Heating in Russia

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Heating in Russia

Heating in Russia

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RomanGK_26986764589

My grandmother mentioned to me that when she was working in a hospital in Russia back in 1950s. They had steam heat in their building with tall beautiful antique radiators with a coal boiler in a basement. But the radiators and the boiler were later scrapped in favor of district hot water heat.

jumper

District hot water can still have steam heat in buildings. Hot water fired steam generators are not unheard of. I knew a man who lived in HHW apartment building in Asian part of Russia.During troubled nineties heat went off and whole heating system was ruined.

I would guess that largest district heating is in China? In Iceland you see many no longer used chimneys.

RomanGK_26986764589

Lukewarm rads were a common occurrence in 90s in Russia and former USSR. Quite often the system had to be bled as there were air pockets in the rads. For that a plumber had to come and do the job but often plumbers were queued up and it took time for them to come. Hot water for bathing and shower was also delivered from the same plant that was making hot water for heat. That was also often interrupted for long periods of time and some folks used to steal hot water from the rads in order to take proper bath. From what I heard, the water in those rads was crystal clear.

gennady

Used to work at power plant in former USSR between 1982 and 1989 before left for USA . Where I was working, it was hot water district heating with mixing stations in each building, working on outdoor reset. This is how I remember it.

jumper

gennady said:

Used to work at power plant in former USSR between 1982 and 1989 before left for USA . Where I was working, it was hot water district heating with mixing stations in each building, working on outdoor reset. This is how I remember it.

Interesting. District's pressure presumably far higher than buildings'? Wonder how it was done?

hot_rod

District systems are very common in Europe, if there is a power plant nearby, good chance there is district energy.
At the trade shows you will see a lot of these satellite stations from various manufacturers.
This version regulates pressure, temperature, and meters the energy.

Other versions can also meter the hot and cold water into the flat.

I have seen versions that have credit card scanners also, you get just the energy you pay for, like at the gas pump.

tim smith

Mammoth, Yellowstone park headquarters has district heat that is steam to water for all the old housing and hotel. It is a pretty cool system. Although the hot springs are only a couple hundred yards away, would have been great to harness that but park conservation does not allow that. My inlaws lived in one of the large houses looking at the hotel and the small hot spring sink holes in front of hotel. Pretty cool.

deadmansghost

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=coin+operated+gas+meter

prepaid gas meter british

vaporvac

deadmansghost said:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=coin+operated+gas+meter
prepaid gas meter british

They do this for electric and land lines, as well. I often think that's why we were so late in the cell phone game, our phone service was always really good, whereas it was a royal PITA (and very expensive) in many places.

Solid_Fuel_Man

I've worked extensively for a military base in the area that was built in the '50s. Coal fired central heating plant heated water to 300+F at over 100psi. This water was circulated through welded SCH80 lines with 4" asbestos insulation. In each building was a HX with pneumatic bypass valves which heated a standard low pressure water distribution system in each building. Outdoor reset was in each building via standard pneumatic controls.

Very large buildings were heated via a pair of 4" or less lines. Can't imagine the heatloss of that distribution system. It's all defunct now, with boiler rooms added to the remaining buildings. Leaks in the high-pressure side were found by waving a broom in front of you until the bristles were cutoff.......

SFM

vvzz

One of the sources in the article says "More than likely the individual building has it's own steam boiler dedicated for the use of that building. They weren't able to verify that though"

I highly doubt that any new buildings in Russia would use steam, at least not for radiators. Steam radiators are prohibited by the Russian Building Codes as their temperature is too high and will cause burns for small children etc.

Steamhead

The Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone had a steam system when I was there some years ago. Not sure if it was fed by a boiler or a district system.

And, I've never heard of someone getting burned on a steam radiator. This may be an urban legend.

RomanGK_26986764589

I believe current MO for the new construction in Russia is hot water. Most new private houses and condos default to hot water while office buildings favor forced air. At least that was the case 10 years ago. Weissman HW boilers are really popular there. No steam on new construction though.

jumper

For decades steam is being phased out except for heating coils in very large air handlers. Too bad in my opinion. With modern materials,methods,and components, steam is more practical than HHW.