Unorthodox steam piping at an Orthodox Church

AndythePlumber

Got a boiler in the basement of this church. I made an earlier post about it but my questions were weak and need rephrasing. The sanctuary and second floor of the structure are all one pipe radiators with air vents on the side. The basement is all heavy fin tube baseboard with steam traps on the outlets. What is this piping called. I’ve only ever seen one pipe or two pipe buildings. This is a hybrid. All the fin tube is close to the water line and I would say certainly below the original boilers water line. So why the traps on them?

Jamie Hall

Hybrid systems do exist. So long as those baseboards are vented somewhere, they should work fine — probably do.

Whether or not they were below the original water line is an interesting question. They may not have been — or there may have been a condensate receiver at floor level (or below!) at one time. Detective work is in order here…

AndythePlumber

thank you Jamie. You’re basically my idol. 😂There is a boiler feel pump next to the boiler. I was hoping to omit that. And the zone valves on the supply. What information can I get you?

Jamie Hall

That boiler feed pump is what is determining the water level in the wet returns — and you have to be low with that to clear the traps on those low hanging radiators. Sorry about that… the good news is that they are vented through that tank as well.

I don't usually like boiler feed pumps, but sometimes they are needed, and I expect this is one of those times. So long as they are wired up as boiler feed (with the pump controlled by the boiler!) they're OK, just one other thing to maintain.

The zone valves can be a bit pesky. They have been known to cause odd hammer problems. Make sure that any condensate that may form in the mains — on either side of the valve, open or closed! — can drain to somewhere. Like that handy boiler feed pump!

AndythePlumber

Wow! Very insightful Jamie. Thank you. Fine! They can keep their pump, I’m getting them a new one though. It currently is wired to the lwco and is set up as a boiler feed pump. The new one of course will follow suit. I measured up edr and came up with 210k in the sanctuary/2nd floor area. That isn’t counting anything in the basement. I don’t know what the basement load is yet, but it will be nowhere near the currently installed 685kbtu!

Mad Dog_2

Is that Greek or Russian Orthodox? Mad Dog

Long Beach Ed

A mechanical low water cut off switch is not the correct switch for a boiler feed pump. The contacts are not designed for the repeated operation a feed pump requires. Make sure you are using the proper switch.

AndythePlumber

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1824775#Comment_1824775

honestly I don’t know. I just thought it made for a catchy title😆