1472 Josephine is a Registered Historic Building in the City and County of Denver. The building was renovated a few years ago and Burnham radiators were installed in each unit. Broomhall Brothers of Denver, Colorado was brought in to change out the existing three boiler system that was in bad shape. One of the boilers was red-tagged, one was leaking and the last was struggling to keep the building warm. Also, one of the two DHW tanks was leaking. The building is run by a non-profit and has 18 units for low-income housing.
Broomhall replaced the boilers with new Lochinvar Knights and Squire tanks. None of the units have thermostats, all have thermostatic radiator valves so variable speed pumping was an ideal match to changing conditions and slow opening valves. They used a Wilo Stratos to handle the system load. To match the changing flow conditions of the building, with no electronic feedback to the boilers, the Caleffi Hydro Separator was a perfect fit to separate the flow rates of the primary and secondary loops.
Using the existing piping with years of debris from former systems made a good dirt separator a necessity. Without having dirt separation capacity of the hydro-separator, the new mod-con boilers would have been at risk to decades of dirt and grime in the existing lines. Y strainers would have required constant clean outs, where the design of the separator cleans system dirt out of the lines without obstructing the flow.
This is a great example of a modern heating system complementing an existing heat distribution system in an historic building. The system was greatly improved upon without disturbing the tenants’ spaces in this retrofit. Another option would have been to rip out all the radiators and replace them with baseboards, and run thermostat wire throughout the building by drilling holes all over. However, this was not the best option from a cost standpoint and would have been much more invasive to the tenants. Caleffi components helped tie the new and old pieces of this building together nicely.
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