Steam from Castle Geyser in Yellowstone . a Wikipedia Photo by Mbz1

By Bonnie Bornstein Fertel [info]:

“I’ve got ::cling cling:: fsssss steam heat.
I’ve got ::cling cling:: fsssss steam heat.
But i can’t get warm without your hand to hold.
The radiators hissin’ still I need your kissin to keep me from freezing each night.”

From the classic Broadway hit show “Pajama Game”-

The words say nothing about a heat pump. No mention of baseboards, furnaces or the like. When the lyricist wanted to evoke images of intense warmth, the metaphor was steam heat. Nothing is as toasty. Steam heat is likened to the embrace of a favorite aunt or grandmother, while more modern forms of heat can be compared to a peck on the cheek from a disliked cousin.

Steam heat in our homes is a byproduct of the industrial revolution. Before electric power was prevalent, factories ran on steam power. Steam boilers and stationery engines provided the means to move presses, lathes, drills and machine tools. Steam engines were the beating heart of the railroads. On large construction sites, there were always “steam shovels” excavating. Obviously, steam is hot, so why not use it to heat the interior of homes. And so the early steam heating systems came to be, in the middle of the 19th century.

Early steam heating boilers for homes were based on their larger industrial cousins. They burned coal, were generally made of steel and ran at very high pressures, often upwards of one hundred pounds per square inch. These early attempts at heating left much to be desired. Explosion of high pressure domestic boilers were common. A steam boiler shooting up from the basement through the roof of a home and landing several blocks away was not unheard of. Thanks to the Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance Company, safe, low pressure steam boilers were developed for residential heating systems.

Modern steam heat, popularized at the beginning of the 20th century was the Pentium Processor of its day. Prior to centralized steam heat, homes were heated with fire places, pot bellied stoves and other devices. If you were near the heat source, you were warm. If you were not, well, you froze.

We can see older homes of the period in which the steam heating system was added after original construction. We see steam heat pipes for the upper levels run exposed in the first floor. Systems installed during original construction had piping concealed within walls and floors. So- steam heat was one of the first “luxury” upgrades.

Bonnie Bornstein Fertel, Vice President of Bornstein Sons, is a contributing expert on energy issues for BestofNJ.com. Bonnie focuses on the administrative side of the business at Bornstein Sons, a 3rd generation, family owned New Jersey business. Bornstein provides Heating, Air Conditioning, (HVAC), Plumbing, Solar and Electrical contracting services to New Jersey homes and businesses. They serve Northern and North Central New Jersey in Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Morris and Union Counties. Since Bornstein began in Newark in 1928, they have served multiple generations of families and business owners.

Find out more about Bornstein Sons Heating/Air Conditioning/ Plumbing/Solar and Electrical Contractors Here.

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The photo above was taken by Mbz1 is from Wikipedia and carries a Share and Share Alike License:

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this photograph under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

You can see the original photo here.

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