steam to hot water conversion

Christian Egli_2

Nothing but real live problems.

Design, leaks, dirt, air, no flow, no heat, no promised efficiency gain, flue deterioration, and I'm forgetting a whole bunch of other stuff that will go wrong. Make sure everyone including the owners understands this, they go on to live with the building, not just the calculations like everyone else does.

Search the topic here on the wall, you'll see.

Don't pass up the opportunity to restore this beautiful steam system to its top performing efficiency by simply fixing traps. New boiler and new return mains if needed. You'll be a genius this way.

smc

steam to hot water conversion

I am looking for input on a conversion job. The boiler is a little over 1,000,000 btu input. I think it was origanally a vapor system with 3/4" returns going to the 2nd and 3rd floor radiators. The drawings call for some increase in size of the basement returns. Does anyone see potential problems with pipe sizing that may cause heating problems. The people asking for the estimate tell me they have done the calculations and it will work. Maybee should just put a clause in propsal "not responsible for desighn". thanks

Steamhead (in transit)

Check this out-

a discussion of what can go wrong with this type of conversion:

http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=22

And this quote is scary: "The people asking for the estimate tell me they have done the calculations and it will work". This tells me they'll hold you responsible if anything goes wrong, whether it's their faulty design or not. And they'll probably never admit their design is faulty. Do you really want to be in this position?

If they've been reading about condensing boilers, they probably didn't know that since hot-water radiation emits fewer BTUs than steam, a conversion will run at temperatures higher than those which allow the boiler to condense. So a condenser won't run at its highest efficiency much of the time.

Vapor systems were the Cadillac of heating in their day, and are still some of the best out there. You've come to the right place to ask your questions.

I wouldn't convert it. Fixing whatever is wrong is much more cost-effective.

"Steamhead"



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