents! Unscrew the vent and see if you can blow air though it. Similarly, ensure that the valve to each radiator is fully open.

*Are your pressuretrol settings appropriate (read: LOW)? Running your system at higher than necessary pressure (more than a pound or so) wastes fuel and can wreak havoc on vents.

*Do you have insulation/infiltration issues that could be contributing to the problem?

If you don't have it, order the short book "We Got Steam Heat" from this site today! It will pay for itself many, many times over.

Good luck,

Patrick

will smith_4

Temp swings

Have you checked to make sure the stat for the boiler is accurate? If it's a mercury type, it's got to be spot on level. The heat anticipator has to be set properly as well. Check the temperature behind the stat-if there is a cold draft behind the wall, the stat will not control correctly, and overshoot. Start at the beginning-just figure out what is supposed to happen-when. The t-stat calls for heat, then the boiler cycles through the operator, the boiler comes up to pressure, cycles off, then on again until the t-stat says enough's enough. Although the symptom is upstairs, the solution to the problem may be elsewhere-is there a radiator anywhere near the stat? If not, it could a matter of the stat simply doing it's job, but not getting a good enough sense of general temp.

nicholas bonham-carter

upstairs hot

could the new a/c system be allowing the heat to rise up through the ducts more than before? don't run the a/c in the winter, as the outside condensing unit may have problems.

if your pressuretrol has allowed the pressure to get out of control, that will interfere with the venting, and balance. the usual 0-30 gauge is absolutely useless for any diagnostics on steam systems.

definitely re-post this in the steam section.--nbc

Fred Rappuhn

improved efficiency ........

My comments will not solve the problem but from my experience renovating older homes....I have found that radiation was sized for homes  as they existed when original heating system installed.  



Zero to none in insulation existed in the homes and over sized systems. Over time with improved efficiency only made the system even more over sized and as your greatest heat loss is in the ceilings, that's were you will notice the over sized first.



I am not saying this is your only problem but is adding to the problem as possible faulty vents on rads.  This is just from my observations.