Can a new steam system be installed in a new residential house?

The radiators are hotter, but you do not go from a room temperature radiator to a 212F radiator within a minute. Maybe 30-40 minutes of run time. That radiator then takes time to cool down. That all depends on how long the system has to run to produce the needed heat. The entire radiator rarely heats, unlike a hot water system.

I'm using an outdoor reset with my steam system which results in very little if any overshoot, but you are correct, it's much more important in a drafty house. That's a very good point! I live in a very old drafty house, so I often forget that.

But, if it's not important in a modern house, I guess we might as well just go with forced air, no? That also alleviates the problem of trying to find people who can work on the system, which is just about as bad with hot water as it is with steam these days. At least it seems like it is.

I know this to be true if the returns are undersized or non-existent from my own experiences in older houses etc, but I was under the impression that a properly designed and implemented system wouldn't have any effect at all in regards to draftiness?

I can agree with that.

But doesn't hot water require the same level of skill as well?

Unless there is a supply and a return in every room forced air is going to work by pressurizing parts of the house with supplies and depressurizing where the returns are in order to create air flow. But air goes where it wants to go, not where you want it to go. If you're pressurizing and depressurizing the house you're going to increase air infiltration.

I always loved my inlaws house in the winter because the floors and walls were warm and the steam heat kept them that way.

It requires a tank and pump I think for additional complexity

And almost no one in the world will know how to service it or how it works

I’d prefer one pipe for those reasons

@Eastman : "Why wouldn't this be the best system?"

All right, let's think a bit about what the "billionaire's HVAC" system looks like.

Each room is independently controlled. In each room there are sensors for:

• Temperature, and some way of heating and cooling and keeping the temperature within a fraction of a degree of the set point;
• Humidity, and some way of adjusting the humidity to keep it within a couple of points of the set point;
• Indoor air quality, and some way of providing fresh air if CO2 or VOC's exceed a comfortable level

Of course the house is air-tight and well-insulated so that it is free from drafts and soundproof.

The system is as unobtrusive as possible, quiet, draft-free and visually unobtrusive.

All of those functions except for heat require that you move air around. There are different ways of doing it, but you're probably going to have ductwork.

I would argue that the heating system that best meets these goals is heating elements embedded in the floor, walls or ceiling. Probably this would be tubing containing hot water, but there are other ways of doing it. For such a system the temperatures would have to be kept low, so I don't see a role for steam in such a system.

@Eastman : "Also, the temperature of the emitter has a dramatic effect on the nature of the spectrum of thermal energy radiated."

If you have a tight, well-insulated house that stops being important. What you want is heat so even you can't even tell if it's on or not.

@hot_rod : "Accomplished with 110° supply water generated at 97° efficiency or 3 COP :)"

That always feels good to me. Warms my heart, warms me from the inside out.

Well in this thread we are building a new house, so that should be no problem.

@ethicalpaul

That's true. If you were starting fresh the EDR would hopefully be correct. But that's still kinda an amorphous target. With a 2 pipe system, I would think it would be a lot easier to implement dynamic EDR with TRVs. And then you could have a lot more fun sizing the boiler, or implementing staged firing, etc.

We need Smart TRVs for one pipe. The farthest radiator vent shouldn't open up until there's proof of steam at the end of the main, and then each radiator should open in sequence running towards the boiler. And then repeat the process each cycle.

this reminds me, i need to go start up the humidifier before it gets dark out.

I have the same issue with my recently installed Air to Air hp. Blowing luke warm air is not so comfortable to me, even with stat at 70°

The minute the back up gas kicks on, when ambient drops below 40 I suddenly feel warmer again.

I suppose everyone has their own definition of "comfort" IAQ, humidity control all enter into the question.

I suppose once the radiators cool below skin temperature the effect is the same as a cool radiant floor? Or radiators that don't run often in that tight, well insulated house?

If I have a tight well insulated home do I need to drive water through a phase change at steam temperatures to maintain 70°F? Seems like that is going to cost more of the fuel dollars up the flue?

@hot_rod

Naturally everyone weighs the various intangibles differently. The intangibles that drive some discerning clients to floor radiant, might also drive a smaller set of discerning clients to steam.

Here's a question to mull:

Which would you rather have: a poorly done forced air system, a poorly done hot water system, or a poorly done steam system? Why?

It's like one of those "who would you rather fight" questions.

It's in the eye, or the butt of the beholder😙

I see a sunset date on the qualified residential steam designers/ installers. The small numbers tend to hang around here, luckily.

George at Harry Cooper Supply in Missouri would do heat cool loads and duct design for residential jobs. He had a drawer full of old cardboard slide rules :) did everything long hand!

But I wonder how many of his designs got purchased and installed as designed. The low bidder, or know it all contractors, tend to value engineer HVAC jobs

But then you have to warm your mittens on the floor:)

I agree though in floor is nice. We have the under tile mats in our bathrooms.

I like that the brochure shows an "invalid room." In my house that's my workshop.

The circulator fan powered by a steam turbine is pretty nifty.

I had a pleasant chat with the fellow that has his companies office in the Iron Fireman building in Spokane, Washington, He was looking for a complete Iron Fireman coal stoker to put in his building to highlight his buildings origin and history. I am not sure if he found an intact Iron Fireman Coal Stoker to display it in the building entrance/foyer.