Time to raise temp?

JeffBrown

Evening, after many hours of skimming and rinsing and fiddling with vents everything seems to be working almost perfectly



How does this sound to everyone?



7 min for the boiler to steam and steam to fill header



About 3 minutes to fill main and shut down main vents (2 Hoffman 75s)



And then about 1 hour to bring the house temp from 64 to 68 degrees. Does that seem like a reasonable amount of time? Burner fired the whole time and pressure hit about 1 lb when the thermostat shut it off



1 pipe steam wm sgo3 w a carlin ex gas burner

Bio

Performance

Sounds great, 7 minutes from cold start is very good and satisfy the thermostat with the boiler non-stop will make you save money, no waste of energy with cycles, what type of radiator vents did you end up using?

JeffBrown

Rad vents

Maid o mist 4, 5, and 6's



One rad is still using an old vent rite adjustable and that's because that's the only vent that will screw into the tapping go figure



I got it so that almost all rads are heating across at the same rate and will monitor room temps and adjust as necessary



About half of the maid o mist vents are pretty loud whistlers under vacuum so we'll see how annoying that gets!

Bio

Vents

I was going to suggest all Hoffman 40 for an even heating but sounds like you got it, nicely done

nicholas bonham-carter

Whistling under vacuum

One of the jobs of the main vents is not only to let the air out with no resistance (back-pressure= 2 ounces or less); but also to let the air back in as the vacuum develops following the steam collapse.

If you can hear the vents when steaming or on the over-run after shutoff, then you need more venting. Try a couple of gorton#2's alongside what you have now. Check to make sure those hoffmans are not vacuum vents (#76).--NBC

JeffBrown

vents

yup, they are def non-vacuum 75's! 



When the system shuts down and vacuum builds when should the main vents open?  Most radiator vents open up maybe 10 seconds after the burner turns off, though some of them remain closed longer, maybe a minute or so.



I've never watched the main vents post heating cycle so I'm not sure what they do.



Also, the 75's are rated for 3psi operating pressure, however I noticed that one of them was hissing slightly around 1lb.  Is that typical or not unusual for this vent or could it be faulty?  These vents are a couple months old

Steamhead

Another thing to look at

is why it's going into vacuum so quickly. Are all your pipes insulated?



The main vent that is hissing either has some dirt in it, or it's bad.

JeffBrown

insulation etc

I will see about cleaning/blowing out the main vent and see if there may be some crud in there.  Otherwise I'll see about getting it replaced.



Regarding insulation, the pipes in the basement are all insulated - I did it myself.  Everything except the equalizer and the vertical section of the return is insulated with typical fiberglass pipe insulation 1/2" thick.  I then used fiberglass wrap and metal tape to insulate all the joints.



I do not know for certain whether the in wall pipes are insulated, HOWEVER, I have deduced that they are because in 3 places where the pipes go into a wall I can see pipe insulation behind the wall.  Can't say for certain, of course, but the house was built in the 20's and has seen very little work since then, so if insulation was installed in some places where I can see it I'd see no reason why it wouldn't be everywhere, unless it was removed during a renovation which it wasn't



How long should the system maintain pressure once the burner shuts off?  What else could be causing rapid vacuum generation other than lack of insulation?  I suppose some of the rad vents could be faulty and opening up too quickly?



Like I stated previously, it seems to take about an hour for all the radiator vents to close and for the system to build up 1lb of pressure.  During that hour the system has a few ounces based on the 1-5lb gauge I installed

JeffBrown

update on those main vents

main vents do not open once the steam starts to collapse and goes into vacuum.  3 radiator vents do, however, immediately open when the burner shuts off, which is where the whistling is coming from.



As I said before, i know for a fact that all the pipes in the basement are insulated and Im reasonably sure the pipes in the walls are as well, so why would this be occuring



--jeff

ChrisJ

Whistling

My radiator vents whistle when the boiler shuts off as well because my G1s dont open near fast enough.  I'll be honest, that quiet whistle always puts a smile on my face for some reason.