Repipe old house from gravity to pumped, adding new radiators

ScrewLoose

Hey all, been reading this forum and have found some good answers, but I have a a few thoughts and concerns and didn't see anything like what I have so... I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask the big Pro guys. That's you.



This house I am working on is my moms 1890's Victorian, the house was built as a bottom feed Gravity hot water with a gigantic coal(gas converted) boiler and massive 6" pipe main trunks.



Year before last I took out the old boiler that was firing at over 600,000 BTU's , I calculated the house and so put in a Weil McLain CGA Gold 175,000 BTU boiler which is still overkill but I knew I'd be making additions to the system.



Now part of the problem.

 Without that GIANT iron monster boiler to cast off huge waste heat the basement is so cold as to hang meat. Seriously. Last week the basement read as 40 degrees.



Second part of the problem, many of the iron rads are FAR too large in BTU's for the more efficient pumped system and we're getting seriously unbalanced heat.



So, I have other iron rads and some modern steel panel rads from other jobs I've been saving so I am going to go whole hog and repipe the entire system, moving 2 rads, replacing 7 rads, totally removing 2 rads, adding a Rad to the attic that has now been insulated/finished out, and also wanting to add 3 rads into the basement.



It's the basement that I keep thinking, and worrying on.

I plan on using reclaimed iron standing column rads that are 50" tall, piped supply and return on same side, and then of course basement rads are at the lowest point in the system so I don't want them to just be cold water dumps in the system. I want them to HEAT. Which means FORCING the hot water through them.



I am doing this all in steel 2 pipe direct return.

I have a riser that goes up to the second floor.

The return comes back down. Duh.

Would it be possible to have that "cold" return come down through to the basement rad, then from that rad back to the main cold return trunk; essentially making a "mini-loop" at the end at those parts of the system?



Here's another thought I've had; Basement radiators, top supply or bottom supply? Usually we pipe hot water to the top of the rad, hot water displaces cold water down into return pipe.

In basements we're not that lucky.

So thinking about the logical flow of water, piping a supply to a basement rad at the bottom, the hot water will rise through the cold, displacing the cold UP out the return at the top of the rad.

Am I making any sense here?

I made a crappy little drawing, if it helps.







I am all ears if there are any better suggestions

ScrewLoose

valve idea?

another pic showing idea for basement rad valve setup

hot_rod

what about

upgrading the insulation in the basement,?



n the end the best money spent is lowering the load(s) not adding more fuel costs by adding heat emitters

ScrewLoose

Really old problems.

I know.

Which is why I took the completely uninsulated 12' ceiling height attic space and insulated it up to R-38, added plasterboard and carpeting and made it a living space.

In the wooden areas of sidewall I had foam pumped in.

Not much to do in the brick masonry areas.



The basement has 14" to 24" thick cut and dressed limestone walls, a 1930's poured concrete floor over the original stone floor, a 9' ceiling, only 5 teeny-tiny little windows that I made low-e storm windows for.

The exterior stairs door I put a 2" slab of HDC foam over the door

At the sill plate and joist areas I packed with foam and then rock-wool insulation batts.

I took down most of the plaster/lath basement ceiling to get insulation in the joist cells.

There's little-to-no drafting now of exterior air intrusion to the basement.

Trust me, I have done as much as possible to minimize areas of potential heat loss.



The only thing I cannot do is build insulated walls in front of the stone walls due to the excessive amount of moisture and water leakage those walls produce.





It is presently 50 degrees outside.

The basement is still about 40.  The stones just seem to hold in the cold.

Steamfitter66

I lived in an 1865 Victorian

So I understand.

1 st you want to mimic the way the old system worked so slow down the water and turn down the boiler Aquastat to 150. These systems work well with a 140 max temp. A 4 way mixing valve w reset would solve your problems upstairs and just pipe your basement in parallel you have nothing to gain by piping in series as you have a CI boiler.

Unless you have leaks you gaining nothing by repiping.

A mod con would have been perfect In both maximizing comfort and efficiency but its to late for that.