Air Venting Question in Steam Hydronic Conversion

Unknown

Mark, you need to take the cover off the radatior and see there are small plug where u install air vent if it was to be hot water radatior.... Whole system that way? What wrong with the present system?

Mark_35

Air Venting Question - Steam/Hydronic Conversion

If this two pipe steam fin tube convector were converted to hydronic could I ever vent all the air out of the fin tube. I would drill and tap an air vent into the trap cover. I would remove the trap insert and leave the 1/4" trap orifice to regulate the water flow - like a balancing valve. Once operating I would get about 1 gpm through the trap which would be good and could probably force more with street pressure. There are two and three parallel 1/2" tubes in the fin tube so the velocity through the fin tube might be pretty slow.

Could I ever get the air out?

The fin tube is about 4" above the trap in the picture. There is no way to put a vent in the fin tube header.

The system works great on steam, but I can't seem to stop thinking about a conversion.

MJB

Mark_35

no air vent location

I did. There is no plug on top , just a solid cast iron header.

> Mark, you need to take the cover off the

> radatior and see there are small plug where u

> install air vent if it was to be hot water

> radatior.... Whole system that way? What wrong

> with the present system?

Mark_35

Unit built in to wall

RJB

The units are really built in. I would have to destroy the wall to get access to top of the the fin tube. I can remove the top grill and look down at the top if the fin tube.

Nothing wrong with the present system. Old boiler was taken out - way too big - and am planning for new boiler. Just looking for that last Btu of energy savings.

Steamhead (in transit)

Keep things simple

keep the steam, or Vapor in your case.

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Christian Egli_2

This is nothing a sledge hammer can't fix, aim it at the head

What a brilliant question

This is yet another grave complexity to think of before the much overrated conversion. It is great you figured it out before you had to demolish your built-in walls. Converting a whole house around the heating system is not easy.

Thanks for bringing it up here on the wall.

As far as squeezing every bit of efficiency, here are a few ideas you surely already thought of: 1) look into each of your traps, clean the seats and replace the elements or the whole trap. It is not difficult to do and it is good. 2) Identify clearly where the air gets out of the system return (the air eliminator ?) and make sure there is a good open hole to breathe. 3) Install a thermostatic valve on the radiators in the rooms you don't mind keeping colder. 4) Get a good handle on operating pressure. 5) Cleaning out the air passages in the convector assembly often leads to nice surprises. 6) Mains should be insulated.

All these options are usually all the things promised during a conversion to water; note how steam delivers them with great ease and without need for electric pumps and electric controls. Not that pumps are expensive to run and maintain, but that this cost should not be swept under the rug either. And in this trade you would loose the greater delivery efficiency steam has in dumping heat into your rooms (this, like with boilers, is temperature gap related, and the steam system has the edge over low temperature water. This is the key secret to the efficiency of district heating)

The other promise of low temperature boiler mode will not be achieved unless you greatly increase radiation surface such as installing floor heat. Then, there is really no point worrying about your current walls, worry about your whole home.

It seems you are getting a new boiler, so that will take care of any scale and dirt build up that is spoiling boiler efficiency.

Happy steaming