stone church heating narrative

8/19/2019 Stone Church Heating Narrative

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STONE CHURCH GILBERTVILLE: HEATING HISTORY AND BOILER REPLACEMENT

The original heating system in 1874 consisted of two coal-fired hot air cast iron dome furnaces in the

church cellar, located under the center aisle. Both were "Barstow's Wrought Iron Furnace", manufac-

tured by Barstow Stove Company, Providence.

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Each furnace was "brick set", enclosed in a brick structure approximately eight feet square, with an

opening in the top which vented hot air directly to a large floor grate directly above.


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Smoke from each furnace was ducted across the cellar to the two chimneys located on each side of the

rear projection that encloses the organ loft and the Sunday School room.

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Barstow's Wrought Iron Furnace was "state of the art" in 1874: the patented furnace was "Awarded a

silver medal at the Rhode Island State Fair, 1873; also at the Massachusetts Mechanics' Association Fair,

Boston, November 1874, and a third at the combined New England and New Hampshire State Fairs,

held at Manchester, N.H., September, 1875." "Awarded two Medals and Special Mention at [United

States] Centennial Exposition, 1876 [Philadelphia]; Medal and Diploma at the Chilean Exposition,

South America, 1875; and the Grand Medal of Merit at the World's Fair, Vienna, 1873."

Incidentally, at the United States Centennial Exposition, the George H. Gilbert Manufacturing Company

was awarded a gold medal for wool flannels and blankets.


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This photo shows one of the two original brick-set Barstow furnaces, toward the rear of the cellar; its

cleanout door labeled “Clinkerless Grate” (IMGP 3193); and the underside of the rocker grate (IMPG

2332) where coal ash was sifted down to the ask chamber in the base of the furnace for removal.

For no fathomable reason, the church was built with the only cellar access by a narrow, low-headroominterior stair, and no exterior access. Even if the coal furnaces were only fired on weekends, the ash vol-

ume would have been considerable. Coal would have been delivered by chute through one of the cellar

windows, but without exterior access there was no way to remove the coal ash created by two furnaces,

so it was simply spread over the dirt floor of the cellar.

Ten years later, in 1884, when the chapel and connecting hallway were built, the two church furnaces

continued in use and the chapel was built with its own coal-fired hot air furnace. This could have been

another Barstow furnace, but rather than "brick-set", the chapel furnace had the manufacturer's sheet

metal enclosure designed for ductwork connection. Heat was ducted to floor registers. Traces of duct

runs and register locations are visible from the cellar and from the first floor.

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Photos looking up the inside of the chapel chimney today show it partitioned into two flues, one side for

the cellar furnace and the other for a kitchen cooking range, probably also coal-fired. The erosion of the


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chimney interior brick indicates the need for a stainless steel flue liner and cap to be installed as the

boiler replacement progresses.

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Photo of the ash cleanout door in the base of the chapel chimney reveals a century of coal ash and brick

particulate spilling out into the cellar. This material must be shoveled out and removed from the cellar, a

job for volunteers.

Around 1915, all three hot air furnaces were abandoned and a coal-fired steam boiler was installed in the

chapel cellar. One of the two original furnaces, toward the front of the cellar, was taken apart and the

broken pieces of it shoved into the southwest corner of the church cellar.

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Hot air floor registers were removed and the openings filled in with wood. Traces of duct routing from

the chapel furnace to first floor registers are visible in the cellar (PW to insert photos), and former hot air


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register locations are visible from the cellar and from the first floor.

The connecting link between chapel and church was originally a three-foot high crawl space with a cast

iron sewer pipe from the church restroom, and possibly a cold water line to a restroom sink. Steam pip-

ing was installed between the chapel and church cellars to radiators in the church and chapel.

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This required excavating the passageway three feet, digging close to the rear foundation. Passage was

dubbed "the woodchuck run" by Roger Lussier. Erosion from water infiltration and freeze-thaw cycles

causes small infill foundation stones to loosen and fall into the passage.

Before thermostats, regulation of steam heat was done by hand-controlled valves, large ones in the cellar

and small ones at each radiator.

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Curiously, even though the chapel cellar has exterior access by a bulkhead with steps, much of the coal


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ash from the chapel furnace was also spread over the cellar floor.

Sometime between 1915 and probably the 1950s, the 1915 steam boiler was converted from coal to oil

fuel. Typical conversion of coal furnaces simply removed the ash cleanout door or the fire box door and

installed an oil burner in its place. A coal furnace works by radiating heat from a large base of coals

from the fire chamber through the entire cast iron enclosure. Substituting an oil burner shooting a hori-

zontal flame into the ash chamber or the fire box is hugely wasteful; the primary reason would have

been an inexpensive conversion to automatic thermostatic control, eliminating the need for coal man-

agement twice every day, and for the volume of coal storage. Offsetting the low cost conversion were

the long term expense for fuel oil and frequent difficulty in keeping the burner operating. Gilbertville

Trinitarian maintenance records from the 1970s indicate annual fuel costs of $1,500 as oil cost crept up

from 36 cents toward 45 cents per gallon.

Church records also indicate that in spite of cleaning the burner and furnace each season, there were fre-

quent burner failures, including at least one blowback that filled the chapel and church with sooty

smoke, requiring professional cleaning of all surfaces and subsequent repainting.

In 1986, the 1915 boiler was replaced with a new H. B. Smith steam boiler. Two thermostatically con-

trolled zone valves were installed, enabling temperature of the chapel and church to be independently

controlled.

After only thirty years, the extent of water infiltration and lack of dehumidification in the chapel cellar

has caused extensive corrosion of the sheet metal ‘jacket’ and controls, as well as the current oil tanks.

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FOSC raised funds for major heating system work at “The Boiler Bash” on Jan 16, 2016. The event was

a great success. A Request for Proposals was issued to four heating contractors. The low bid exceeded

funds, but was sufficient to begin work on a two-boiler system, a small unit for chapel heat and a larger

capacity boiler for the church. R.J. McDonald was awarded the contract.

R.J. McDonald began work on February 29. Interior temperature upstairs in the chapel was about 35 de-

grees. In the cellar it was colder; patches of water on the cellar floor were frozen. They began by strip-

ping down the 1986 boiler for demolition and removal, and forming a new concrete pad for the chapel

boiler.

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In preparation for removal of the old boiler they removed the sheet metal enclosure and thin layer of fi-

berglass insulation, revealing the cast iron sections.

March 4: delivery of two new high efficiency boilers made by Peerless Boiler Company of Pittsburgh.

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The new boilers are remarkably compact.

IMGP3308 March 8 photo shows the new church boiler in place at left, and at right the chapel boiler without its en-

closure on the new concrete pad.

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The new boilers are remarkably compact. Left photo shows the 1986 boiler. Right photo shows progress

by March 10: the boiler at left is for the church. Boiler at far right is for the chapel. The gray tank is for

water returning from the church as condensed steam. The white tank in the background of both photos is

the old electric water heater, which will be replaced as part of the plumbing system repairs.

Access into the chapel cellar is through a masonry areaway with stone steps, covered by a steel two door

weather bulkhead. From church records it appears that this bulkhead was custom-made in the late 1970s.


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Lack of maintenance and repainting combined with the intense cellar moisture has resulted in corrosion

so severe that the unit must be replaced.

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Although the new boiler and controls can be wired to the 1986 connection points, the electric panel is

severely corroded. Additional circuit breakers will be required for the two dehumidifiers; parts for this

panel are no longer available. Corrosion and the parts problem necessitate replacement of the panel.

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stone church heating narrative

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