More Steam Pipe Weirdness

[Neal Lewis]

This dry return piping for a steam boiler in a 1920's house is located in an unheated basement space. Why the heck would someone pipe it in this zigzag pattern? Was the intent to give off some of the heat to the room. Any ideas?

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[kurt]

Could be for heat or (this is a WAG) a goofball attempt at balancing return lengths. I have seen various scrambled pipe configurations, but not like that.

Pretty weird.

How'd everything work?

[Bill Kibbel]

That piping configuration was called "flat coil", "wall coil" and "box coil". It is specifically installed as a radiation surface. It's either to heat the space or may have been added to further reduce the temp of the return as there may have been some remaining steam that had not condensed.

[Neal Lewis]

Thanks, that seems to make sense in this house. The system was operating OK.

[Rob Amaral]

I'm guessing it was to cause more condensation 'to be sure.. ' for some reason...