Amy's mini tube steam installation

Amy's Mini Tube Steam Installation

Amy contacted us a few years ago to ask what could be done about her house. It was a forced air house in University Hts. Ohio. The forced air system in winter would cause her and her husband to both have allergic reactions. Yet the house she grew up in with radiators didn't do this to her.

We suggested that she install a steam system and use that in the winter for heating, and just leave the forced air system in place in case they wanted to run the A/C in the summer which didn't bother them that much.

We chose the steam mini tube system as the method to use, as it is the most efficient and least invasive way to get the job done.

The first thing we did was run a heat loss analysis to get an idea of what size radiators are needed. Then between us and her, together, within a remarkably short period of time all the necessary radiators were procured.

There was one room we had to really pull a rabbit out of a hat with. That room is the first floor powder room. That room is so small, that between the sink, the toilet, a person, and the door swing, there really wasn't room for anything else. So we fabricated a tower radiator out of rectangular steel tubing and was able to place it between the toilet tank and the wall. This has worked out really well at heating the room which never heated well with the forced air system.

We wanted a more polished look to the steam supply to the radiators which were going to have 1/2'' Marsh inlet valves on them, so we installed 3/8'' brass pipe leading to each radiator. The radiators were blasted and powder coated by Imperial Metal Solutions in Cleveland and the resulting installations were rather stunning.

Link to the boiler install.

Link to the piping pictures.

Link to the radiator pictures.

It was somewhat comical when i went to the city to pull a permit as they had no idea of what to do with a request to put steam into a house. The building commissioner came out himself to do the inspection and loved it. He said it is so sad for him to see steam systems ripped out of houses that he was happy to see one go back in. See, the building officials know a superior form of heating when they see it!

The homeowner even wrote an article about it in Cleveland Magazine which you can read here.