Not a boiler I expect to find in the middle of SD

iced98lx

Steam is pretty rare here, most schools/large buildings that are boiler fed are hydronic so this is a surprise to find for me! That's a lot of heat!

JUGHNE

I am in northcentral NE, about a 100 miles from Yankton.

I service a 1 million+ btu steamer in a schoolhouse, 1932...2 pipe attic down feed system.....it will be torn down this summer. (It will be like losing an old friend).

Another 52 HP steamer in a retired 1938 school house, the new owners think they can replace it with heat pumps???...I want to see how that works out.

Two churches (1955-1911) with 500,000 steamers that will most likely never change.

Another 1955 school with 1,080,000 input which might be changed out this summer with new steamers.

A hospital with 2 80 HP steamers....which will be there until the "professional engineers" think there is a better way.

A USPS office with a 30 HP steam boiler...cleanest boiler room I have ever seen.
(The USPS is in too much of a money bind to hire the pro engineers..so far)

A Bed & Breakfast which has a very rare 2 pipe counter flow system.

A small apartment building, standard 1 pipe.

A house which I changed over to orifice control vapor system running on ounces.

With 2 exceptions these are within 30 miles of me.....if you are from SD then you know we might drive that far for coffee.

Steamhead

With a MAWP of 150 PSI, it looks like that's being used for a process application rather than low-pressure steam heating.

retiredguy

I never liked using a coil boiler for steam generation but every one has his choice.

@JUGHNE There was a school in Washington, Pa that utilized heat pumps for all the heating and A/C until they realized that their system was rubbish and operating costs were too excessive. They replace the heating side with BRYAN hot water boilers with modulating Power Flame burners.

There was a church in Butler, Pa that had 2 hot water boilers about 5,000,000 BTU's each that I think were "Higgens"that were a predecessor to the H B Smith 450 boiler, installed around 1900 that worked for over 100 years.

The cleanest boiler room that I ever saw was in I think Scranton, Pa. at the Social security building. The boiler room floor was painted with an epoxy finish then waxed and buffed, every pipe was color coded and every pump was painted red and all exposed bolt and nut was painted gold. I hated to work there. There were 3 guys "stationry engineers" that needed something to do..

PS; I drove all over Pennsylvania and always enjoyed a good "cup of coffee"

iced98lx

JUGHNE said:

With 2 exceptions these are within 30 miles of me.....if you are from SD then you know we might drive that far for coffee.

Well there ya go! I'm used to seeing hot water systems in the few schools that I've watched be remodeled into something else but obviously steam had its heyday (and is still having it if you are still servicing and installing) in the midwest.

With the crazy going on at my house I sometimes look for a good coffee place 100 or so miles away, especially in the spring/fall when it's good driving weather.

JUGHNE

The 1932 school to be demoed this summer is being replaced by a consolidated school district new building.
It will use Geo thermal for everything. It sounds like heat/cool loop with Heat pumps for each area.
The custodian will be so happy to be rid of boilers and have a "simple trouble-free system".......


The USPS building called for no heat. They have their own service people but they were unavailable.
It did have painted floors, pipes etc and written records in a binder of maintenance.

The only problem was the disconnect was off.....of course no one knew how that happened.
So I tested every safety on the boiler just to be on the safe side.
Included a few recommendations in the text of the bill.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Yeah as @Steamhead mentioned that is more of a process boiler that would be used at a dry cleaners, brewery or mfg plant

Servicewiz_3

Does that year built read 2011?

jumper

Suspect that Lattner is a "tubeless"?
Lattner atmospheric burner tubeless (kettle?) is immortal.
Especially when it is derated to low pressure.
If you see a discarded one grab it.
The custodian may miss her old steam heat when complicated geo misbehaves.

iced98lx

Servicewiz_3 said:

Does that year built read 2011?

Yes it does

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Yeah as @Steamhead mentioned that is more of a process boiler that would be used at a dry cleaners, brewery or mfg plant

This, as far as I can tell, is in the basement of a building now used as a bar, but brewery seems possible

omahafitter

That is beautiful. We work on a lot of 1& 2 pipe steam along with hydronic here in Omaha Ne. Getting ready to replace a froze and broke 211A that was not drained after a fire in the building. Due to the maintenance man leaving a unattended torch trying to thaw out frozen domestic water piping. 

bucksnort

My school district wanted new offices in a new building. They told us the boilers were old and needed to be replaced and said they couldn't be replaced. The taxpayers bought it and a 125 million referendum they got new boilers in a new building.

Steamhead

omahafitter said:

That is beautiful. We work on a lot of 1& 2 pipe steam along with hydronic here in Omaha Ne. Getting ready to replace a froze and broke 211A that was not drained after a fire in the building. Due to the maintenance man leaving a unattended torch trying to thaw out frozen domestic water piping. 

@omahafitter , have you thought of advertising your company on the site's Find a Contractor page? It has worked well for us. You'd be the only one in NE as well as surrounding states................