Steam baseboards , Why No traps

John Lasky

good morning ,

again many thanks for the help.

most of my problems are fixed with my system (there were many)

the last thing thats bugging me is my cycle time being very short!! I lose preasure fast from cutout at 2psi to cut in at 1/2 psi.

the problem is I have 2 pipe cast baseboards downstais (60'total) these are burnham baseray.

these baseboards are vented but there are no traps or motorized valves at the output.

when I get up 2psi my burner cuts out and in a very short time my preasuere drops in the baseboard as there is nothing stopping the steam. my vents will be hot and closed but steams just keeps moving as ther is nothing stopping it.


Should I have traps on these? or do I have to live with the short cycle time due to the nature of the baseboard part of the system,

this may sound stupid but I could install a time delay for cut in.

my cycle time right now is as short as 2 mins 2PSI - 1/2 PSI.

again its the baseboard ,

Nothing to stop flow when steam arrives. these cast basebaords once hot stay hot for quite awhile unlike the copper and finned baseboards (steam) that my father has in his house.

all my pipes are insulated, new preasuretrol new guage all new vents.

many thanks

and Happy holidays

"John"

John Lasky

I found the answer

ok ,

I called burnham and talked to Ron and he was a big help.

Problem is Im way over fired , Ill have to do a calc (now that I know how.

Rons (at Burnham) house is is only a bit larger than mine and hes heating it with a unit thats 85,000 BTU mine is 165,00 yikes no wonder my bills are up there.

looks like a new boiler may be worth it Burnham did say I could possibly change the orifice after I do the calc as that will help.

Im plenty warm so its just a case of figuring out why my bills are so high now I know!

Thanks again.
have a great holiday season.

"John"

Bill Nye_2

John

Sorry I did not respond to e-mail. I have been having server problems.

On the baseboard rad returns, do they tie in below the water line of your wet return? Do you have a Hartford loop ?

Do you know your connected load ? The EDR of the standing iron? I mean the radiators. This is what determines boiler size, not really the heat loss of the house.

Count up your radiators and count the sections and number of tubes, then we can go from there.

John Lasky

thanks Bill,

Thanks for the reply,

bottom line is

1) Ive gotten a very good education thanks to this site and all of you.

2) I spoke to the training manager at burnham (Ron) and he was a big help too.

3) Ron at Burnham asked the same as you are , is my return below the water line and going into a hartford loop.

answer is yes, ron advised traps are not needed.

My problem seems to be this boiler is way over sized!!

my radiation calc came out to 75,000 btu 312 square feet of baseboard/rads. 1900 square foot house

the output on my smith boiler is 130,000 (Yikes) this boiler is 5 years old ,

the boiler in the house when inspected for sale had a hole in it!

so I made a deal with the owners that they purchase a new boiler and I would install rather than changing the price of the house.

the installing I could do just fine but I knew nothing of sizing and niether did the owners or who ever they called to purchase the boiler as they sized it based on the old unit that was also 130,000.

the house is plenty warm enough but the cycle time is very short at least right now untill it gets real cold.

im going to check with Smith to see If I can derate my burner (ill change orifice) I may have to add some radiation somewhere ,maybe in the cellar as there is no heat down there except the stack heat.

Bummer !! .

any thoughts suggestions or condolences will be welcome ,

Eh Its only money DURN!!!!!

many thanks "John"

have a great holiday season!!

I just got off the phone with hb smith and looks like I can de rate my burner and get close as the net value of the boiler is less than I thought.

"John"