Old boiler

Mike Norgan_3

Has anyone every heard of a Spencer Heater # 275 W.
Just curious on what the Btu rating would be. I will try to post pictures at a later date.

Mike Norgan

Steamhead

I love those old Spencers

Here's the image from the 1923 Spencer catalog (thanks Dan, for sending me copies). The "Sectional Hot Water Heater #27-5-W", having a grate 27 inches wide and five sections, is rated 2100 square feet EDR. This works out to a net rating of 315,000 BTU/hour assuming each square foot emits 150 BTU, which would occur with a boiler water temperature of 180 degrees.

Note that old boilers were often oversized so the owner or janitor would not have to shovel coal as often. The Spencer magazine-feed setup was one solution to this- coal was shoveled into the center door along the top, and fed down onto the grates as fast as it was burned. Nevertheless, I'd run a heat-loss on the building as well as count up the radiation, to be sure you know how much heat is needed and what water temperature will provide it.

The Spencer Sectional boilers had a two-level flue design (see the second image). Hot flue gases rose from the back of the firebox to the first flueway. They then passed to the front of the boiler, rose again, and passed to the rear of the boiler and out the smoke pipe. This appears to be a more efficient setup than the usual 1920s sectional boiler. If the boiler appears to be in good shape, you might be able to get decent efficiency out of it using a properly sized flame-retention burner, preferably with an inlet air damper to keep cold air from drafting thru it. Placing bricks or spirals in the flueways to slow the hot gases will help too.

Can't wait to see your pics!

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Mike Norgan_3

Steamhead

Thanks for those pictures. The house was built in 1886, So I'm thinking it isn't insulated very well. The house is about 4400 sq ft. I have added up all the radiation and I come up with about 840sq ft. I'm not sure what plain 1-1/4 is rated at but I will find out. I will also clock the meter today to find out the Btu's. I wish I would have had my camera yesterday, This dead man that installed this system used in some spots of the house just plain 1-1/4 black pipe as radiation. Both sun rooms had 100' and the third floor had 117', It was piped in a way that the third floor looked like a big towel warmer, It was so cool looking.

Steamhead

Those pipe lengths

work out to 199.71 square feet, since each lineal foot of 1-1/4" black pipe has .63 square feet of surface. But that's for straight pipe. If the pipes were assembled into coils, using tees or headers and multiple rows of pipe, the figures are different.

But that still leaves you with 1240 square feet EDR, assuming the figures are correct. It doesn't explain that 2100-square-foot Spencer............ let's see some photos of your boiler and pipe radiation.

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

Coil Radiators

(Believe that's what those mazes are called)

In the wrong place to check my old Starbuck books, but recall that they were extremely efficient heat sources--but called "expensive" even way back. They were pretty common in factories and rooms of homes where they wanted lots of heat but had little floor space to spare.

Believe that they actually subtracted EDR from their calculations (20% sticks in my head) when using coils instead of rads. That may well account for some of your "missing" radiation by the way as you would add about 20% to get radiator equivalent.

Neighbor removed one from his house (with a sledgehammer)! He even knew I liked old rads but didn't tell me. I would have done it right for free just to get those awesome "headers"! Nearly broke my heart to see them shattered in his trash pile.

Mike Norgan_3

Steamhead

The pictures that you posted, It's the same boiler. The 1-1/4 black was one loop, no headers. I will try to get back to that old house and get some pictures. I'm just bidding on the project right now. I'm thinking two boilers on this change out with constant flow and outdoor reset.

Mike Norgan

Steamhead

Mike & Swampy

I was going by what I found in Dan's little "Pocketful of Heating Problems" book. It has figures for plain pipe as well as coils.

Mike, if you don't already have it, get "Pocketful" as well as "E.D.R.". These will cover 95% of what we find out there, and you can come to the Wall for the other 5%.

Swampy, sounds like your neighbor needs a "check-up from the neck up"! What an incredible waste!

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