Balancing temp between floors

krk

In the shoulder seasons, the temp is pretty even between the first and second floor at my house. As the outside temp drops to 0-20 degrees (and some negative temps), the upstairs gets into the low 80s while downstairs is 68-70. I believe the problem is that the vents upstairs on the 4 radiators are all Gorton D. Should I swap down to a Gorton C or 6 or something else?

More info: all vents are clear and operate normally, no excessive hissing and they've been soaked in vinegar and simmering water previously. New Utica PEG150 installed in 2014, 2 steam mains with about 30 ft of horizontal run each in the basement with main vents. Thermostat is on first floor on interior wall away from drafts.

acwagner

My experience on my own system has been that no single venting strategy works perfectly under all conditions. What works during the middle of the winter doesn't work as well during the swing seasons. So, I just picked a setup that works for the typical winter day and accept that the swing season won't be perfect.

That said, I usually only have 1 or 2 degree difference between floors on most days, unless it's abnormally cold.

I found that having the second floor radiators lag behind the first floor radiators by a few minutes helps keeps things more even throughout the year.

Doing some trial and error with your venting strategy is a good approach. If you're willing to spend the money for more vents, buy smaller vents for the second floor and see how it performs.

You could also look at using TRVs. I don't have an personal experience with them, but they might help your situation.

gfrbrookline

I would try ventrite #1's upstairs. These will let you adjust the venting as needed without changing the vents.

PMJ

@acwagner is correct. Conditions change a lot but steam flow through one positive pressure venting strategy not so much. I would think TRV's would help a lot.

The only thing I have seen to be effortlessly self adjusting for this is vacuum. I used to have the upstairs/downstairs temperature difference issues. Below atmospheric the rads in colder areas really do condense a bigger percentage of the total flow. My upstairs and downstairs became dramatically more even in all conditions after I started running natural vacuum. They system is in vacuum some 75% of the time the burner is on and of course 100% of the rest of the time. That is a lot of time when the steam is being steered differently than open vented with no additional moving parts.