On 10/29/2013 10:51 PM, wrote:
My grandparents home in NYC built about 1900 had
a gravity hot air system. The pipes were huge, I
am guessing 2' in diameter and went from the furnace
to the rooms on the first floor, and one big pipe
went up to the center of the second floor. Return
air was down the open stairs all the way to the basement.
Circulation was strictly on the basis of the heated
air rising. A fan to help circulation would have made
a big difference. Coal was the fuel.


I've helped take out such "octopus" furnace. Often they
had sand on top, in a cone shaped container on top. I
remember helping carry out hundreds of pounds of sand.

They were very low efficiency, lot of heat went up
the chimney. Each time, I'd hear back later, the fuel
bill went way down.

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Christopher A. Young
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