Balance Question

CKNJ

House is a 1909 Foursquare with one pipe steam. On first floor 2 radiators in living room where thermostat is located, 2 in dining room and one in kitchen. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms and bath, each with own radiator. 2 mains in basement with Gorton 1 and 2 vents with both mains heating up within 20 seconds of one another. (Yes, I have timed it).

So far i have Hoffman 40A vents on all 1st floor radiators and Gorton 5 on all 2nd floor. Right now all second floor radiators heat up perfectly evenly with all rooms being same temp.

Here is my issue. The living room is 68 degrees, Kitchen and dining room are 69 degrees and second floor is 72 degrees. I am thinking of increasing the venting to the 2 living room radiators to Gorton 5. My thought is this would bring down the temp of the dining, kitchen and upstairs. I think it would be better to increase flow to first floor living room as opposed to valving down the 2nd floor radiators. Am i going in the right direction?

Paul48

Valves on one-pipe steam are all the way open, or all the way closed........never in between. Unless, you like, what sounds like someone banging on your pipes with a hammer. I'd put thermostatic radiator vents on the second floor. Make sure you get ones that have an integral vacuum breaker, not all do. It's great that the mains are heating evenly, but how long does it take for the steam to reach the main vents? I'd skip the TRV in the upstairs bath also. Nobody minds a warm bathroom.

CKNJ

Thanks Paul. Just to clarify, when i referred to "valving down" was talking about the orifice size of the radiator vents.

Fred

Do you have sufficient venting on the Mains in the basement? It is possible that steam is being pushed out to some radiators before all the air is pushed out of the main(s) causing some rooms to heat sooner that others, during a heat cycle. Once the main venting is verified to be sufficient, I'd be inclined to use an adjustable vent on the living room radiators, like a Hoffman 1A or Vent-rite so that you can play with the adjustments to do your fine tuning. If the thermostat is in the living room, you don't want that room heating so quickly that the thermostat is satisfied before the rest of the house is comfortable.

Paul48

OK.........There's a lot of folks that don't know that it's a no-no. Your upstairs is going to be "naturally" hotter. The TRV's in sleeping areas give you a lot of control. You can play with down-sizing the upstairs radiator vents, but what may work well at 50*, may not work as well at 40,30 or 20.

That's just my unprofessional opinion, based on what my grandfather called, "horse-sense".