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Splitting a Church Steam System

Steamhead
Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
edited December 2018 in Strictly Steam
This is the North Baltimore Mennonite Church, originally Roland Park Methodist.

The building was built in two sections- first the sanctuary, then the fellowship hall and nursery. Originally the system used indirect radiators, but these were replaced with free-standing radiators as they failed. Our first job here, several years ago, was to upgrade the main vents.

It appeared from the piping that there might have been two boilers originally, but what we found was a Burnham V-907 with the usual leaky welded header. The device in the rear is a heat exchanger for a disused hot-water loop:






The church wanted to switch to gas, so we ran a 2-inch gas line last year and waited and waited for BGE to install a larger gas service and meter.

Well, the Burnham started leaking. When considering a replacement, they said they'd love to be able to separate the two parts of the building to avoid heating the sanctuary when it wasn't needed. Sooooooooo.....................
All Steamed Up, Inc.
Towson, MD, USA
Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
Oil & Gas Burner Service
Consulting

Comments

  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    edited December 2018
    We decided to install two separate Weil-McLain boilers- a 4-80 for the hall and an SGO-6 for the sanctuary, both with Carlin gas burners.

    Here are some construction pics. The church got a work crew to dismantle the old boiler (after we'd disconnected everything) and pour two new concrete pads. Note the 6-inch header up in the ceiling where all the mains tied in. Whoever installed the Burnham used a concentric reducer on the steam piping, and cut off the drip line, which made for about 1-1/2" of water standing in there- and it was off-pitch to boot. Believe it or not, it didn't bang. We removed the sanctuary half of that header- miraculously, we found a 6x1-1/4" threaded reducing 90 to hook up a drip. We also got rid of a couple other water pockets we found.














    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    edited December 2018
    All done!

    The last pic is a pair of "fan center relays" that power the digital thermostats with 24 volts and switch the 24-volt thermostat contacts on the boiler primaries.

    And we found a couple old whiskey bottles, posing them proudly on the emergency switches.

    I still can't seem to get these vertical pics to display properly......










    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
    ethicalpaulCanucker
  • brandonf
    brandonf Member Posts: 205
    Nice work 👍
    Homeowner, Entrepreneur, Mechanic, Electrician,

    "The toes you step on today are connected to the butt you'll have to kiss tomorrow". ---Vincent "Buddy" Cianci
  • EzzyT
    EzzyT Member Posts: 1,294
    Beautiful work as always Frank and Gordo.
    E-Travis Mechanical LLC
    Etravismechanical@gmail.com
    201-887-8856
  • Phil53
    Phil53 Member Posts: 73
    Nice touch with the whiskey bottles. A Tribute to the dead men that decided to celebrate in the boiler room. Or maybe the clergy seeking to relax after dealing with the church politics of the congregation.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,455
    HAHA Nice job. Drinking whiskey in the church!!
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    Seems our ancestors weren't the squeaky-clean people we were told they were......... >:)
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
    1Matthias
  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
    Looks great, nice work as always!
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,476
    @EBEBRATT-Ed Remember the scene in Porky's where the town elders were watching skin flicks in the basement of town hall?

    I went to a catholic technical high school in the early 60's, the priests and brothers lived on the 5th floor. i remember a large liquor distributor truck would pull up a couple of times a year and unload case after case of liquor and wine which any student in the area would carry into the elevator and then into the provisions locker up on the 5th floor.

    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    BobC said:

    @EBEBRATT-Ed Remember the scene in Porky's where the town elders were watching skin flicks in the basement of town hall?

    :D:D:D
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • Gordo
    Gordo Member Posts: 856
    @Erin Holohan Haskell : I humbly ask, if it is possible, for you to rotate and repost the sideways pictures in this thread?

    My thanks for your consideration in this matter!
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    "Reducing our country's energy consumption, one system at a time"
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Baltimore, MD (USA) and consulting anywhere.
    https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/all-steamed-up-inc
  • Double D
    Double D Member Posts: 442







    CTOilHeatGordoIronman
  • Erin Holohan Haskell
    Erin Holohan Haskell Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 2,276
    Thanks, @Double D!
    President
    HeatingHelp.com
    Gordo
  • aceboiler
    aceboiler Member Posts: 14
    In that last picture they have a pressure reducing valve before the 101 feeder. I guess it works the same as a hot water system just a different application?
    I have never seen that done before?
    I guess it would help if it was overfeeding?
    Thanks for the pictures.
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,796
    Might have been an attempt to keep the boiler from over-filling.
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • Very nice!
    New England SteamWorks
    Service, Installation, & Restoration of Steam Heating Systems
    newenglandsteamworks.com