Balancing large building

Chapin Day

I live in a coop with 17 large apartments. We have a problem that some apartments get heat way before other apartments. As a result, we have over- and under-heating problems. We have steam heat.

Someone told me that this is due to poor master venting in the system. The basement has new vents that were put in when the boiler was installed 6 years ago. The person said to check the vents on the top floor apartments are as fast as possible. Well, I understand that the risers at the top of vents should have vents (and they do). But what exactly does one do about radiators which are at the top of the stack? Is the vent just the air vent on the radiator? Should it be as fast as possible? And what happens if a tenant turns off the radiator? Does this mean that the next floor down should also have as fast vent? I am confused.

Many thanks!!

Steamhead

Master Venting

is a method that baically splits the job into two parts:

1- Venting the steam mains (and risers if applicable)

2- Venting the radiators.

The main vents are probably too small. They need to be big enough to vent all the air in the mains in about a minute. So we need to know how much air is in the mains, and how much air a vent will vent.

You can find the above info in the workbook that comes with Dan's "Dead Men's Steam School" video- and the video itself walks you thru it step by step. Order it on the Books and More page of this site.

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MMC

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