Patented 1898

Dave Stroman

Hey heating guru's, what did I find? Looks like, and is piped like some sort of diverter tee. It is on a gravity hot water system. I want to add some raditors but not sure how it will affect the flow to the existing radiators.
And look at the poor boiler standing naked in the basement.

DanHolohan

That's the Eureka fitting, Dave.

Look in Hot Water Q&A on the navigation bar and then look in Gravity Hot Water Heating. Scroll down to a cutaway drawing of it. Nice find!

DanHolohan

And

it pays to wander off the Wall. ;-)

Steamhead

Dave, when replacing that boiler

use as small a circ as you can get away with, to mimic the gentle gravity flow so those Eureka tees will still work. Go to-

http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=125

for more on this. Yes, it really pays to wander off the Wall!

If you want to add radiators, it might be best to run a separate loop and leave the Eureka-tee loop alone.

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Dave Stroman

Thanks steamy, I will take your advice. Have you ever installed a new boiler without a pump? Just left the system gravity? I have run into a couple of them around here. Looks like they used a big Peerless with large 3" pipes.
Dave Stroman, Denver

Steamhead

We haven't done that

but there's a very small house down the street from me with a Burnham 406 installed that way. Seems to work fine, even though the tappings on the 406 are only 2-inch. But again, it's a really small house. If you size your circ just right, the system will behave almost exactly the way it did before, except that the rate of circulation will be constant regardless of water temperature.

I'm not that familiar with Peerless, do they have tappings larger than 2-inch?


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Robert O'Connor_6

The

problem with installing a pin type cast iron boiler on a gravity system without a pump is that the boiler never gets out of condense mode.

You really need to operate these boilers for only the briefest peiods at low temps.

Thats why a circ and bypasss lets you get the boiler up to temp and control your circulation.

Robert O'Connor

ME

Dave Stroman

Peerless is a common brand for steam boilers around here. Mostly 2" taps until you get into the larger ones. The last one I saw had 2" near boiler piping that was nicly welded.
Dave in Denver

Dave Stroman

I always thought that on a gravity system you did not need to worry much about condensation because the flow was so slow until the boiler started to come up above dew point. Or maybe it was because all these conversion burners were so over sized. We see only gas burners around here. I was on top of a tall brick chimney once when the old boiler was firing. I knocked some old mortar down the chimney and the draft was so strong the it blew it all right back in my face. I get asked a lot about how efficient these old things are. I guess about 50% but I really have no idea.
Dave in Denver

eric legacy

Go pinless




Ureaka!

Tie it in primary secondary with only 1 circ. and 1 flo-check on the boiler loop. make your main system one big loop. size the circ for a 30F delta across boiler. I wont reccomend a reset control because your pickup time is too long. A tripelaquastat L8124A will work great.Set high to 180 and low at 110 with a 25 diff. The boiler will maintain temp all summer, 85 to 110 (110-25=85)this will prevent condensate from forming when relative humidity is high and nights are cool.(buderus boilers have little off cycle losses)It will also prevent condensate from forming during winter op. because pump will cycle off if boiler temp drops below 110F on a call for heat. With this set-up you will get a moderate amount of comfort and fuel savings. Vs. large savings and no comfort or lots of comfort and no savings. Do a fresh heat loss calc. and upsize the boiler 25%over actual heat loss (gross output+ 25%) due to your excessive piping and pick-up loss. Or even better Insulate the piping and use net IBR. (IBR=a 15% derate from gross output Based on a fin tube system.)

If any one would like to comment on this set up , please do Dan H., are you out there?...........

Dave Stroman

I have used the aquastat idea before to keep the boiler above condensate temp. We do not have a high humidity problem in this part of the US. Powder dry. Not sure what you mean p/s with one pump. Just leave the existing loop gravity and use the pump on the boiler loop. ME and I have talked about doing this before but I have not tried it yet. Do you work for Buderus? Use lots of them.
Dave in Denver

eric legacy

Yes I do work for Buderus.

Whats your fax # Ill shoot you a drawing.

Dave Stroman

My fax number is 303 369 9737. Love to see a drawing.

Dave in Denver

Mark Eatherton1

Here,,,

Now you'll know what the other person on the phone looks like...


ME

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