Just How Cold Is it?

New England SteamWorks

So cold that a boiler can be removed without a drop of water on the floor...



No pump required.

lchmb

was in a living room Sunday, the thermometer said 6 degrees... The boiler was antifreezed but frozen....

New England SteamWorks

What fun: A beautiful Victorian just waiting for me to bring her back to life:












The working conditions are horrendous. Absolutely freezing.

-But I am in heaven!

Jamie Hall

That is lovely. You have your work cut out for you! I've opened a house (with steam heat) in bad conditions -- below freezing -- but never as cold as it is today. And I didn't have to rebuild things to get it going.

The trick for me was to get things up to freezing before the condensate froze in the traps. It was touch and go.

Fred

Wow, What a job! I love that rad.

New England SteamWorks

Fred said:

Wow, What a job! I love that rad.

There are 16 sections in all. It's quite something. Located in the "Breakfast Room", which is co-joined to the "Music Room".

The Library, Parlor, Dinning Room, & Sitting Room all have floor grates with radiators hung from the ceiling in the basement, with attached ducting to secondary floor grates that pull in the room air and re-heat it. Marvelous.

But so very, very, very cold...

Next quandary: How to fill the new boiler with no water source? And mix the mortar for the breeching?

On ward!

Jackmartin

I can certainly understand the cold ,I live in winterpeg (Winnipeg) for the first time in many years ,they cancelled New Years celebrations outside because it was too cold! What rot. We live in the area of Canada that has to reach -40 before they say we have an extreme cold warning. However, back to your job, it looks like any steamfitters dream job. The ideal temperature to do this kind of work is about 65 degrees, you are cool enough to be comfortable without a lot of clothes. I wonder who measured the specific gravity of the water and antifreeze mix, I dare say I hope he does not service his vehicles the same way. The house by the way is my idea of a great place to work: history,charm, and a chance to take history apart and see how the dead men thought. I am envious. Be safe and dress in layers I know a little bit about the cold. Happy New Year. Jack

unclejohn

Reading this makes me glad I'm retired.

Danny Scully

@New England SteamWorks, as always, where are the progress pictures?! So stingy

bmedeiros678

New England SteamWorks said:

So cold that a boiler can be removed without a drop of water on the floor...



No pump required.

How can I best reach you? I am in North Attleboro and don't think my boiler is working properly.

nicholas bonham-carter

BME, it’s best to start a new thread on this, and try the” find a contractor” button here for someone from your area.
Try to make a list of symptoms, and post them here, while you are waiting.—NBC

New England SteamWorks

Danny Scully said:

@New England SteamWorks, as always, where are the progress pictures?! So stingy

Hey! I'm not finished yet! I am a seasoned-citizen, after all. I don't move like you younger guys!

We tried to beat the blizzard this morning. Putting in a Weil 480 oil fired. We got all the sections assembled then peeked out the basement door and decided we'd better get out while we still could. We had 20 miles to get back.

Barely made it...

But, feet up by the fire now. All well that ends well.

Ironman

How cold is it? So cold that the politicians have their hands in their own pockets!

mikeg2015

My heat pumps kept my house over 52f with 3f average daily temps when my boiler shut down when I was out of town last weekend. A nice piece of mind if you have central air.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Good god. That old boiler is Weil 94 I believe. Never did one and don't want to now but have seen plenty of them but those are the heaviest sections of ANY cast iron boiler. I think they approach 1500 lbs.

UGH I used to love that stuff.

New England SteamWorks

It was an 882

New England SteamWorks

Here you go @Danny Scully :

So cold! Basement is 29 degrees. It's exhausting to work in these temps. Still have to figure out how to fill the boiler with no source of water...

Hope to have heat tomorrow if I can figure it out. One for the Grand Kids..

Fred

Wow, Wow, Wow!

Ironman

Can you fill some 55gal drums with water/antifreeze and take them to the job site and pump it in?

New England SteamWorks

It may come to that @Ironman. But for now, I choose to retire for the evening with dreams of Global Warming in my head.

Positive thoughts...

EBEBRATT-Ed

55 gallon plastic barrel filled else ware and pump it in. Work fast, drive faster before it freezes.

never saw a Weil 82 before. The sections are identical to the 94 which is still made. The 82 being a much smaller boiler.

I am in western, MA. 10 miles from the old HB Smith foundry.

when I started almost EVERY boiler around here was a Smith. They had this are locked up tight for years. Just about every school had a Smith boiler. We were brainwashed and didn't even know Weil McLain (or anybody else) existed

But that all changed about 30 years ago

Very nice job BTW. very professional

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

That's an X-Ray radiator, no? Page 80 in Dan's E.D.R.

Nice work, dood! Hope you're able to get some liquid water in there. Keep us tuned in.

New England SteamWorks

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes said:

That's an X-Ray radiator, no? Page 80 in Dan's E.D.R.

Yep. Same place I found it. Good 'ol Dan!

