Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - radiator heat
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09-26-00, 01:13 PM
I just moved into a house where the downstairs has baseboard heat. The upstairs, however, has pipes where radiators used to be. How would I go about installing a radiator, or would it be easier/cheaper to change it to baseboards?
09-26-00, 02:59 PM
Hi CHarris:
The hydronic heating experts are at www.heatinghelp.com (http://www.heatinghelp.com) They'll help you sort it out. Thanks. John.
The hydronic heating experts are at www.heatinghelp.com (http://www.heatinghelp.com) They'll help you sort it out. Thanks. John.
09-28-00, 02:43 AM
CHarris3466:
I guess I'm getting confused over your terminology. By "radiator", do you mean a cast iron baseboard radiator? By "baseboard" do you mean a finned copper tube radiator?
Look at the baseboard radiators on the main floor. If they have a copper tube with thin aluminum fins all over them, and the pipes in the upstairs are threaded iron, then a previous owner has replaced the old cast iron radiators with finned copper tube radiators.
Finned copper tube radiators are inherantly easier to install and less prone to leak because the joints are soldered.
I would convert from iron pipe thread to sweat connections by screwing on a FIP (female iron pipe) fitting onto each of the pipes in the upstairs. You want to put the radiator together with a copper elbow at the upstream end and a tee at the downstream end. For the top branch of this tee, solder in a 1/8 inch air vent bushing. Screw a coin air vent in that bushing with teflon tape on the threads so that you can bleed the air out of that radiator.
I guess I'm getting confused over your terminology. By "radiator", do you mean a cast iron baseboard radiator? By "baseboard" do you mean a finned copper tube radiator?
Look at the baseboard radiators on the main floor. If they have a copper tube with thin aluminum fins all over them, and the pipes in the upstairs are threaded iron, then a previous owner has replaced the old cast iron radiators with finned copper tube radiators.
Finned copper tube radiators are inherantly easier to install and less prone to leak because the joints are soldered.
I would convert from iron pipe thread to sweat connections by screwing on a FIP (female iron pipe) fitting onto each of the pipes in the upstairs. You want to put the radiator together with a copper elbow at the upstream end and a tee at the downstream end. For the top branch of this tee, solder in a 1/8 inch air vent bushing. Screw a coin air vent in that bushing with teflon tape on the threads so that you can bleed the air out of that radiator.