I travelled nine states working on industrial and institutional process and HVAC equipment. Many schools, churches, theaters, factories, etc. Those are little pups. I also serviced equipment for Burnham's foundry in Zanesville, Ohio. Too familiar with these systems. Worked on hand and stoker fired coal, oil, propane, and nat gas systems. Loved controls and fine tuning these for maximum efficiency. Also had forced air systems with main fans so large that one could crawl up in to them and pretend that they were a hamster. Condensate return systems were either gravity or vacuum. The condensate return tanks often pumped in to feed water tanks when they reached a given level. When enough water turned to steam while firing,, a request for additional water was made by the feed water control. which energized each boilers respective feed water pump. A second set of contacts (and there is also a back up) would shut the burner down (Low water cut off) if the water level could not be maintained. With well serviced systems the individual thermostats shut valves for respective loops when desired temperatures were reached, the steam remained at pressure in the supply piping /manifolds/ steam chest, and the boilers operating control cycled the burner off or dropped the firing rate to idle.
Had three, not much smaller boilers, in a 9 apartment apartment building I used to live in, one for each floor, one apartment per floor controlled the thermostat, so in my apartment it got up to over 90 degrees so we had to open some of the windows wide open in the middle of winter.
Poor / inoperative control system. The cheapest way that these were regulated was through hand control valves. There are self regulating thermostatic valves, or pneumatic, electric, or ddc valves. With steam, the traps had to be functional/ maintained as well or the systems ran wild. Traps have floats and are thermostatic. If I had a dollar for every trap I serviced or replaced through the years ------
I can’t believe you are using 6lb steam to heat your building? Piping looks like at least three inch mains should be looking at books for your system lost art of steam heat or we got steam heat! Both by Dan Holohan
I travelled nine states working on industrial and institutional process and HVAC equipment. Many schools, churches, theaters, factories, etc.
Those are little pups. I also serviced equipment for Burnham's foundry in Zanesville, Ohio.
Too familiar with these systems.
Worked on hand and stoker fired coal, oil, propane, and nat gas systems. Loved controls and fine tuning these for maximum efficiency.
Also had forced air systems with main fans so large that one could crawl up in to them and pretend that they were a hamster.
Condensate return systems were either gravity or vacuum.
The condensate return tanks often pumped in to feed water tanks when they reached a given level. When enough water turned to steam while firing,, a request for additional water was made by the feed water control. which energized each boilers respective feed water pump. A second set of contacts (and there is also a back up) would shut the burner down (Low water cut off) if the water level could not be maintained.
With well serviced systems the individual thermostats shut valves for respective loops when desired temperatures were reached, the steam remained at pressure in the supply piping /manifolds/ steam chest, and the boilers operating control cycled the burner off or dropped the firing rate to idle.
Had three, not much smaller boilers, in a 9 apartment apartment building I used to live in, one for each floor, one apartment per floor controlled the thermostat, so in my apartment it got up to over 90 degrees so we had to open some of the windows wide open in the middle of winter.
Poor / inoperative control system.
The cheapest way that these were regulated was through hand control valves. There are self regulating thermostatic valves, or pneumatic, electric, or ddc valves.
With steam, the traps had to be functional/ maintained as well or the systems ran wild.
Traps have floats and are thermostatic.
If I had a dollar for every trap I serviced or replaced through the years ------
Cool!
I can’t believe you are using 6lb steam to heat your building? Piping looks like at least three inch mains should be looking at books for your system lost art of steam heat or we got steam heat! Both by Dan Holohan
Agreed. Those systems usually need no more than 2psi
But I will say that the walk thru explanation for the layman is quite good!