Amazing. It seems all that would be built first, then the building erected over it. It is gravity heat. I remember it from Denver, CO. Most houses had a basement, in the basement was a large furnace, like your chambers, with ductwork. Amazingly effective and simple.
I want to come to this Church to see the mechanical room. LOL. I worked in a silent-movie era theater that had a lot of its original heat and air conditioning (original add-on air conditioning system). The heat was originally a coal-fired furnace and they had a GIANT squirrel cage blower in an adjacent room that pushed a MASSIVE volume of air across the top of the furnace thus heating the air and forcing the air through the brick ductwork. Being a theatre, they had ducting under the floor with vent under the seating area. It was a really really cool building mechanically with some beautiful architecture. I miss working there.
We have a huge old pre-civil war era hospital in our city and to see all the piping system and old boiler system is amazing. Take away the creepiest of an old hospital basement its cool to see all the steam pipe workings, counterweights and all the work and ingenuity for that era that had to go into it
Yes, those boilers are burning #2 fuel. Yes, we are one of the biggest market areas for fuel oil (New England still being #1 by far), but it is shrinking by the day.
Thank you for really interesting tour of a massive old system question, you mentioned in the 1st air system the large manifold where steam turns back to water quickly . would that be a fault in this design ? or Is it supposed do that in the air chambers? thanks again your videos are so helpful. just did a cleaning on my steam boiler for the heating system and it feels great!
You're most welcome for the kind words. The steam is supposed to condense back into water in order for it to give up the heat that was put into it at the boiler. The trick is to get the water generated out of the way of the incoming steam or the steam will "kick it around" (aka water hammer) and that would be bad.
Baltimore seems like a living steam museum!, interesting stuff Gordon,definitely stood the test of time. Do you still do work at the bromo seltzer building?
It's always interesting to see these old structures and imagine how it looked when new, and think about those who maintained it for over a century. Were those doors into the radiator chambers that were marked "keep open" originally meant to be closed, and if so, how did the air get into them? Or were they really meant to be kept open normally?
Most of the air in the old days came thru those large wooden ducts from the outside. There appears to have been a crude wet-cell battery driven damper zone valve for each duct to each coil. Those doors marked "keep open" were indeed meant to be closed back in the day. Those doors were marked open when we got there, and it still seems to work. We are concentrating on getting the steam to the coils (a slow process).
the distance seems for steam to travel and keep its heat or the system must run for some time. do rooms that are the farthest away still get enough steam?
Old school stuff there. As you mentioned a lot of those old systems used outside air as it was more dense being colder and caused a better chimney effect for air flow. Are they still using outdoor air and if not how does return air get back to the basement??
The outside air intake is less than the old days, to be sure, but it's still there, sort of. As we have worked over the years to get each coil bundle working one at a time, the vents in the area above the new repaired coils in the auditorium start to waft out sweat gentle warmth for the first time in generations.
What would have been the reasoning to use the pipe-to-air heating method, as opposed to, the traditional steam radiator setup? I cant imagine that setup worked well even new
Back in those days, "devitalized air" was a huge concern. Outside, "clean" air was ducted into the building and into those heating coil chambers. The exit points of the heated air from the heating coils and ducting was right at the feet of the audience. The open auditorium space above is fairly large even by today's standards, and has theater-like chairs. The perimeter walls of that auditorium do also have the traditional radiator set-up which act in conjunction with the indirect heaters keeping the center space warm (or did, until those old traps failed!)
@@gordonschweizer5154 they called it "devitalized air" back then, today we call it "CO2 buildup" and "airborne pathogens" (especially after 2020). They certainly knew ventilation was important for health.
Well, it's not really a "blast door" per se (I exaggerated a little), it is a fire door. There is supposed to be a fusible link on the chain with the weight that holds the door open. Should the boiler room get too hot, like if the burners kept running when there was no water in the boiler, the fusible link would melt, releasing the weight, and the door should roll shut, keeping the fire in the boiler room... for awhile at least.
Amazing. It seems all that would be built first, then the building erected over it.
It is gravity heat. I remember it from Denver, CO.
Most houses had a basement, in the basement was a large furnace, like your chambers, with ductwork. Amazingly effective and simple.
