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They built our house in 1950 here on the Isle of Long and it used to have a radiant heating system. In 1970, the previous owner noticed wet spots on his kitchen floor, and since they didn’t have a dog, he knew that the family budget was about to take a nosedive. There's not much you can do when the copper in the concrete starts springing leaks.
The guy that put the heating zone on our second floor did about the same so I figure they must have been related. Through their combined efforts, we now have 200 linear feet of 3/4" baseboard - all of it live element. If you ever run out of that stuff, give me a call. You know what got me thinking about my overabundance of radiation? The other day, a contractor I know told me how he does a heat loss calculation. "I go around and measure the radiators," he said. "You mean when it's a steam heating system?” I asked. "Well, yeah, but not just steam," he said. "I do it on every system. You gotta support the radiation."
He shook his head. "That's the way I do it. I've been doing it that way for years."
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He called a local plumber who came in and pronounced the radiant system dead. The plumber gave the guy a price to convert to baseboard hot water heat and then ran copper fin-tube baseboard everywhere there was a wall. The only places he missed were the front and back doors, and that's only because they don't make baseboard with hinges. And he used element every foot of the way, of course. This stuff puts out more heat than an eighteen-year-old aerobics instructor, and on most winter days we sit and pant like old dogs.
"I agree with you in the case of steam," I said. "With steam, you have to match the boiler to the connected load because steam is a gas that wants to condense. If you have more piping and radiation than you have steam to heat it, the steam won't make it to the end of the run. You'll wind up with a cold house that costs a lot to heat, and inadequately at that, but I think you're making a mistake if you size a replacement hot water boiler that way."| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
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