New England SteamWorks

We hit upon the idea of adding a boiler drain between the water meter and the house shut-offs. Even so, we had to apply a torch liberally to get the water to flow.



Then we ran a hose to the boiler, filled her up, and lit her off about 9:00 last night. Boy was that nice. I don't think I've ever been so cold, and that fire was a joyous feeling let me tell you.

Having solved one problem, we ran into the next. There are around 30 radiators in the house and those vents haven't been touched in a loooong time, and we won't get to the main vents until Monday. Combine that with a huge house at 29 degrees that needs to be brought up to 70 in fridgid temps, and you can imagine how much water the boiler needs. So I was back this morning at 7:30 and she was only running when enough condensate returned. Sooo, I guess until the plumber fixes all the breaks and we switch the boiler over to regular house water and the VXT, yours truly is going to have to swing by twice a day to add water...


Back tomorrow to hopefully finish up. A quick shot before we left last night:

Danny Scully

I mean couldn’t you have stayed for 5 more minutes to take some better pics for me @New England SteamWorks?

New England SteamWorks

BTW, this is a great example of the benefits of steam heat. With the entire house frozen, just imagine if it were a hot water system. What a nightmare that would be...

With steam we are up and running!

Leon82

How long has it been frozen?

New England SteamWorks

4 weeks.

Leon82

Wow, hopefully the freeze damage is minimal

DanHolohan

I love this. Thanks so much for sharing. What town is the house in?

New England SteamWorks

> @DanHolohan said:
> I love this. Thanks so much for sharing. What town is the house in?

Fall River

New England SteamWorks

I am guessing that the freeze damage is not minimal. But that is the job of the plumber. Thankfully.

I wish I knew more, but as a contractor, you arrive at this beautiful home with owners in their 90's, temps hovering around zero, home temp at 29 degrees, and by the time you measure the radiation your fingers, toes, and ears have fallen off. And you're dressed for cold weather...

So of course you are very curious about how this all came to be, but the freezing temperature directs your mind in only one direction:

Install Boiler. Stop Cold.

So you work around the clock to get it done and figure you'll find out the story as you go, but it's always too cold to talk about stories, and when you finally get it going, -it's still freezing outside and there are 5 other folks waiting in line with no heat and stories too (that you'll have no time for...), and so well, you don't really get the story. But they get heat, -and you're on to the next.

But basically what I heard was: It was too big and nobody wanted to take it on. If they had bothered to measure the radiation: not so big. But they didn't bother. Plus it is steam, which scared them more.

I am guessing the old beast was so big because originally the 1st floor radiators (hung from below in the basement under grates) were ducted with outside air.

The manual filling with the hose was going no where fast. With all the vent leaks, and extreme low temperatures, the boiler needed water at least every 8 hours, and the owners were incapable of the operation. And so was I, I belatedly realized.

So no choice left but to main-line the fill from the meter to the boiler. Obviously not included in the bill. But I'll get a few more hours sleep!

So, she's now running via VXT. Constant heat at last. But no running water until the plumber(s) come through. Which, given the temps, might be awhile yet.

And so, it's on to the next story...

DanHolohan

Superb. Thanks.

nicholas bonham-carter

If “Every Darn Radiator” could be made into an app for the phone, it might have saved Steamworks from some potential frostbite here.
Imagine putting an object of known size on the rad, take a picture, and the app identifies the radiator type, calculates the size, and EDR automatically.—NBC

ratio

@New England SteamWorks, thanks.

Danny Scully

@New England SteamWorks, can this be the sequel? It’s perfect because a) it’s not going to be as good and b) in the end, the same thing will happen

Cracked boiler emergency replacement today.

New England SteamWorks

Epilogue:

After all the frost bitten extremities and cold-induced trauma, the phone rings this morning:

"Ryan, it's too hot"

Imagine how my heart swelled!

Long story short, the ancient TT wire frayed and shorted. Wasn't noticeable until the feed water was mainlined yesterday. Took a good deal of sleuthing to find the fray.

But (here's the kicker) the house was warm for the first time, so yours truly paused to take a few pictures:











I apologize for the low light, but being a depression-era senior citizen, you can't get the owner to turn on a single light!

But for all these years he had a boiler blowing 7+ GPH...

Anyway, you can see why I was instantly in love with the project, terrible as the working conditions were.

It was, now safely in retrospect, - a really fun and rewarding project.

New England SteamWorks

And good luck to you @Danny Scully ! At least it is no longer sub-zero. Go get 'er!

DanHolohan

Ryan, I’m proud of you. Thanks for a grand save!

nicholas bonham-carter

What a great story, and what a great house!
They are lucky they found you!
Weren’t there a lot of clothing companies in Fall River?
I think I went there when I was in prep school in Newport. Madras sports jackets were all the rage, but not warm enough for your work now!—NBC

Fred

Beautiful story, house and job @New England SteamWorks !