Pneumatic Thermostat System

michaelmiracle

Hi,

I am in charge of an old school in Denver. We have a hydronic boiler heating system that is thermostatically controlled by a pneumatic system that was installed in 1964. It uses Univents with air dampers and is controlled by the pneumatic system. Also fans controlled by the pneumatics. All these elements don't work anymore, but did as recently as 11 years ago.

About 10 years ago a new boiler was installed and moved into the boiler room with the steam boiler (which serves the older wing of the building . The compressor was moved also. I suspect anything that went with the compressor was lost. Currently the compressor has no dryer, pressure reducing valve, or oil remover. It runs at a high pressure and trips the breaker regularly because it runs so often and overheats.

I am wanting to resurrect this system back to working order but I have no experience with pneumatic systems. I've done some reading and looked at old textbooks and the Johnson Control book that is on this sight.

I still don't know what I need as far as an FRL system. They are not easily found online. Some are for air tools and add oil into the system rather than take it out. There is a refrigerator/dryer on Harbor Freight but it's $600 and very large. I don't know that these items are tailored for thermostatic systems.

Any help on how to educate myself or websites to look for that sell items for these systems would be appreciated.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Honeywell Pneumatic.pdf

National Energy Controls in PA. (you can google them) is a source for all things pneumatic.

Pneumatic systems are good but fewer and fewer know how to work on them. They are fairly simple.

If the system isn't working, I would think it would overheat like crazy. Most heating valves go wide open on loss of air pressure. I attached a Honeywell Pneumatic catalog.

If your system is Johnson all the parts are basically interchangeable (not an exact fit but will work) Johnson, Honeywell, Powers, Barber Coleman, Robert Shaw

The catalog attached has a lot of good information

bburd

If the instrument air compressor has been running without proper pressure regulation or a filter/dryer, the rest of the system may have been severely damaged and require extensive repairs.