What do the pros here have in their home?

Precaud

I really enjoy seeing posts with pics of steam installs by the pros here, I learn a lot by seeing how they address things in real situations.

And so I wonder, what do you guys use in your home? Are you steamers at home? What boiler? Pics would be great.

EdTheHeaterMan

@Precaud
show us your steam porn
"1950's Bryant boiler in a 1-pipe steam system at 7,000 ft in northern NM, where basements are rare"

I have radiant floor staple up... then in slab on the addition.

House came with a Gas furnace with 10 SEER AC, in the attic. Still operational with Nest Thermostat

If I had a chance to purchase a home with steam heat... I would be ok with it. But the women in my life select the home. I am just allowed to live there.

Precaud

EdTheHeaterMan said:

@Precaud
show us your steam porn
"1950's Bryant boiler in a 1-pipe steam system at 7,000 ft in northern NM, where basements are rare"

Mine is covered in excruciating detail in a few threads:
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/178437/old-bryant-steam-boiler-and-duty-cycle
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/179088/the-return-of-the-old-bryant-boiler

EdTheHeaterMan

I remember you now!

Steamhead

Converted gravity hot-water with column-type cast-iron radiators. Burnham V-14 w/Beckett NX burner.

This is what my great-grandfather got when he had the house built. It's on its third boiler. Eventually I'll upgrade, but for now it runs nicely and doesn't leak.

retiredguy

@EdTheHeaterMan I can see from your last statement that you are a very smart man and very well kept.
"But the women in my life select the home. I am just allowed to live there". I wish I was as smart as you.

GroundUp

How's that old saying go about the cobbler's kids and their shoes? Nobody wants to see the heating system in my home, constructed mostly of salvaged jobsite equipment and leftover parts. Now my garage where people can see it, different story...

ethicalpaul

GroundUp said:

How's that old saying go about the cobbler's kids and their shoes? Nobody wants to see the heating system in my home, constructed mostly of salvaged jobsite equipment and leftover parts. Now my garage where people can see it, different story...

Now I really want to see it!!!

Dave0176

I have a 24 year old 80% Goodman 100,000 BTU scorched air furnace. No basement maybe someday I’ll put baseboard.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, I KNOW it's not steam, but as different types of systems are being discussed... I've got a gravity hot water system I built. It uses solar collector type finned tube in the walls, is powered by solar and can keep the house at 70F with 80F water. Control is provided by using modified greenhouse window operators to pull spring loaded ball valves closed. Seems to work.

Yours, Larry

JUGHNE

Larry, don't you have refrigerant powered "Sky Lids" from the late 70's?

Precaud

ethicalpaul said:

Now I really want to see it!!!

Agreed - let's see some pics, guys!

JUGHNE

That would mean having to clean our basements and explain all the loose end projects (to be completed sometime BTY) that you might see.

Larry Weingarten

Hi @JUGHNE , I don't have Sky Lids, but learned the precepts of "elegant simplicity" from Steve Baer, who invented Sky Lids and a bunch of other interesting stuff. I sat on the board of his company, Zomeworks for years, so hopefully learned some things worth passing on.

Yours, Larry

JUGHNE

I read of his projects in The Mother Earth News and maybe ASE magazines.
Always interesting articles, some really out of the box.

Still have the first years of TMENS and wonder what to do with them?

george_42

I went with water to air geothermal three years ago and do not regret it one bit

DanHolohan

And Larry’s system runs on vodka. 

ChrisJ

GroundUp said:

How's that old saying go about the cobbler's kids and their shoes? Nobody wants to see the heating system in my home, constructed mostly of salvaged jobsite equipment and leftover parts. Now my garage where people can see it, different story...

Ever see the typical car mechanic's car? It's usually the cheapest thing they could find because they can keep it running and reliable. Rotted floors etc don't matter.

When you spend all day every day working on other people's stuff you don't feel like doing that on your time off.

mattmia2

The auto mechanic's car is usually a customer's car they didn't want to pay to fix...

Precaud

I'm the same way in my business (electronic test equipment). I keep the stuff that works perfectly but has cosmetic issues that customers wouldn't accept.

But so what? Less excuses, more pics!

JohnNY

I live in a 90-unit steam heated building in Manhattan. The system is quiet but there's too much pressure and the Heat-Timer settings are a mess. Everyone opens their windows in the winter, including me. I told them I could have a look at it but they assured me it was a very complicated system and said they would prefer residents not go in the boiler room. Then they put a padlock on the door the next day.
In my next life I want to own the oil company that supplies this building.

ethicalpaul

If only they knew how much knowledge they locked out

mattmia2

Not a pro, but:


Also some wire still needed to be dressed and some controls installed when that picture was taken. I thought I had a more recent picture but couldn't find it.

BirchwoodBill

Weil McLain with taco heat exchanger into warmboard. Warmboard runs between 85 to 105. Typically at 90f

GW

Stet

I have installed Slant Fin boilers since they bought out National US. I have installed the CHS boiler for years. The first in my own home. A great, dependable, easy to maintain and program.

