Balancing a small 2 family house

bbillcee

so my heating system has been neglected for some time so I trying to do some repairs and tweaks.... the longest run to a rad is at the most 30 feet. I have a one pipe system with a weil Mcclain eg 50 or 55 i forget running it. I want to change all the vents out, The boiler is centrally located and the house is pretty small so I really dont think it would be to complicated to get it balanced well.....the second floor has some gorton c, d and 6's. I was gonna put the same back but some on the site recommended not to..... the second floor apartment will be 74/75 when the first floor apt hits 70.... so I guess the members are right thats these maybe too much..... maybe just go with gorton 4's on the first floor and 5's on the 2nd? I consulted the gorton website they even suggest 6's and c's on the second floor. I do like the way the heat comes quickly with them but like i said its always an inferno up there..... any recommendations how I should preoceed?

nicholas bonham-carter

Get some main vents first-Gorton #2's are my favorite. ne #2 for each 20 feet of 2 inch pipe. if more than one is needed, use an antler.
When you have the mains thoroughly vented, then you can make any changes to the rad vents to speed up, or slow down a particular one.--NBC

KC_Jones

Hatterasguy said:

Anything 6 or above is generally too large unless you suffer from the "big boiler" syndrome.

To the OP have you done an EDR calculation and compared it to the size of your boiler? You say the house is pretty small? An EG 50 or 55 is a decent sized boiler if the house is indeed "small". Do you know what pressure the boiler is running? Some of these details can influence the performance you will see with your system. As NBC said what is your main venting like?

bbillcee

i got the boiler almost 10 years ago, I suspect they overkilled it.. If I remember right i think i was supposed to get an eg55 but they put a 50 in which i believe was bigger? The guy told me a little bigger would get the house heated up quicker....did he lie?? Regardless it has been a solid performer. Yes I do have a big vent at the end of each horizontal run in the bsmt....one is a big gorton the other looks like a hoffman type....i didn't investigate the size yet. The low limit thingy i think is set around 2/3 pounds..I never did any EDR and looking at what it is now the guy who sold me the boiler certainly didnt go around doing this calculation!

Fred

Turn that pressure down. If you have a Pressuretrol, (a gray box mounted on a pigtail, looped pipe) set the scale on the front (the Cut-in) to .5PSI and inside the box (1 screw on the front center bottom) set the white wheel to 1, that is the Differential. (Additive Pressuretrol, That will keep your max pressure at about 1.5PSI.
If you have a Pressuretrol with both the Main and Differential scales on the front, set the Main to 2PSI and set the Differential scale to .5PSI (Subtractive Pressuretrol so the max pressure will be about 1.5PSI)