Single pipe w 2 supplies?

clammy

Looked at a steam system yesterday which is just about totally butched maybe beyond fixing ,but what really had gotten me was the fact that all the rads in the church where feed on both sides off the main never seen that before and it is a single pipe .The rads where 5 tube each about 6 ft long .The original boiler was a steel tube with a large steam to hot water heat exhanger with 5 pumps and off 2 of them 6 zoner valves .They would like to install 1 steam boiler and a few hot water boilers am i off base in thinking they might as well trash the rest of the steam and make the santurary into hot water saving them some money being the 400 ft main has no insulation on it and no one really knows how while it works and if there are any leaks on the returns .The original part of the building was built in 1914 ,the other issues is that there are sections of the main which have rotted through and been repair with out the insulation it will contiune .The greatest part is they did every one a  favor and remove the old boiler also the control system is a vintage 1950/60s barbara coleman working condition is unknown.The best is there on a budget and don't really have much money very funny stuff what the heck where they thinking  peace and good luck  clammy.

Steamhead

Nope

as you say, you don't know what kind of shape the steam is in. Why risk making it leak from hot-water's higher pressure?



Separate boilers are the way to go here. They will also give you some redundancy, so if one goes down, they'll still have heat in part of the building.

clammy

reply to steam head

Frank on the conversion to hot water in the santury  we are going to just remove it all and start anew and install a new zone reverse return 2 pipe ,most will probalby be  convetor cabinets with steel convectors depending on price as compaired to say panel rads which ever is cheaper .As it is about 75 to 80 % of the building is hot water ,some loops iron pipe mono flow ,some 2 pipe direct and some world record setting baseboard loops one is over 100 ft of residental 3/4 base with a loop lgnth of about 300 ft and on a zone valve ,very very  funny stuff .As with alot of jobs this one has alot of issues including the chimney .Thanks for the input peace and good luck clammy