The title, it simply struck me, makes it seem like it might be my last column. The recommendation nevertheless, is to the Allman Brothers Band’s tune, DreamsGregg Allman was composing some blues about rising, returning in the rat race, and dreams he’ll never ever see. Kinda seems like me fantasizing about retirement. I turn the clock to 68 this month, however no end date on my schedule.
The service supervisor for a regional heating specialist called just recently to see if I might fulfill him at a steam task they were simply beginning to look after. The structure had actually just recently been offered and the brand-new owner remained in the middle of restorations. From the quick description that the service supervisor provided me, I understood I would require my walkin’ shoes to examine the entire system.
When I arrived, I observed it was throughout the street from a pastime store that I utilized to stroll to when I was a kid. It was over 2 miles one method, simply to purchase a “Matchbox” toy truck with cash provided to me by my excellent uncles. I’m unsure today’s moms and dad would enable that type of walkabout.
Problem at First Sight
We decreased the stairs and deviated into the boiler space. Away I understood that we would be walkin’ around the entire basement to see what I might see else that was incorrect. It was apparent from the near boiler piping that whoever installed this boiler wasn’t following the directions provided with this boiler or any other boiler.
The very first guideline of steam boiler near boiler piping is the setup of appropriate supply riser(s) that go to a header. The supply primary(s) are then piped off the top of the header. The header is pitched towards one end to let the condensate drain back to the boiler through the equalizer pipeline linking the header to the Hartford Loop. This task didn’t have any of that normality.
There were 2 supply risers, one on each side. Rather of linking to a header, they were piped straight to the initial steam supply mains. One primary dispersed steam to one side of the structure, while the other primary went to the opposite side. Entirely versus all the guidelines put down by the generations of steam guys. Which was at very first look.
Return Side Problems
As soon as I absorbed that issue, I took a look at the return side. When once again, there was something you do not see every day. It was a condensate return system, which isn’t that uncommon for bigger steam systems to return condensate from the far reaches of the structure back to the boiler space. At this small task, it was in the boiler space right next to the boiler.
A condensate return system includes a little tank, a pump and a float switch. The tank fills with the condensate returning from the system. The float switch switches on the pump when the water level gets high enough and shuts off the pump when the water level gets low enough. We do not utilize them in the boiler space of a low pressure steam boiler to return the condensate straight to the boiler when it can be returned by gravity.
A boiler feed system is utilized on bigger tasks to assist manage the boiler waterline. It includes a big tank, a pump, and a float valve. The pump is managed from the waterline control, while the float valve sometimes includes water to the tank. 2 various systems to manage condensate for 2 various functions.
Not just was the incorrect system set up, there was a steam trap on the inlet side of it. That is another warning for me. The return pipeline from the system at that point ought to just be bring condensate and potentially air, however not steam. In some cases it can be there on a one-pipe system, so it was time to begin looking outside the boiler space. It didn’t take long to see the proof of a 2 pipeline system, the dry return.
Next stop was at an air handler with a steam coil in the duct supplying heat to a zone on the very first flooring. On the return side of the coil was a steam trap, which released into the damp return heading back to the boiler space which trap in front of the condensate system. A crucial guideline of steam traps is that there can’t be 2 traps in series. It’s all right if they remain in parallel, however you can’t set up a trap after the very first trap. Traps deal with the principal of a differential pressure and the 2nd trap tampers that.