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Question on old heating system in an old church

MaxMercy
MaxMercy Member Posts: 518
in Oil Heating
I only got a few minutes glimpse of the basement of an older church (and my phone wasn't on me), but what I saw was odd.

The church has a huge oil fired hydronic boiler, and there are a lot of external pipes on the otherwise finished ceilings of the basement, but there were valves in the pipes everywhere. The pipes very all tightly and completely wrapped with insulation that looked like asbestos, so only the valve stems stuck out, but I'm pretty sure there were no hose bibs.

I didn't get a chance to see the radiators upstairs so I don't know if this was a converted steam system originally, but then, I don't recall seeing so many valves in either a steam or hydronic heating system.

Any ideas?

Comments

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,793
    Not unusual in commercial work to have an isolation valve at each end of an emitter.

    Could have been a retrofit, might have only had a couple stoves or floor furnace or something originally.
    GGross
  • MaxMercy
    MaxMercy Member Posts: 518
    When I go back next year (volunteer work) I'll take some pics.

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