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steam radiators

kevin_17
kevin_17 Member Posts: 1
in THE MAIN WALL
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO FIGURE WHAT SIZE FREE STANDING CAST IRON RADIATOR I WOULD NEED FOR A 12BY 12 ROOM
EX I KNOW I HAVE TO TAKE SQUARE AREA OF ROOM AND THEN MULTIPLY BY SOME # THEN DIVIDE BY AN OTHER IN ORDER TO GET THE SQUARE FEET -EDR SO I CAN THE FIGURE THE SIZE OF THE RADIATOR . ALSO WHAT ARE THE DRAW BACKS OF USING COPPER PIPE ON A STEAM HEADER IN A ONE FAMILY HOUSE.

THANKS KEVIN

Comments

  • Thad English
    Thad English Member Posts: 152
    copper and steam

    Copper is NEVER a good idea to use on the supply side of a steam boiler. The near constant expansion and contraction will weaken the joints on the copper and the pipe will fail. Always use black steel.

    You need more info than just the square footage of the room to properly size that radiator. How are the walls insulated? How many windows of what size and on what walls are they located? and a host of other questions come into play, too. Heat-Loss software is available on this site and that will help you make the proper calculations. Good luck.
  • Brad White_5
    Brad White_5 Member Posts: 12
    Thad is correct

    on both counts.

    The room you describe could have a heat loss of anywhere between 15 and 60 or more BTU's per square foot.

    When the "per square foot" term is used, it is incidental, a check figure, not a calculation tool. To expand on Thad's point of heat loss, it is not only the area of surfaces and insulation but the amount of glass and density of framing, how leaky is the room from an infiltration standpoint. How many walls are exposed, only one, three or all four if a belvedere? You can see the factors in play here.

    Your heat loss by the comparative criteria could be 2,160 to 8,640 BTU's per hour. Quite a range.

    Bottom line for steam is you take your calculated BTU per Hour heat loss (with safety factor; do you feel lucky? Do ya, punk? :^) ) and divide by 240 to determine square feet of radiator you need.

    240 represents the BTU emmission from a square foot of radiation with 2 psig steam (215 F) in a 70 F room, by the way. The other perhaps more archaic term instead of square feet is "EDR" or "equivalent direct radiation" you may see when it is time to buy.
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