On 1/2/2012 3:06 AM, harry wrote:
On Jan 1, 10:12 pm, Vic wrote:
On Sun, 01 Jan 2012 09:01:12 -0500, Ed wrote:
On Sun, 1 Jan 2012 02:13:47 -0800 (PST),
wrote:
If it has 2" pipework and it is unmanned , it is small.
Steam heating was largely devised so that large buildings/collections
of buildings could be heated from a central source using coal/oil and
a minimum of labour and dirt and inconvenience in the heated
buildings.
So if you are heating with gas (or even oil these days) there are vast
savings to be made by decentralising, locating small (non-steam)
boilers close to the buildings to be heated.
On paper, there seems to be potential savings. Have you seen the
building? No? They you have no idea what is needed to refurbish the
building to a new system.
The need to run gas lines to each apartment may be impossible, or
nearly so and meet codes. Individual boilers are small and efficient,
but they still need some space and vents and probably condensate pumps
for the most efficient.
You guys are talking apples and oranges.
The boiler Mike linked to is designed to heat one building.
It *is* "decentralized."
Industrial and municipal steam systems fit the "centralized" category.
There you have long pipe runs to outlying buildings.
NYC had an underground line blow not too long ago.
I might question using steam depending on the size of the building.
Could be a case of "that's how we always did it."
Then again the cost of converting to hot water might not work.
If it's one pipe steam, probably not.
Hot water needs inlet and outlet on the radiators.
Steam radiators are usually smaller because steam is hotter.
Blah blah.
You need an expert to scope that out, and that's not me.
--Vic- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
There are a couple of good reasons for district heating schemes.
One is when using coal as a fuel when steam might make sense if the
coal is cheap enough.
The other is if there is a source of low grade heat that would
otherwise go to waste, eg from an (electricity) power station. Often
defeated cost wise due to seasonality.
When steam is needed for purposes other than space heating.
Apart from the above, steam is a wasteof time and resource.
The people of Iceland are experts at using steam for hot water, heat and
electrical power generation. ^_^
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothe...wer_in_Iceland
TDD