Dead Men Tales: The Problem Solver

HeatingHelp

The Problem Solver

In this episode, Dan Holohan tells the tale of finding treasure in an old box in a warehouse and how that moment changed his career bit by bit.

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EBEBRATT-Ed

Amazing how many jobs you still see with auto air vents and a steel compression tank. A lot of guys in the field don't know that it's wrong

DanHolohan

Yes, that’s always been a problem. 

Larry Weingarten

Hi Dan, What you say about how Ed Tidd communicated, rang true for me. I try to explain technical stuff as though I was talking with an intelligent fifth grader, with very little lingo. Not acronymious!

Yours, Larry

DanHolohan

And you do that so well, Larry. 

dopey27177

Dear Dan:

I still have nearly all of the problem solver issues you sent to all of us that were interested.
These writings helped me enormously when I had to fix problems in water heating systems.

If you remember in a housing project in Coney Island, Brooklyn New York a 3 building project 22 stories high with three 300 horse power HRT fire tube boilers where each summer more than 100 tubes per boiler had to be replaced and in one boiler in particular the all the tubes had to be replaced I was at a quandary and could not find the source of the air entering the system. I had to have you come on the job and help me find the problem.

When I explained the job to you, you said to me how do they get the water up the top floor of the building when the street pressure is only 50 psig. My answer to you was with pumps, you then asked me what kind of of pumps does the job. I then saw the problem the street pressure could only raise the water 115 feet.

I then realized air compressors had to increase the system pressure to 100 psig to raise the water to 230 feet to assure the heating system had water in it. On the roof of these buildings there were tanks open to the atmosphere to allow water to rise to the proper height. These tanks were 250 feet above the boilers.

Remember we went into the boiler room and on the mezzanine level were two huge water compression tanks that were part of the heating system and at the ceiling you saw pipes connected to the top of the tanks. You then said to me where are air compressors? We went on a hunt and found them in a small machine room. Due to all the tube leaks and boiler shut downs to plug the tubes the air compressors were nearly always running sending air into the system.

Your suggestion was to install a 12 inch Roairtrol in the 12 inch main after the boilers and an automatic vents to release the air before it went to the building heating systems.

It took a bit to sell the engineering department to issue that contract, and low and behold the tube replacements dropped to several each summer.

Do not forget the publication Steam with out Tears, that was a great one too.

Jake

DanHolohan

Great memories, Jake. Thanks!

ronbugg

Dan, are the Problem Solvers available online

DanHolohan

Not as far as I know, @ronbugg. I did that as work for hire and don't own them.