Why Raising Steam Boiler Pressure Is a HUGE Mistake (Costs You Money & Causes Banging!)

RayWohlfarth · January 9

A comfort complaint, one radiator was cool. The owner turned the pressuretrol from 2 to 5 psi. More pressure means more heat. See how that simple turn of a screw made the problem worse. Hope you like this week's video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYzfaGO2hI

Corktown · January 9

Pointing out that turning up steam pressure is like turning up the radio to cover up the noise of an engine knocking is quite a gem, sir! ….

RayWohlfarth · January 9

@Corktown Thanks I appreciate your comment

pugman2 · January 15

Thanks Ray.

Yosef Guttman · January 16

You are starting at 2lb of pressure. I was thinking of getting a vaporstat and going down to 8oz of pressure to see if that would work. What would you say to that

ethicalpaul · January 16

I'm not sure what you mean by "you are starting at 2lb of pressure"

Understand that these pressure control devices do not set the pressure the system runs at, they simply limit the maximum pressure before the boiler is shut off. Then when the pressure lowers (from the boiler being shut off), the control device will let the boiler come back on (if the thermostat is still calling for heat).

Since residential (and also much larger systems) don't need hardly any pressure to distribute the steam (I'm talking less than 1 inch of water column, or approximately 1/27th of one PSI), any vaporstat setting will work to distribute the steam to your radiators.

I and many other people don't rely on a Pressuretrol or Vaporstat to regulate our maximum system pressure. We use a low pressure switch to set a timer to turn off the boiler to let the radiators give up their heat to the living space without burning fuel once the pressure gets up to some value (in my case, about 8 inches of water column, or about 1/3 of one PSI).

jumper · January 17

I don't understand why your examples are in cubic feet rather than pounds? Isn't down firing the only way to significantly increase run times? Owners reported less fuel consumption after single boiler was replaced with multiple little ones. Of course those new little boilers may have been more efficient.

RayWohlfarth · January 18

Thank you @pugman2

@Yosef Guttman and @ethicalpaul My background has been on commercial steam and they typically operate their systems between 5 to 7 psi for space heating in spite of me telling them 2 psi will work. Thank you for pointing out my omission. I like to learn something every day

@jumper I was talking about the volume of steam at different pressures. Lower pressure steam has a greater volume than higher pressure As far as multiple or modular steam, I am a big proponent of using that strategy at least commercially

jumper · January 18

@RayWohlfarth My question is does higher pressure increase or decrease the amount of heat delivered? When I was younger I could figure that out myself. I still know that lower pressure is more efficient.

JaymeHart · January 20

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1882571#Comment_1882571

That Low Pressure Switch into a timer is such a good idea. A good brass 0.5 - 1 PSI switch and a 5 min timer is way less $$$ than a Vaporstat, and no short cycling!

I already spent the money and installed a Vaporstat, but I am jealous of your simple solution.

ethicalpaul · January 20

it works quite well, I need to make a video of it

But you will have much less cycling if you keep your thermostat steady

RayWohlfarth · January 20

@jumper Here is the steam tables for low pressure steam As you can see, the temperature for 5 psi is higher but the total heat is only 2 btus more.

@ethicalpaul, I would like to see as well

Why Raising Steam Boiler Pressure Is a HUGE Mistake (Costs You Money & Causes Banging!)

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