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A New York City contractor called me last winter to tell me about a situation that he had gotten himself into. We'll call him Augie because that's close enough.
"You know why it was up on the pedestal, don't you?" I asked. "Yeah, it was up there because this used to be a gravity-return system. I've seen plenty of these jobs. The boiler water line needs to cover the return lines that come down from the ends of the one-pipe steam mains. Those return mains run along the floor of the lobby. They dip under all the doorways. The boiler was up on a pedestal to make sure that those lines were always about a foot under water. That way, the steam couldn't get into them and cause a racket." "Very good," I said. "So why did you put the new boiler down on the floor?" "Because that's where they engineer wanted it," he said simply. "I have a difficult time arguing with engineers." "Did you mention to the engineer that when the new boiler went down on the floor all those wet returns were going to turn into steam lines. Did you tell him that condensate would gather in all the places where the new steam lines dipped under the doorways?" "I tried," Augie said. "But he told me that he was specifying a boiler-feed pump and that would take care of everything." "But the boiler-feed pump opens up the return line to the atmosphere," I said. "The steam is going to work its way right into that receiver. And it's going to be knocking around in the condensate that's gathering under all those doorways. High pressure goes to low pressure. Right?" "I know that," Augie said. "But the engineer told me not to worry about it because he was also specifying a big float & thermostatsic trap. He had me put it right at the inlet of the boiler-feed pump." "Did you tell him that it wouldn't work because of the dips under the doorways?" I asked. "Who am I to argue with a college man," Augie asked. "Besides, I figured I could kill 'em afterwards on the extras." "And did you?" "Yeah, I took my pound of flesh," Augie said. "Did you build a false water line down in the boiler room?" I asked. "That would have put all those wet returns under water again, and he still could have had his boiler-feed pump." "Nah," Augie said. "I told him that the only way we could get rid of the water hammer was to trap the ends of each steam main." "You get a bigger extra that way, Augie?" "Uh huh," he said. "So what's the problem?" I wondered.
"I got water hammer up the wazoo! And it's coming from the supply lines, not the return lines. Now, the whole ball of wax is sitting in my lap. The engineer is saying that things are worse now than they ever were before. And it's all because I added those end-of-main traps. The system hammered before with his big F&T trap at the inlet to the feed pump, but he doesn't want to talk about that anymore. He's insisting that I created the whole problem, and he's saying that it's now my responsibility to make the system work."
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"The old steam boiler was up on this pedestal," Augie told me. "The new one, I put down on the floor because that's where the engineer wanted it."| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
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