Boiler not piped correctly?

1Matthias

Hello all! Several years ago, we had our boiler replaced, and I'm wondering if it was piped correctly. It does seem to work ok, but even with conservative thermostat settings and throttling the gas input by half, our heating bills are fairly high, some rooms are frigid, and we occasionally have steam/water hammer in the middle of the night. We'd assumed that this was normal, but after reading around that does not appear to be the case. I suspect that this is due to a combination of 3 things:
1) Little to no insulation on pipes under crawlspaces. What is there consists of disintegrating canvas, plaster, and asbestos wrappings, so that's high on the "Fix List".
2) Inadequte main venting. Our system was originally fed by a beast of a coal-fired boiler, and so the main vents are almost non-existent. Also high on the "Fix List".
3) This is the one I'm unsure about. The piping around the boiler doesn't quite look like what I'm seeing on this forum, or in "The Lost Art of Steam Heating." Specifically, the drop to the equalizer appears to be in an odd location on both risers. I've attached a couple of images of the near-boiler piping.

Is this making any difference at all, or is it just the insulation and venting that's causing a problem?

Any help will be greatly appreciated, and I can provide any further info/images if needed.

kcopp

Wow... not even kind of sort of right.... What a mess.

1Matthias

Oh dear. How so? Edit: I know the drop to equalizer section is bad, but I'm unsure about what else is wrong.

KC_Jones

It's so much wrong, it's easier to look at the picture in the boiler manual for what's right.

There is no header, pretty sure the pipe sizes are wrong. The sort of header that's there is colliding and has reducers in the horizontal. You have 2 Hartford loops. The mains are all tied together instead of coming into header individually.

There is a picture in the manual for the boiler showing the proper piping. All one has to do is follow that and everything is at least at minimum spec.

kcopp

https://www.weil-mclain.com/sites/default/files/field-file/EG EGH Series 5 Boiler Manual 0117.pdf

Page 17

EBEBRATT-Ed

@kcopp has it right, It's piped pretty much all wrong. Funny thing is the guy knew it when he installed it but took the easy way out. 2 equalizers and he "blew u" the tee so he could convince himself that he was installing a header. As Kcopp said all he needs is to follow the manual.

Water hammer, cold rooms etc are not NORMAL.

Look at it this way. It's all fixable. Fix the piping, the vents and insulation. You will be more comfortable and save fuel and the banging won't wake you up at night.

Where are you located. Try find a contractor on this site. You need a good steam man and they can be hard to find

Fred

Wow, that is a mess. It should be repiped. That larger pipe that is suppose to be a Header that is reduced on both ends is a pool of water. That alone will cause Hammer. One equalizer should come off of one end of the Header, not off of both risers out of the boiler. Needs a complete redo.

Danny Scully

Oh the horror! Where are you located?

unclejohn

I'm more concern about the "throttling down" of the gas valve.

Grallert

That's one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while.

KC_Jones

At least they installed a skim port, so that is correct.

1Matthias

Thank you guys for the information. We will have someone look at it.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@1Matthias just be advised, not all contractors are the same. "someone" may not be good enough.You need a good steam guy and they are hard to find. try "find a contractor" on this site. Where are you located? We hate to criticize but everyone here is trying to help