Removed 3 radiators from a steam circuit

jdere31760

I had  a customer remove and not replace 3 steam radiators for an addition. HE installed a hot water loop in that area.

He has a steam boiler that was already oversized and now probably became even more oversized. What should I do about the removed radiator?

The boiler seems to be short cycling and surging.

Thanks for an response!

Jamie Hall

Why am I not surprised?

Connsidering that the boiler was probably a bit oversized to begin with... it is now almost certainly significantly oversized.  Which would account for the short cycling.  Not likely to account for the surging, though -- that might indicate the boiler needs skimming or a good blowdown or both.  If he'll pay you for the time to do it right.



But what can you do about the oversize boiler?  Somehow I doubt that a client who removes three radiators all by himself is going to want to hear that he now needs a new, smaller boiler.  Which is the only real solution....

Abracadabra

lower firing rate?

can you downfire the burner a bit?

jdere31760

Removed 3 radiators from a steam circuit

Your right Jamie. He is so cheap that he is barely taking any advice.

Regarding low firing the boiler, I forgot to mention; it's a gas boiler!

Long Beach Ed

Cheap

... which is why we don't do work for "do it yourselfers". 

jdere31760

Cheap

Well, I must admit that the homeowner did pay me to install a radiant heat circuit and central air, but had the demo contractor take out several radiators at will. Then he tried to pawn the work of rerouting and capping the disconnected work to either the plumber or me (HVAC). The plumber did the rerouting and capping.

So now, it's a big mess. The plumber doesn't want to hear about anything and I'm trying to help as much as possible. I personally would not have touched the steam system without more research beforehand.

 

I have the "Lost Art of Steam" book, but I just don't work on a lot of steam, especially an altered system.