I want to come to this Church to see the mechanical room. LOL. I worked in a silent-movie era theater that had a lot of its original heat and air conditioning (original add-on air conditioning system). The heat was originally a coal-fired furnace and they had a GIANT squirrel cage blower in an adjacent room that pushed a MASSIVE volume of air across the top of the furnace thus heating the air and forcing the air through the brick ductwork. Being a theatre, they had ducting under the floor with vent under the seating area. It was a really really cool building mechanically with some beautiful architecture. I miss working there.
We have a huge old pre-civil war era hospital in our city and to see all the piping system and old boiler system is amazing. Take away the creepiest of an old hospital basement its cool to see all the steam pipe workings, counterweights and all the work and ingenuity for that era that had to go into it
Very super cool.
Thank you for the tour.
Thanks for taking the time to show us this system. Fascinating. The floor should be warm to the touch under those massive masonry heat banks.
Thanks for the tour, very crude set-up. Think your "Upgrade" really cleans it up, much easier to follow.
Thank you!
Very awesome to see that! Are those boilers burning #2 fuel? Do you guys still use residual fuel oil in that part of the country?
Yes, those boilers are burning #2 fuel.
Yes, we are one of the biggest market areas for fuel oil (New England still being #1 by far), but it is shrinking by the day.
Thank you for really interesting tour of a massive old system
question, you mentioned in the 1st air system the large manifold where steam turns back to water quickly .
would that be a fault in this design ? or Is it supposed do that in the air chambers? thanks again your videos are so helpful. just did a cleaning on my steam boiler for the heating system and it feels great!
You're most welcome for the kind words.
The steam is supposed to condense back into water in order for it to give up the heat that was put into it at the boiler.
The trick is to get the water generated out of the way of the incoming steam or the steam will "kick it around" (aka water hammer) and that would be bad.
Baltimore seems like a living steam museum!, interesting stuff Gordon,definitely stood the test of time.
Do you still do work at the bromo seltzer building?
Yes, many cities here on the north eastern seaboard are "living steam heating museums" lol!
Yes, we are still "on call" for the Bromo Seltzer Tower.
It's always interesting to see these old structures and imagine how it looked when new, and think about those who maintained it for over a century. Were those doors into the radiator chambers that were marked "keep open" originally meant to be closed, and if so, how did the air get into them? Or were they really meant to be kept open normally?
Most of the air in the old days came thru those large wooden ducts from the outside.
There appears to have been a crude wet-cell battery driven damper zone valve for each duct to each coil.
Those doors marked "keep open" were indeed meant to be closed back in the day.
Those doors were marked open when we got there, and it still seems to work.
We are concentrating on getting the steam to the coils (a slow process).
Ide like to have some of those iron spoke hand wheel gate valves they are nice ones
the distance seems for steam to travel and keep its heat or the system must run for some time. do rooms that are the farthest away still get enough steam?
What sort of main steam vents do you have?
Old school stuff there. As you mentioned a lot of those old systems used outside air as it was more dense being colder and caused a better chimney effect for air flow. Are they still using outdoor air and if not how does return air get back to the basement??
The outside air intake is less than the old days, to be sure, but it's still there, sort of.
As we have worked over the years to get each coil bundle working one at a time, the vents in the area above the new repaired coils in the auditorium start to waft out sweat gentle warmth for the first time in generations.
I can envision souls in need shoveling coal into a boiler...to warm the church that was warming them.
What would have been the reasoning to use the pipe-to-air heating method, as opposed to, the traditional steam radiator setup? I cant imagine that setup worked well even new
Back in those days, "devitalized air" was a huge concern.
Outside, "clean" air was ducted into the building and into those heating coil chambers.
The exit points of the heated air from the heating coils and ducting was right at the feet of the audience.
The open auditorium space above is fairly large even by today's standards, and has theater-like chairs.
The perimeter walls of that auditorium do also have the traditional radiator set-up which act in conjunction with the indirect heaters keeping the center space warm (or did, until those old traps failed!)
@@gordonschweizer5154 they called it "devitalized air" back then, today we call it "CO2 buildup" and "airborne pathogens" (especially after 2020). They certainly knew ventilation was important for health.
Blast door? Would that be if the boilers blew?
Well, it's not really a "blast door" per se (I exaggerated a little), it is a fire door.
There is supposed to be a fusible link on the chain with the weight that holds the door open.
Should the boiler room get too hot, like if the burners kept running when there was no water in the boiler, the fusible link would melt, releasing the weight, and the door should roll shut, keeping the fire in the boiler room... for awhile at least.
What a beautiful mess.
must cost a ton of money to heat that place. Wow I say new system .