Make a heat pipe

Patrick McGrath

Hello all:



I have a capped off run for a radiator in my basement that used to feed my kitchen. I am working on a partial refinishing of my basement, and it's pretty chilly down there now that I have replaced the boiler and have suitable insulation on the piping.



I have room in my BTU load to add about 7000 if needed. I was thinking about running a bare 3 or 4" pipe from that run, pitched slightly, adding an air vent at the end by tapping a cap or something like that. I'd like to keep it simple, and I thought for the clearance I have (about 1.5 feet from the cap on the run to the ceiling of the basement), that this could be the best/cheapest plan of action. If working properly, I think it could at least take some of the bite off of the cold down there.



Any thoughts or experience with this?

MTC

what type of system is this?

1 or 2 pipe?



is the main vented already? The issue you'll probably have is that the path of least resistance could become your basement pipe, depending on how your venting works. Putting some restriction on it, but feeding that pipe with a smaller one, could work, as well as by keeping the venting slow enough to balance the system a bit. If you have a smaller pipe feeding a larger one, and you're doing a counterflow pipe (condensate drains backwards from steam flow), then these fittings have to be a special offset one, or the condensate will get trapped in the pipe. If its 2 pipe, you can pipe a drip off the larger pipe to the return, with a radiator trap, to essentially make it one big long radiator. This would be best served by pitching it downward, so that you have parallel flow in the pipe, and drip from the end of the pipe. Loop it out and back if needed, to get back to the return for the drip.



All of this assumes a lot of your clearances, etc, which is hard for us to tell from a description. Maybe post some pics of the area you want to do it, where you'd attach into system, and a sketch of your overall plan.

Patrick McGrath

1 pipe

It's one pipe. I did think about the offset to go from smaller to larger pipe so that it wouldn't pool and cause an issue (my steam guy has mentioned them, but I have never seen one before - looked on google, but no luck...do they look like the PVC ones?). There is a non-big box hardware store available to me that would have such items.



It's on the long main and before the main vents.



The cap is 3/4 or 1" (can't remember, but did remove and replace the cap recently, almost sure it is 3/4).



I must have 20 extra air vents available to me to monkey around and get the balance right (experimentation and rampant purchasing fixed my house). That shouldn't be an issue - I will start with a super slow one and work my way up.

MTC

If you have the height

you could also do a riser to a tee or wye so that steam primarily goes to the "upper" branch and to the end of the pipe radiator, and a drip line from the bottom of the pipe down into the side of the riser, if that makes sense. That would use one port to kind of create a 2 pipe setup,and reduce the amount of riser piping that is counterflow, and avoid the need for an eccentric reducer.



But i think you'd be best off with the eccentric reducer, as with the above you'd still likely end up with a small pool of water near the reducer, which could cause all sorts of havoc.



I'd also not pipe your vent right on the end of the pipe, but on the side of it back about 6 inches, and up a few inches, to avoid hammer damage.

Hap_Hazzard

Eccentric Couplers

Try this site: http://www.mrsupply.com/. Search for "Eccentric Reducing Couplings." They carry good, American made fittings.