Gold's Sectional - Still Running Today

New England SteamWorks

Fun discovery:

PhilDavid

Thanks for posting. I love this stuff! But what the heck are the boiler sections doing in the ceiling?

JUGHNE

Is that an indirect radiator missing its tin duct work?
Is the basement warm, with all that exposed CI?

Steamhead

ISTR the original Gold system was set up to capture the heat radiating off the boiler sections and deliver it to the house this way. Have to search the Dead Men's Books to see if I can find it.

Does the house have any Mattress radiators?

nicholas bonham-carter

No pesky asbestos insulation needed then?--NBC

SWEI

Surround the mechanical room either with proofing ovens or with greenhouses...

New England SteamWorks

Unfortunately, it's a rental with various apartments, so I did not have access beyond the cellar. Not all of the rooms still heat with the gravity air, some just have steam radiators, -but some rooms have both. The basement is being converted to an apartment, so yes the uninsulated pipes provide heating for the cellar.

Charlie from wmass

I am working on one of these in Springfield. small world. For some reason they did insulate the boiler with asbestos sheets on the one I am on. When the boiler is demolitioned I will be installing the new boiler outside the plenum and bricking off the gap left by the old boiler.

SWEI

So it's a kind of giant, centralized indirect radiator system feeding like a gravity furnace?