old heating system

jtb003

I have a hundred yo twin, the heating system is very old fashion. Its a natural gas "steam" radiator system. Here is the question, can I change over the system to a baseboard heating system without having to replace the fairly new heater (only about 5-6 yo system)? I know all the pipes up to the heater will have to be replaced but not sure of the heater itself.




Thanks in advance for your help,
John

AllanJ

If the furnace (heater) puts out steam (as opposed to forced hot water) then the radiators have to be steam radiators.

I have seen commercial steam heating systems with an array of parallel horizontal pipes (that could conceivably be put in a baseboard system) as opposed to free standing heavy cast iron radiators) but I don[t know how to design such a system.

Many steam systems end up being replaced with FHW systems because it is much easier to string new horizontal pipes (one) from room to room passing through baseboard radiators as opposed to repipe the original free standing radiators. The latter are then cut off flush with the floor and carted off while the old leaking steam pipes are abandoned in place. In some cases the new system return pipe doubles back passing under the finned pipe within each baseboard so both the feed and return can go vertically down the same path to the basement.

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NHMaster

Generally speaking the boiler should convert to forced hot water. You will need to totally re-pipe it. It will need circulators, aquastats and other controls.

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