Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
If our community has helped you, please consider making a contribution to support this website. Thanks!

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

Options
2»

Comments

  • DCContrarian
    DCContrarian Member Posts: 1,316

    @ChrisJ "My next question is, you say 200F is ok but 12 degrees hotter isn't? Can you explain please? That's a 6% increase."

    OK, but the claim was made up-thread that steam allows for smaller radiators. The output of a radiator is determined by the temperature, so smaller radiators means hotter surface. It's either hotter or it isn't…

    "This allows the massive radiators to keep heating the space while the boiler is off. The system doesn't behave like it's turning on and off, similar to a concrete radiant floor, just not as massive obviously."

    This is only beneficial in a leaky, drafty house where if you're not always getting heat it's chilly. In a house built to modern standards you get overshooting with this kind of emitter. The pinnacle of comfort is a hot-water boiler with outdoor reset where the water temperature adjusts to meet the heating load and you get very constant indoor temperatures.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,037
    edited December 1
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1874731#Comment_1874731

    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.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • DCContrarian
    DCContrarian Member Posts: 1,316

    And in a leaky house forced air makes it noticeably draftier.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,037
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1874738#Comment_1874738

    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?

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,192

    Installing forced air well requires just as much skill as steam….

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,037
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1874746#Comment_1874746

    I can agree with that.

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

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,192

    More or less, but I would say that hot water is the most forgiving of the 3 to make it work well. You have the most leeway to adjust to make up for bad design. Forced air is most likely that you'll get some sort of heat if you have screwed it up but is hardest to fix of you got it wrong.

  • DCContrarian
    DCContrarian Member Posts: 1,316
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1874744#Comment_1874744

    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.

  • dabrakeman
    dabrakeman Member Posts: 838

    Nothing feels better when you come in from the cold than a 200+f radiator, regardless of the room temperature. True even if just the first few sections hot.

    ChrisJIntplm.
  • leonz
    leonz Member Posts: 1,719

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

  • Eastman
    Eastman Member Posts: 932

    For new steam:

    Definitely 2 pipe mini tube like the Iron Fireman systems.

    I also would like TRVs on each rad and vacuum.

    Why wouldn't this be the best system?

Categories