Removing Radiators

John_39

I am in the process of renovating a duplex built in 1923. The upstairs and downstairs units are each about 2000 SF. The building is heated by a single hot water system. I am planning to live in the downstairs unit, and keep the radiators in place. I have installed a central HVAC system upstairs for the rental unit. Here in Memphis, most tenants prefer cantral heat & air. I also needed to separate the utilities for the two units.

I am aware that the boiler will now be oversized, but I imagine that this will only hurt the efficiency and wear of the system. I have read that the pipes for the upstairs radiators should be capped off at the T's, rather than at the radiators themselves.

Is there anything else that I should be aware of as I attempt this conversion?

Justin Gavin

BIG HOUSE

Depending how it is piped and if it is gravity or force fed with a circulator I would try to valve off in the boiler room and keep the radiators in the unit that you are renting. It will keep the resale value if you ever sell it to someone who wants to renovate it into a single family home down the road that way if they want to disable the central air upstairs you can. Also if the Furnace goes down you can give them heat in a pinch.

As far as your boiler I would 1 install a buffer tank to stop the boiler from short cycling (ramping up hitting temperature and shutting off in short bursts...hurts the boielr and is unefficient). This is pretty cheap to do but Ideally you should add another boiler to the system a smaller unit (have a heat loss done or do one or email me and i will tell you how to do one) and you would have a multiple boiler system. A small boiler would be pretty inexpensive add and will pay for itself in the first couple of years.

Good Luck