Central heating systems

[Brent-Aucoin]

What happend to your favorite furnace Brands?

It is funny, but it is just like washers and dryers, etc.
Everything get's sold, and bought.
Here are names of furnaces that I had actually forgot.
Brent

http://toad.net/~jsmeenen/history.html

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Oh and....

Click around on the bottom of the page.....
Very cool stuff.
Brent

 

[Cybrvanr]

Excellent site Brent!

That list was great! There's also all sorts of good information beyond that list that I clicked around on!

 

[toggleswitch]

and remember please..

(pet peeve of mine..)

FURNACES heat air.
BOILERS heat water. (originally used for STEAM, which was the only method at first. Name still applied to units that heat water for central heating.)

FURNACE
=================================
FOURNOS=> Gr. [oven]
FOURNEAU=> Fr. (how's my spelling?)
HORNO => Sp. [oven]

the Greeks may have a word for it...
but they tend to have XENOMANIA (love of things foreign).
a heater there is atually called a CALORIFER. Probably Fr.
as CALORIE and CALORIC means pertaining to heat in Latin, IIRC. Certainly Spanish as in "Hace CALOR" => "It's hot."

 

[foraloysius]

Overhere a tank heater is called boiler, I was surprised to see the word boiler used for the furnace. But I got used to that. Now I have to get used to something different again!! LOL

 

[neptunebob]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and interested in heating!

Hi, I'm from the Pittsburgh area and reading all this about the heating systems. In our area there was a place called Dixmont State Hospital where they plan to build a Wal Mart. At the bottom of the hill there is the original heating plant, built in 1950. If you go to the website you see it has the large windows to show off the system. They are starting to wreck it as I write but didn't get to the main building yet. The picture is at the bottom right corner of Gallery 1. This whole website is my kind of place, when other boys were interested in baseball (boring to me) I was looking at washers and dryers! Nep

http://www.ohiotrespassers.com

 

[launderess]

Louis

"Boiler" is only used on this side of the pond to refers to hot water heating. These boilers produce the steam or hot water to go up the pipes to heat homes that have have "steam" or hot water heating. Usually these boilers also provide the source if not actual hot water for the hot water taps as well.

Central heating via forced hot air systems are usually called a "furnace", though many here refer to any source of heat/hot water a furnace. Think so many on both sides of the pond refer to any source of heat as a "boiler" since hot water/steam heat was the most common method of heating (weather by coal, gas or oil), until forced are came upon the scene.

Launderess

 

[DADoES]

I've only heard two people that I can recall refer to central heating as a "furnace." Everybody else calls it a "heater" or "heat" or "central heat."

As in "my heat ain't working."

 

[tolivac]

I have been interested and fascinated by boiler rooms in buildings as well-when I lived in High rise apt houses-would sneak a peak in the "boiler room"other equipment in there as well-the chillers for AC.The Govt building boiler rooms I have seen were especially interesting-the older the building-the more interesting the bolier-equipment rooms are.Most also contain chillers to cool water for closed loop "air conditioning" in the rooms of the buildings.The chillers are just as interesting as the boilers.One of the buildings had steam piped to it(150PSI) from a central boiler-power plant.That plant served govt buildings in the DC area.It provided electricity and steam for the buildings-the power was used as well as commercial power-so the buildings would always have power.I have seen two generations of chillers in the building I worked in-first generation were Carrier 650 ton capacity centrifical units-they had open 700 hp motors on them.Then they were replaced with Trane units that had HIGHER cooling capacity with hermetic motors.-1200 tone capacity.The buildings hot water came by using steam loop coils in the "water heater tanks" By AO-Smith no less.Would heat 700 gal water at one time.Other equipment down there was steam condesnate return pumps-some quite large -since the water had to be returned to the remote boiler plant.Sewage ejection pumps and tanks to dispose of waste to the city sewer.And large water storage tanks and pumps for the building water.A separate chiller was used to cool the watrer for the drinking fountains in the halls.Also sepatate smaller chiller systems cooled computer rooms and the studios.knew how then worked.I spent many times strolling thru those areas sudying the equipment.Now those areas are closed off for security concerns-they are concerned terrorist could access the equipment.And that building had some impressive transformer rooms to step down "street power" med voltage 13.8Kv three phase to 4160V,2500V and 208V-120V,480V.