Help with steam system only one zone in a big house

curtis watkins

Hi, I am a new steam heat homeowner with no previous knowledge or experience with steam heat. I have one thermostat in the living room. The furnace heats up and steam will start its journey but the living room gets to the thermostats setting temperature before the rest of the radiators are hot and they never do get hot unless i crank the thermostat way up and then that room is roasting and the rest of the house gets warm... any ideas on ways to deal with this problem that wont have me going for a 2nd mortgage? thanks in advance for any help curtis

Big Ed

Venting

Most likely your system needs work on it's venting. But let's start with which type of system you have. Do the radiators have one pipe going to them or two ?

curtis watkins

hi big ed thanks for the reply the radiators have one pipe in and one pipe out

John@Reliable_2

Curtis it's all in the venting..........

with the proper set-up you can get ALL the rooms the same temp.@the same time.I would try to find someone in your area who knows steam. You would want them to check out system main vents,rad.vents,lwco and pressuretrol. Any good steam man could get the system close and show you how to fine tune it. I say this because steam is a "hands on type system for the homeowner. With a little of your time you can lower your fuel bills and increase your comfort. Hope this helps John@Reliable

Big Ed

Two pipe system

You have a two pipe system... Do all your radiators have a air vent on them ? What is on the piping to the radiators ? Please describe.....

Steamhead

An old 2-pipe system in a house

might be a Vapor system.

While every steam main needs to be vented so steam will fill it in about a minute, Vapor systems often used radiator traps connected between the end of the steam main and the dry (above the waterline) return for this. The trap would route the air into the dry return, and the air would leave the system thru a vent near the boiler.

If those end-of-main traps or the air vent on the dry return are not working properly, you'll get lousy performance.

If you post some pictures of your system, including any strange-looking devices in the piping near the boiler, we can identify it.



To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

curtis watkins

hi ed, on the piping to the radiators is a valve with a round knob to close and open it. on the other side of all the radiators is a round chrome coated venting valve..about 3 inches in diameter sorry about the delay in responding but i am doing this on breaks from work...curtis

curtis watkins

thanks steamhead i dont have scanning capacity to send you any photos of my system sorry curtis

curtis watkins

thanks john now the challenge is finding a good steam guy in my area... i checked out the ones on this website and the ones that specialize in steam are way far away in baltimore md. i am in putnam county ny about 65 miles north of the city thanks for your help curtis