coverting steam to hot water.

Brian Witte

I am thinking of changing our singal pipe steam system to hot water. The only reason that I want to do this is so we can install either a outdooor wood stove or a outdoor corn burner to cut down on our gas bill. Trust me I've done my reseach on the wood and corn. Woods a lot of back breaking work, that is I've looked into corn burners. We live in the middle of corn country here in Minnesota,I know I can cut my heating bill down. I am very much so leaning toword corn, But you need to have forced air in the house or hot water system for either one of those to work. Actualy I would like not to have a gas bill at all. We've had quotes to install a forced air duct system with a new furnance and central air. But very exspensive.And we really like the heat from the steam radiators. So I have thinking the hot water convertion would be a great idea. And we are in the middle of remodeling our 1st level so now would be a great time to change our system. The boiler we have now was installed in about 1995. It does work good.
Hay maybe there's away to hook up a wood are corn to the steam system that I do not know about That would be so great.

Steamhead

Check out

solid-fuel boilers from Axeman-Anderson, HS Tarm or Keystoker. I'm not sure if they will handle corn though...... and they do make steam models.

But the first thing I'd do is go over that steam system with a fine tooth comb. Even with a new boiler, there might still be work needed elsewhere in the system to increase its efficiency. We know of cases where fuel consumption was reduced by 60%- no, that's not a typo- by adding insulation, properly sized main vents etc.

There's no need to convert your system. It will be surprisingly efficient once it's working properly. And unlike hot-water, there's very little risk of a freeze-up during a power failure.

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Dennis Lee

Steam

Steamhead is right on about proper maintenance and good insulation/windows. Also I see you said you had a single pipe system which may indicate that the radiators may not be connected at the top. If this is the case you cannot convert to hot water with these anyway. Good luck in your venture.

Dean_7

Steam

From one homeowner to another. Listen to these guys. Then buy the books "We Got Steam Heat and "The Lost Art of Steam Heating". That's where I started. The information in these books will allow you to understand your system, how it works, how it is SUPPOSED to work, and what may be wrong with it. We initially considered converting to hot water when we replaced a 70 year old boiler and were not saving any money with the new boiler. These books enabled me to understand my steam system and why it was not working as originally designed which is why we were not saving any money. We restored our steam system using this information last year. The first month after having the work done our natural gas bill was 75% less then the previous month ($55 vs $220). And after tracking costs over a full year we are averaging 60% less in fuel costs. Steam systems can be extremely efficient IF they are working properly.