Restoring One Pipe -- finally

Steamhead · December 2025

Flush the vent out- some dirt might have gotten into it.

cgutha · December 2025

After testing the near boiler piping, I test the main:

I did this by capping the risers, or whatever was required to seal the system.

I currently have 2 radiators at 65 EDR; 2 radiators at 40 EDR; 1 radiator at 44 EDR and one at 12 EDR on line. the rest are shut off. total of 266 edr. plus uninsulated piping.

Ambient temperature: -12F. temperature in lobby" 75 after four hours.

I turned the vaporstat down to 1.5 psi. Ambient temperature: 36F. lobby temperature 73 after ten hours.

This is without the thermostat being attached.

The thermostat that came with the house is a seven day programable, heating, cooling, fan, etc digital controller.

I wish I could find the old mercury thermostats. on, off, don't worry about the current. just set it and walk away thermostat.

I love the feel.

it warms the face as I sit fifteen feet away. like the sun on a warm spring day.

my temporary heaters have cycled off.

cgutha · January 1

Wiring the thermostats in was an all day event.

50' of 18/5. I used all of it.

I removed the fancy t-stat. After all, all I am looking for is a simple on or off, not, heat or cool, very the temperature depending on the time of day or which day it is in the month. and no, there is not a duel heat. Well, I have been running on a temporary backup. but that is different.

Two t-stats. one to turn on the entire system when the house starts to get cool in the fall, and the other to control the temperature.

While running the boiler without a t-stat for control, I noticed that the pressure made a difference. After all, the secondary burner shuts off when I reach pressure. I lowered the pressure to 1.5 psig. The house temperature leveled off at 74 — 75 after 24 hours.

Now, the small burner should stay on, but when the house temp is satisfied, the larger burner will turn off. controlling the house temp by btu in over time. not cycling the system.

Stay tuned. I will know by this time tomorrow.

Also. I do not think i am using water, however, leaky valves fill radiators until the system i turned off. then some seeps back. I open the valves to speed the process.

The water at the bottom, (blowdown) is black and brackish, i assume this will eventually, clear up. The house smells like boiler water. Again, I assume this is temporary. after all, this is the first time it has been run in over eight years.

cgutha · January 4

While the thermostat on the wall in the center of the house reads 70 degrees, and stays there indefinitely, we feel cold because the unit does not cycle on.

I am going to break convention and move the t-stat. probably next to a radiator on an outside wall. It appears that I might be able to control the temperature of the radiator. maybe keep them at 100 degrees or so.

Of course the other part of the problem is that while I am trying to balance the system, my wife goes behind me and turns on the temporary heat and I do not discover this for eight hours. life is grand.

We used to have this problem at work. The girls would bring in little space heaters and place them under their desks to keep warm. Then the air conditioner would kick in and they would turn the heat up by their feet and complain they were cold. only after we took away all the space heaters could we make them comfortable.

pecmsg · January 4

Is the boiler cycling on the t-stat or pressure?

cgutha · January 5

Success

I installed a t-stat two foot above the 14 column radiator by the front door. set it at 85 degrees,

The secondary turned on long enough to heat the radiator, then took an hour to cycle. That should work.

The problem is that the primary burner designed to heat the house down to thirty degrees. both burners are on during startup. when the t-stat is satisfied, the secondary turns off. The primary continues, but the house slowly looses heat and the radiators cool. The house feels cold even though the t-stat is satisfied. even at 74 degrees. the heat would never cycle on because the primary still supplied enough energy that that the t-stat would never drop that half a degree to cycle the secondary back on.

and the radiators grew cold.

my wife complained.

now, I have added a cycle that keeps the radiators warm.

cgutha · January 7

I think I have run headlong into an age old problem: how to control one-pipe steam heat.

when I run without a t-stat, I am at 75 degrees.

when I use a t-stat, it stays at a constant temperature, but the cycle is hours and feels cold even though I am at 70. like when the sun goes down after a warm day. the temperature is there, but there is no longer energy entering the system.

I added a sensor to monitor the radiator, but even that has an hour cycle.

I am ordering a timer to control the cycle.

At present, the ambient temperature is hovering between 25 to 30 degrees all week.

yellowdog · January 7

Don't associate comfort with a number. If you are cold with the thermostat set at 70°, turn the thermostat up until you aren't cold.

cgutha · January 7

Yesterday, I moved the controlling t-stat to six inches above the end column of the 13 column, 75EDR, radiator.

Evidently, this works.

I got up in the middle of the night, the t-stat read 70, the room felt warm, and the radiator was warm to the touch. I checked three times, all three times same result.

I wonder what would happen if I turn the t-stat down a degree. probably need to turn of the entire system off to reset to a different temperature.

So I have one t-stat to turn the entire system on. (Primary and secondary)

one (Digital) to set the room. but this one does not move. it is too far from the radiators. It will allow me to turn the heat up, I do not know about down. With the primary producing 75k input, output should be 62k with 82 EFU. The radiators currently running, at design temp of -40, I have 68k, or 227 EDR. The basement, before I turned on the boiler was 41 degrees. now, about 68. lots of heat escaping from the pipes. the point is that I am supplying slightly less than what the house is using when only the primary is running.

The third t-stat, pictured here, simply tells the secondary, 200k to turn on for a few minutes. it is connected in parallel to the second t-stat

I will give it a few more weeks, but so far, 24 hours, it seems to work.

Restoring One Pipe -- finally

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