a question on balancing

bbillcee

So Im messing around balancing one half of the 2 story house. This main goes to the dining room, living room (thermostat) and second floor small bedroom......it appears to be a hoffman main vent in the basement( 15 feet of 2 inch main). I plan on changing that to a gorton #2 ...would that be correct? There was a "d" gorton on the rad in the second floor bedroom. it was getting like an inferno up there but that rad would be on in no time when the heat starts to come on. Could that actually cause the floor below to have a hard time heating up? that 2nd floor rad stealing all the steam? just for now i thru # 4 gortons on the dining and living room and a #6 in the 2nd fl bedroom . and gonna see if that makes a difference, I plan on putting a 5 on the second floor bedroom when i get one. is there an optimal way a rad should heat? the ones in my house that have "c" gorton's in them come on so fast where as the 6's have a delay to them. Should a properly balanced rad heat quickly or slowly or in the middle?

Fred

The adage is "Heat the Mains fast and the Radiators slow" Once the mains are hot and can support steam with minimal condensation, You want to give each radiator an opportunity to get its share of steam and heat the rads.
As far a that Main is concerned, 1 Gorton #2 will work but you can also just add another Hoffman 75 to the one that's there and get about an equal amount of venting. Whichever is least costly.

Jamie Hall

And a properly balanced radiator may or may not heat slowly -- what it does do is heat enough, on a normal run, to make the space comfortable -- and no more!

And yes -- if you have one fast venting radiator mixed up with a bunch of slow ones, that fast one is going to heat like mad and the slow ones aren't going to do much.

Abracadabra

bbillcee said:

There was a "d" gorton on the rad in the second floor bedroom. it was getting like an inferno up there but that rad would be on in no time when the heat starts to come on. Could that actually cause the floor below to have a hard time heating up? that 2nd floor rad stealing all the steam?

Yes... I've seen this happen. As the 2nd floor radiator gets steam into it quicker, the steam condenses and creates a vacuum, sucking up any available steam that comes into that riser. Start with all #4s, and if you feel the need to have more heat in a room, bump it up to a #5. First thing though is to properly vent the mains.

KC_Jones

One word of caution I would balance the whole system at once. You mention only doing half. I am guessing you have a second main in the house? If you get one main all nice and balanced and then do the other main you could throw the first one out of wack. I would get the venting on all mains correct first then go to the radiators.