Single Pipe Steam Heating is Here to Stay
In the 1920’s, there
is no doubt that steam heating was king in apartment buildings and high rises
throughout New York and other parts of the country. The boilers were all fired
by coal which was abundant, and cheap, if not a dirty and back-breaking affair
when it came to shoveling it into the boiler or cleaning out the ashes.
But in the 1930’s the
cost of coal soared and the switch to oil heating was on. Oil was cheaper,
cleaner to deal with (relatively speaking), no damper regulator was required to
control the fire, and it worked with this amazing thing called a thermostat,
that controlled the firing of the boiler automatically! Magic!
The problem was that
in all those buildings designed with vent-work for coal heated systems, oil
(and gas) heating behave differently. Coal burns for hours and hours, creating
a slight pressure that is constant. With this near-constant pressure, steam was
always pushing at the air, nudging it from the main vents and the radiator
vents. The only time the pressure dropped was when the coal fire died down
which it only did very gradually (if at all). But with oil heating, the
thermostat could shut the burner off almost instantly when target temperatures
were reached. It shut the burner off before most of the air was out of the
steam mains, preventing the ready flow of steam into the system leaving
buildings with hot and cold spots.
Fast forward 90 years,
and steam heating is still going strong in many older urban buildings across
the country though almost all have converted to oil or natural gas or city
steam heating at this point. The original problems of coal fired buildings were
solved by many innovators with the introduction of concepts like “dry steam,”
enlarged main vents, and master venting. With these innovations steam was able
to move through these old buildings at high speed, and the resulting systems
were balanced with only a few ounces of pressure at the boiler, and the burners
did not short cycle.
Taking Steam Heating Efficiency to the Next Level
While hot water may be
the preferred heating method for new buildings, recent studies show that over
82% of NYC buildings over 50,000 square feet use a form of steam heating*.
Getting these steam systems to work efficiently was (and still is) a long
and slow evolution, but now these systems can be made to work well with both
fuel oil and natural gas sources. The challenge is that for a given heating
load, a steam-based system will consume much more fuel than a hot water system
even though it uses both a boiler and external pumps, producing more greenhouse
emissions as a consequence.
Thus the next frontier
for steam systems, is undoubtedly boiler control using an advanced heating
control like the Heat-Timer® Platinum Series MPC, to take boiler and
fuel management to the next level while maintaining comfort.
What does the Heat-Timer® Platinum MPC Do?
The MPC Platinum
control Series can be configured to operate a steam boiler or a steam valve to using
both steam
outdoor reset and multiple wireless space sensor feedback.
Utilizing the steam cycle concept and the outdoor temperature, the control
varies the duration of the steam supply to the building in a cycle based on the
outdoor temperature as well as aggregate analysis of space sensors in all areas
of the building. The advanced computer hardware and software in this heating
control actually “learns” the thermal loss characteristics of all areas of the
building and its control software synthesizes this into anticipatory boiler
control signals that run them far less often and more evenly than any other
heating control system available today. The control also acts as a reporting
hub for other sensors like feedwater, sump pump and stack sensors, allowing
even better management of alarms and heating issues, heading off problems
before they become big problems.
Another major benefit
of the internet enabled Platinum MPC, is its complete ability to be monitored
and controlled remotely. Preprogrammed alarms hit your email inbox or phone
text message. All heating
set-points can be easily changed through our internet portal, or mobile
app. Reports and tiered alerts can be configured to be delivered to both
technicians and management. Standardize your property portfolio around
Heat-Timer® controls and you can have one central website portal that shows you
all your building locations, boiler rooms, and boilers. Best of all, the
control is future proof in the sense that it embraces industry standard BACnet
and Modbus protocols for integration to a 3rd party building
management system.
Customers using the
Heat-Timer® Platinum MPC Control with Internet features have shown monthly
savings of 15% to 30%. For a mid-sized apartment building, that can
translate into tens of thousands of dollars a month, as well as allowing you to
preserve and extend the life of your steam based heating system in a way that
is much greener, and lowers carbon emissions significantly.
Bring your steam
heating into the 21st century. Contact a Heat-Timer® expert
today.
A special thanks to
Dan Holohan of Radiant & Hydronics for his wonderful history of
advancements in steam heating. You can read his treatment here.
* From the Greener
Greater Buildings Plan at http://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/downloads/pdf/greener_greater_buildings_plan.pdf
Original content posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/single-pipe-steam-heating/
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