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In a steam heating system, each room is equipped with a radiator which is connected to a source of low-pressure steam (a boiler). Steam entering the radiator condenses and gives up its latent heat, returning to liquid water. The radiator in turn heats the air of the room, and provides some direct radiant heat. The condensate water returns to ...
A radiator is a device that transfers heat to a medium primarily through thermal radiation.In practice, the term radiator is often applied to any number of devices in which a fluid circulates through exposed pipes (often with fins or other means of increasing surface area), notwithstanding that such devices tend to transfer heat mainly by convection and might logically be called convectors.
However, once water boils, it is an insulator, leading to a sudden loss of cooling where steam bubbles form. Steam may return to water as it mixes with other coolant, so an engine temperature gauge can indicate an acceptable temperature even though local temperatures are high enough that damage is being done. An engine needs different temperatures.
The air exits the system through the air-venting valves on the radiators and on the steam pipes themselves. The thermostatic valves close when they become hot; in the most common kind, the vapor pressure of a small amount of alcohol in the valve exerts the force to actuate the valve and prevent steam from leaving the radiator.
In most familiar engines today, this water is circulated from the hot parts of the engine to a radiator, where it gives up its heat to the air. In early and low powered engines with hopper cooling there is little circulation. Water is instead slowly boiled off, with the heat of vaporisation needed to boil the water coming from the engine heat ...
The size of the radiator (and thus its cooling capacity) is chosen such that it can keep the engine at the design temperature under the most extreme conditions a vehicle is likely to encounter (such as climbing a mountain whilst fully loaded on a hot day). Airflow speed through a radiator is a major influence on the heat it dissipates.
A thermostatic radiator valve on position 2 (15–17 °C) Installed thermostatic radiator valve with the adjustment wheel removed. A thermostatic radiator valve (TRV) is a self-regulating valve fitted to hot water heating system radiator, to control the temperature of a room by changing the flow of hot water to the radiator.
Steam is diverted from the exhaust steam pipes into the water tanks via condensing pipes within the same tanks. [5] The water in the tanks could quickly heat up near boiling point, reducing the condensing effect on the exhaust steam. It was not unknown for the tanks to be emptied and refilled with cold water on a regular basis.