Uneven heating

steamheathelp

Hello experts,
Hoping someone might be able to help here. It would seem that for as long as we've owned our house, heating has been uneven. Half the house sees a lot of sun, and is generally warm throughout the day, radiators are generally warm. The other half is cooler and radiators have a harder time warming up. They will warm up during longer heating cycles.

The boiler has two mains, one is vented, one is not. The main vent was recently replaced with a Gorton #2.

I've attached some pictures of the boiler and a diagram of the piping and lengths of pipe. Circled joints off the main rise to radiators.

Happy to answer any questions.
Thanks!

ethicalpaul

You didn't tell us which main is vented--the hot side one or the cold side one?

But anyway, you will want to consider venting the warm side slower than the cold side, via main venting and via radiator venting, in order to let the steam get to the cold side faster.

You will want to vent both sides, though, in my opinion.

bburd

It's hard to tell from the photo, but that "main vent" looks like a straight shank radiator vent, which would have much less capacity than a main vent. And both mains should be vented.

steamheathelp

Thanks for the replies. A couple clarifying comments:
1. The vent pic is old, currently has a new Gorton #2. I indicated the vent location on the diagram.
2. The hot and cold reference is to the sides of the house rather than one of the mains colder than the other. If you were to draw a horizontal line across the diagram that split the house, the top would represent the cold half of the house, the bottom would represent the warm half.

ethicalpaul

Oh I see, each main has a warm side and a cool side. Yeah then get the main venting on both of them and then balance each room with a radiator vent of the size that makes it comfortable.

If it were me I'd buy Maid O Mist or Gorton #4's for the warm rooms and maybe #6's for the cold rooms with #5 for the ones that are reasonable temperatures. But then after that you'll have to do adjustments one room at a time until things are where you are comfortable.

steamheathelp

Thank you, I'll give that a shot and report back!

mattmia2

Your problem is more essentially no main venting. The radiators near the boiler on both mains heat first because the mains have to vent through the radiators. Add much larger ventscwhere the current vent is and add large vents on the other main where it returns to the boiler.

That header isnt quite right either but the problems it will cause are a bit slower heating in general and the left side taking longer to heat than the right and it probably isn't a dramatic difference.

gfrbrookline

Your main vent appears to be in the completely wrong place although it is hard to read your pics. Can you post a few pic of the boiler from the other side where the chairs are?

gfrbrookline

https://us.v-cdn.net/5021738/uploads/editor/4y/4a2gxsv4pbkz.jpg
Is this pic where it drops down the the Hartford loop? If so where of your mains tie in to each other at the ends?

gfrbrookline

https://us.v-cdn.net/5021738/uploads/editor/ef/yrbd802b06gc.jpg


This image make me think there is a return that is not tied into the boiler unless there are further views that can be posted. It looks like you have two mains heading off the boiler but only one return.