You may think steam is just, well, steam. But there’s a lot more going on when it comes to steam heating a building. A bit of knowledge about the hot stuff will make you a better troubleshooter when it comes to what’s heating many of our older buildings. So let me help you look like a genius.
Let’s begin with liquid water. Take a pound of it (that’s about a pint), put it on the stove and heat it from 32° liquid (yes, water can be liquid at that temperature) to 212° liquid. The odd thing about water is that it is the only substance on earth that can exist in three states (solid, liquid and gas). And it does some funny things with temperature along the way.