Adding on to a steam system

Steamhead (in transit)

just run new risers to new radiators. Most mains have some extra capacity. To check, get a copy of Dan's "The Lost Art of Steam Heating" and refer to the tables in chapter 7.

You'll want to do a heat-loss calculation on the rooms to determine what size rads are needed.

And of course the boiler must have enough capacity, but again most do.

To locate someone who can do this for you, go to the Find a Professional page of this site.

matt2402

Adding on to a steam system

We have a steam heating system that is working well in our house. However, there are two rooms upstairs that have no radiators. We don't know why there are no radiators in these rooms...it's not an addition and there are no signs of radiators once being there (holes in the floor...etc). What is our best option for putting heat in these rooms? Should we have someone find and install new radiators? Should we put electric baseboards in? One of our contractors talked about a way to put a forced hot water system onto our steam system. Not exactly sure how this would work...so we'd love to hear from some experts.

Thanks!
Matt

michael_15

Other options

I added a FHW zone to my steam boiler. You can read about it here.

I initially wanted to just expand the steam system, but given the logistics/shape of the house (no basement), it would have been extremely difficult to get any steam pipes to the right location.

-Michael

matt2402

Thanks Michael,

This is the configuration that I've heard about. Thanks for the information...very helpful!

Dave_23

Careful...

Just make sure your FHW zone isn't subjected to freezing temperatures.