How does this near-boiler piping look?

Heat9742 · January 4

Hey guys, so I have two boilers in my house. The grey Weil McLain is a gas steam boiler for the one pipe steam system heating the 2nd floor and the Burnham is a gas hydronic boiler heating the first floor. Been reading Dan Holohans books lately to try to better understand how both heating systems work and was curious what you guys thought about the near-boiler piping on both of these. Anything that stands out to you guys that is wrong or should be changed? I of course noticed the Taco on the return for the Burnham has been slightly leaking for quite a while and will need to be replaced. The other thing I noticed is no insulation on the steam piping which might explain my expensive gas bill.

jesmed1 · January 5

People often post here mentioning "expensive" gas bills with no clear idea how much energy their house actually needs for heating. Sometimes they have good records from previous years and so have a good idea how many therms or gallons of oil they burn in a typical year. Often they don't. If you do have those records, what is your baseline expectation for energy usage, and how much more gas are you using than last year? Here in the Boston area, we burned about 15% more oil this December than last December because this December has been about 15% colder as measured by heating degree days (HDD).

If you have no past data, it's possible to estimate expected energy usage based on (1) square footage of heated space, (2) what year house was built, (3) insulation type and amount (in walls and attic), (4) window age and type (old single-pane vs. newer double pane), and (5) city/state where house is located, for local climate reference. If you want to provide that info, we can estimate what your gas consumption should be for heating. It would also help to mention the $ amount of December's gas bill and/or therms used.

Also, it looks like you have two gas-fired water heaters, so those will contribute to gas consumption. How many people are using hot water?

EBEBRATT-Ed · January 5

The piping on the Weil steam boiler looks correct but:

I question the size of the steam header as it may be undersized. If it is working ok I probably wouldn't change it.

The Hartford loop is supposed to be 2-4" below the boiler water line. Yours looks high but it may just be the camera angle.

The big question is how does it heat? No water hammer? No banging? Does the heat come up fairly quickly?

The Burnham looks ok. They put the circulator on the return but that is common……pump on the supply is better

hot_rod · January 5

Was something dripping above the HW boiler!

Seems like a lot of rust on the venting and top jacket ?

bburd · January 5

Insulating those steam pipes will certainly reduce your fuel use, and make the steam come up more quickly as well. Don't bother to insulate the condensate returns.

Mad Dog_2 · January 5

I agree with the guys. Not bad if its quiet and heating the house well. Two things I need to call out. 1) I try to never feed my make up water directly in to a steam boiler. I like to let it blend in a bit with return water first to acclimate temps and not thermally shock a boiler. 2) I don't care for the yellow, flexible CSST gas connection. It only takes another 30 minutes to hard pipe it in for a solid, sturdy pipe connection. Mad Dog

How does this near-boiler piping look?

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