Recently I had the great privilege of working for a client that wanted to preserve an existing vapor system.  This was in spite of the fact that they are planning on raising the roof and adding a small addition to their kitchen – a perfect time to modernize the heating system. They hadn’t moved into the house yet, and it was the winter, so they wanted to get some heat going so they could spend time there working and planning.

I ..read more

I was just going to a call and drove past a large house that we had done a 2 pipe steam to hot water conversion. That house had over 25 radiators. It occurred to me that a lot of people may not know that this is even possible. If more people knew about the possibility they would consider it. Can any two pipe system be converted?  That’s a firm maybe.

One of the best things about converting a large house, and ..read more

We just finished replacing a steam boiler in a three condo building.  The old boiler, which was only 9 years old, was a 12 section boiler with only a 2 inch header. There was also a return pipe that was just a little bit higher than the boiler water line.  The 12 section cracked and was leaking water and steam, but even before the crack they had been contacted by the gas company because of their excessive gas use.

When replacing ..read more

Have you seen, or do you have,  the flexible gas piping (CSST) that some plumbers are installing now? It looks like metal electrical cable, covered by yellow plastic. I can’t say that we’ve never used it, but it has to be a really unusual installation for me to choose it over steel pipe. I don’t like it and wouldn’t choose it for my own house. Sure it’s easy to run, although it’s expensive and the fittings are expensive, and the ..read more

We’ve had a lot of questions over the years about turning down your heat, both daily and when you go away.

Does turning the thermostat down save money? The short answer is yes.   The flow of heat from the house to the outside is proportional to difference between the temperature inside the house and the temperature of the air outside. if you allow the house to cool down,  that difference is made smaller and therefore the heat flow to the outside ..read more

You know, it’s really funny that I’ve already written about high efficiency oil fired boilers, and about steam boilers, when the majority of the boilers that we install aren’t either one!

Nowadays, with the cost of fuel escalating, and with our country’s reliance on foreign energy products, we feel it’s really our duty to recommend installing high efficiency boilers whenever it’s possible.  It’s in everyone’s best interest.

A boiler is a large and long term investment, and to not install  the best, ..read more