History of Hydronics

Jason_McQuaid

Where can I find the history of Hydronic heating? Any help would be appreciated!

the_donut

The Lost Art of Steam Heating has several sections of history in it.

SuperTech

I have wondered about this myself. I've read some articles online about the subject, but haven't heard about a book on the subject.

This site has some great stuff in the heating history section.

DanHolohan

That's a big topic. Any particular area?

flat_twin

Thank you Dan for assembling and providing links to so much valuable information

Lots of good reading and eye candy here.
https://heatinghelp.com/heating-museum/category/radiators

I found specifics about certain radiators here...
https://heatinghelp.com/assets/documents/234.pdf

Still wondering how quickly electric water circulators were developed after residential electricity became common.

DanHolohan

The first circulators showed up in 1929. Thrush introduced theirs in the U.S. that, and Wilo came up with theirs in Europe at the same time. It was an idea whose time had come!

flat_twin

Thanks again. I'm looking through those old catalogs wondering what 10 rads, piping and a coal boiler would have cost in the 1930's. Our rads are 6 tube 23" tall Weil McLain that look a lot like the American Arco rads from the 1937 catalog.

Big Ed_4

I heard numbers on average 16%-20% of the cost of building the house

steamedchicago

flat_twin said:

Thanks again. I'm looking through those old catalogs wondering what 10 rads, piping and a coal boiler would have cost in the 1930's. Our rads are 6 tube 23" tall Weil McLain that look a lot like the American Arco rads from the 1937 catalog.

I have a few building supply catalogs from the mid 20s (when my house was built, and they contain things my house has, like built in book shelves. ). I figured out the boiler this house should have had, to heat the installed radiation, would have cost about $150, the radiators would have been about that much (though I don't have a catalog that lists my particular style), and I didn't figure out pipes or valves (though it's all there, and I guess I could). That doesn't include labor, of course. The house next door to mine, which is of the same style, the same basic size, but built with a little less fancy brick than mine sold for about $5K new, in 1926. So 20% of the cost of the building doesn't seem out of line.