The best part though, is the company. I believe Slant Fin is the only family owned boiler company in the country. If you do have a problem, your call is to Long Island, NY. The factory. You talk to a real person , at the factory. I have been in this business for 50 years. Slant Fin is unmatched when it comes to factory service and technical support. I can't say enough about them.

clammy

No steam but a low temp hot water system using buderus panel rads and some staple up radiant w a taco I series 3 way and wilo ecm pumps . It being heated by a munchkin m80 and is getting up in years so replacement will be in the near furture with amod con w a bit lower turndown . With all the bad rep they had gotten when installed and set up correctly they work I think mine is going on 13 to 14 years and not a major issue and only twice have I had to hit the reset and both where due to high winds . Peace and good luck clammy

gennady

Hot water system. TRVs everywhere. No thermostats.  

VFD system pump. 

wyradiantguy

My 1940's country farm house is all radiant heat (staple down with 1-1/2" fiber mesh concrete over) retrofitted in the early 1990's when I learned about radiant heat. It was heated with a Polaris until I couldn't get parts anymore. In 2011, I installed an (Central boiler) outside wood boiler that heats an indoor indirect water heater via underground insulated dual pex pipe to my basement mechanical room. All of my domestic hot water is derived from that tank along with all of the heat for my closed loop radiant floor via a flat plate heat exchanger. I have a back-up gas Intellihot on demand unit that does all of this in the summer when I don't need much heat, only hot water. It takes several years to go through one 500 gallon tank of LP, I haven't bought any wood since 2011, (free from a tree cutter, just have to haul it home). I split all my wood, (even normally unusable large tree stumps), with a spiral splitter on my Bobcat post hole digger, only cut to 4' lengths I can lift or fit into my firebox. With decent wood, it will burn several days on one load during the cold winter. I have some passive solar air panels on the south side of my house that will also heat hot water from when I was installing liquid and air solar panels in the mid 1980's. Have been loving and specializing in radiant heat ever since I heard Dan talk about some of the early Long Island radiant heat systems at his seminars back then.

Precaud

mattmia2 said:

Not a pro, but:

You've given me some very good advice here, so you're a pro to me

Labenaqui

We have a W/M Oil-fired 568 fully integrated with a 1935 Int'l Htr Economy #64 Wood Burner (Museum Piece?), gravity-piped distribution to three split-loop baseboard zones. Originally installed in 1975 w/ oil boiler swap in 1995.
It is the basis for our just awarded U.S. Patent 10,690,356 on our "Neo-Gravity Hydronic (FHW) Heating Appliance (TM)".
BoilersOnDemand.com

LynnLennox

Not a professional. But I'm jealous of many of these neat basement photos.  My 1858 Maine house has seen various heating professionals over the years. I'm not sure some knew what they were doing. I'm thankful that most of my radiaors get warm and I no longer have water hammer that sounds like someone is in the basement swinging a 35 pound pipe wrench at the old pipes. 

Steamhead

LynnLennox said:

Not a professional. But I'm jealous of many of these neat basement photos.  My 1858 Maine house has seen various heating professionals over the years. I'm not sure some knew what they were doing. I'm thankful that most of my radiaors get warm and I no longer have water hammer that sounds like someone is in the basement swinging a 35 pound pipe wrench at the old pipes. 

Sounds like you need a Steam Man- go here to find one:

https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/

The Steam Whisperer

I have a 1994 Dunkirk 105,000 btu/hr input hot water boiler that came from an install I did about 7 years ago. It replaced a grossly oversized 175,000 btu/hr input unit that was in the house when we bought it. I cleaned it up and repaired It. It is one of the very efficient Dunkirks that came with the new heat exchanger design but with the old cast iron burners ( runs about 84% with about 25 to 30% excess air) . It's still over sized ( heat load is about 40,000 btu/hr for our 1600 sq ft first floor and 1600 sq ft basement). I added a stack damper too it. The boiler is piped with a bypass now and pumping away piping. We have been heating the house with only 4 radiators for about 5 winters.... 2 of the really big original radiators and 2 that have been resized to the current heat loss and for use with an orificed steam system. We don't have radiators in the 3 north rooms, but with upgrades to the insulation and air tightening, the rooms are only about 3 to 4 degrees cooler that the rest of the house when we get down to zero outside. Plans are to install a modified minitube steam system with a new boiler, where we will run the boiler on hot water initially and then convert it to steam to get back to back comparisons of energy usage.

jumper

I've become a can't be bothered guy. But I remember my friend's wealthy clients who lived in old mansions. Each wanted comfort,silence, and super reliability since they often were away in winter. One had an overhead distribution gravity HHW and the other had overhead distribution two pipe steam. Atmospheric burners with pilot ignition. The HHW system had a vacuum tank in attic which must have been interesting to install?

SuperTech

I'm a pro, but I don't yet consider myself an expert. Being a super tech is my goal but I'm not there yet...

Anyway my boiler is work in progress, so no pictures yet. I have posted pics of it on here in the past. I'm in the process of adding a buffer tank because I have a Peerless WBV-03 oil fired boiler that is over sized for my house, pretty much any oil fired boiler is. I have a small 900 square foot ranch house with cast iron baseboards.  
I've re-piped my boiler primary secondary with variable speed injection pumping using a Taco VT2218. Injection is going to come out of the buffer tank ( a used Buderus indirect tank) in the future. The zones are pumped with a Grundfos Alpha 2. I run a partial outdoor reset using the Honeywell module on my L7224U aquastat. All zones and the boiler loop have Caleffi Quicksetter with flow indicator. Piping is all soldered copper insulated with Armaflex. I've installed a Caleffi Dirtmag and a Caleffi thermostatic mixing valve on the boilermate indirect tank. It could be a simpler setup,  but what fun would that be?