Why Ain't I Using Steam?

I wrote off the idea of using steam early on in the planning stages of heating my shop. I was discussing boilers with the the Previous owner's grandson and we were talking about using steam in a breaker. He told me his grandfather said "Never use steam in a breaker" and he had personally seen condensate freeze and bust the traps and that his grandfather was right.

So I really wasn't thinking that steam was a good idea in any building with low levels of heat at night.

Is there something specific to a breaker operation that makes steam a poor choice?

Is steam a good choice in a repair shop?

Should I be considering steam?

joethemechanic wrote:I wrote off the idea of using steam early on in the planning stages of heating my shop. I was discussing boilers with the the Previous owner's grandson and we were talking about using steam in a breaker. He told me his grandfather said "Never use steam in a breaker" and he had personally seen condensate freeze and bust the traps and that his grandfather was right.

So I really wasn't thinking that steam was a good idea in any building with low levels of heat at night.

Is there something specific to a breaker operation that makes steam a poor choice?

Is steam a good choice in a repair shop?

Should I be considering steam?

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I will assume and hope I don't make a A&& of myself you mean a vacuum breaker in a steam radiator
and not a coal breaker building.

Steam heat in a repair shop would limit the amount of potential for a spark or flame caused fire.

Most all the old railroad towns owned by the Great Northern Railway were one pipe
steam systems fed by a single pipe steam boiler in a separate building. One railroad town was
Wellington, Washington named after Arthur Mellon Wellington who was a railroad engineer
and a member of the Great Northerns Board of Directors at one time
Wellington had a very large heating system that made steam heat almost all the year round
until the town was abandoned in 1929.

What make you think a one pipe steam system would not work using individual radiator mounted manually adjusted thermostats????????

Your only dealing with 2 PSI steam pressure too.

It all depends on how low a temperature you leave the radiators at before you leave
if you use a thermostat at each radiator.

Is there any real reason you would not leave the thermostats at 65 at night on each radiator???

A small stoker like a KAA-4-1 with a one pipe system would simply react to the demand created
by the radiator or the single thermostat if it is used versus a thermostat at each radiator

Dont forget if you lower the temperature in a poorly insulated building it will take longer to warm up too. .

My thoughts anyway.

I think single-pipe steam is generally pretty unlikely to experience those problems. To protect 2-pipe steam it would be desirable to maintain the building above freezing, though the system in our house experienced freezing conditions with no discernible problems.

Use of steam generally would rule out the possibility of storage, and would require a boiler of sufficient size to carry the attached load in real time.

Mike

Steam would be fine for a repair shop, you just need the proper equipment. It is not more likely to have a freezing problem than a hot water system (without antifreeze).

Equipment sizing is more critical when it comes to steam. You must properly size the boiler according to the attached radiation.