Moving rads and adding some Big Mouths

MilanD

Hello everyone!

Talk about running a small non-profit and having to wear many hats.

Our Arts Center has had insufficient EDR in 2 rooms for years, and despite great venting (the 2 rooms' 3 rads are all at the end of 40 and 50 ft. risers supplying these 3 rads, I kid you not), rads were just too small to make up the heat loss. BTW, pipe to these 3 rads are 40, 40, and 50 ft from the main, on the one pipe system.

At any rate, I got tired of not enough EDR in there and tired of make-up heat having to come from space heaters and potential fire hazard. So, today, with an anomalous 62 F day in Cincinnati, it was the day to do something about it.

Since these rads are on ends of such long risers (2 and 1.5 inch pipes to that last bull tee / 90), and as I added to the load, for good measure, I also added 2 Big Mouths.

It took some planning, a 5 ft steel pick and a stack of 4x4s to lever these pipes and rads up, and some very careful unthreading with the help of Cranoil, 24" pipe wrench and a pursuador pipe.

Went without a snag. That last monster rad was 59 inches and I got a couple of movers to bring it down from our 3rd floor apt, which now has its own forced air furnace (no point in heating 10k sq ft overnight for just 800 sq ft apt. so a small gas furnace was installed up there).

Anyhow, all has been tested, no leaks, no waterhammers, and venting to rads is quick thanks to those 2 big mouths. Temps fell to about 40 by 5 pm, and it's toasty warm in there now. There are covers that will go over the rads so we should be able to dial in the comfort, in case someone asks how big the rooms are and if it's too much EDR. I figured our LGB 7 is oversized when one Auditorium is zoned off (used only 2-3 times per week so heat there is mostly off), so moving EDR (also included in calcs when boiler was replaced) from upstairs to downstairs did not add to the load.

I am so glad no one ripped out steam over the years. With being able to do this work myself, and understanding what's what, we are set!

Hopefully, this can give someone ideas when planning their own project.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge, and thank you to Dan for bringing this knowledge back to us.