9-section steam boiler question

HeatingHelp

This discussion was created from comments split from: Steam boiler replacement in order to save system..

Earmas

I apologize if I’m starting this thread incorrectly but I’m new to this forum. I have a 9’section steam boiler original to my house (1928). I spend a ridiculous amount of money on oil during the winter even if prices are low. I’ve had many contractors in and nobody seems to have a grasp on steam or what my best option is. From reading these threads it appears switching to a gas steam system doesn’t seem to be cost effective nor does just converting the existing boilers ignition to gas. Split units won’t work due to the cost of electricity, and the ROI for solar was laughable. Converting the steam system to water and modifying the radiators was also crazy expensive as well. Any thoughts?

Erin Holohan Haskell

Welcome, @Earmas. I've moved your post to a new thread. Here are some tips for using the forum: https://heatinghelp.com/forum-user-manual

KC_Jones

Let's start with basics, can you post pictures of your boiler and it's associated piping. Take the pictures from far enough back so we can see the boiler and piping in one picture, and several different angles would be good.

Second, what type of steam system is this? Is it 1 pipe or 2 pipe? The way to tell is how many pipes are hooked up to each radiator. For ease you could take pictures of a couple radiators and we can have a look.

After that we will have a better idea of what you are dealing with and perhaps make some recommendations.

EBEBRATT-Ed

What @KC_Jones said
also a description of the house, sq feet, windows , doors...insulation

GW

Is your house relatively well insulated? If not it doesn’t matter what system you have. Are the windows leaky or ok? Your attic hatch or stairwell allowing lots of heat to fly away? Another simple trick- if you barely crack open your basement door can you feel a little breeze?

Do you have an oil burner guy that takes care of the oil side of things (so he doesn’t know Steam, that’s why you’re here) ? What the general efficiency when it’s at full steam (not starting the boiler cold and doing a reading 3 minutes in, lol)

Can’t wait to see some pics of the old beast

Jamie Hall

Yes please. Some pictures of the boiler, and a good description of the house. For reference, for one of the places I care for (Cedric's home), the original boiler was huge -- and about the same age as the one you mentioned. Some years ago it was replaced by Cedric -- which is also pretty good sized -- but the savings was significant: the original boiler used 5 gallons of oil per hour when it was running; Cedric does exactly the same job on 2.75 gallons per hour. Bottom line: that old boiler is probably not all that efficient, even when tuned up well, and other than insulation and such things the best place to go to get your heating costs down may be to install a modern steam oil fired boiler. I can't guarantee it will cut your oil use as dramatically as in my instance, but it could be quite significant.