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The Minor (Mini? Small? Little?) Convector Caper - and a technical question

ChicagoCooperator
ChicagoCooperator Member Posts: 363
in Strictly Steam
An old story that I've been meaning to share - the little brother of the Great Convector Caper (which is ongoing, still, to this day). My back bathroom had a one-pipe radiator cobbled onto the original concealed pipe & chase heating, probably from back in the days when the heating system wasn't being run correctly and it wasn't putting out sufficient heat. The building decided to gradually get rid of these jury-rigged add-ons and I got to be the first guinea pig. So here's the story!


The delightful, leaky, paint chipping radiator (at least they color matched to the tile).

The original intake grill, wounded for the radiator!

There should be an opening up there somewhere!

Hey, wow, there is a grill there too! Yay! They just wallpapered and plastered over it!

It's coming....

It's the supply grill!

Grill removed for cleaning!

Inside! The innerds at the top of the chase. The right (larger) pipe is the supply pipe which bushes down to go through the floor slabs and loops up and back down on the left - there is a trap for this entire 6 floor assembly hidden away on the first floor of the building.

Breathing free at last (yes, vintage Thurston light fixture for those so inclined)

The tile wasn't too bad behind the radiator and it certainly looks cleaner without the radiator.

The biggest difference is I don't get advance aural warning of when the heat is coming on anymore, at least there was no water hammer in the radiator. It's just about adequate for the room (the convective heat), which isn't very large, but has two outside walls and a large (3x4 foot) window. I suspect that without storm windows it was woefully inadequate. I plan on replacing the window which should make the room perfectly toasty (the original steel window is badly warped and has rust holes in the frame - the other windows in my unit are in good condition and have been restored).

So the tech question - does anybody have the technical knowledge or a link to how one calculates the output from the pipes and chase in the wall? Obviously there is the calc for the pipe itself, but how does the convective chase affect output? Any ideas? The rest of the heating is Trane concealed heaters, other than the bathrooms (the other bathroom's grills have been completely sealed off - it only has one outside wall and gets borrowed heat under the bathtub from the adjacent bedroom convector and supply risers - delightfully warm in fact - the tile really holds the heat).

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