Welcome back to the Better Building Systems podcast with the Building Hotrodders. In this episode we discuss Steam, anybody making it anymore? You bet! For this episode we bring on steam expert Chase with Steam Management Inc. to help the Building Hotrodders discuss current uses of steam, how its made, and the future of steam. Steam is currently plays a very large role in commercial and industrial facilities for mechanization of equipment, sterilization, heating, food processing, and more. Another large aspect of steam is its use for electricity generation with steam turbines. We cover the above items in detail as well as other advantages and uses of steam such as district heating. A great place to get information on steam is energy.gov and as stated on the website "Steam has many performance advantages that make it an indispensable means of delivering energy. These advantages include low toxicity, ease of transportability, high efficiency, high heat capacity, and low cost with respect to other alternatives. Steam holds a significant amount of energy on a unit mass basis that can be extracted as mechanical work or as heat for process use. Since most of the heat content of steam is stored as latent heat, large quantities of steam can be transferred efficiently at a constant temperature, which is a useful attribute in many process heating applications." This was excellent information from Energy.gov that truly summarizes the importance and relevance of steam. The Hotrodders also discuss replacing steam systems with hydronic systems using condensing boilers. In many instances steam is impossible or not cost effective to replace even with todays very efficient condensing boiler technology. To close out the podcast, Chase and the Hotrodders discuss the future of steam with Electric boilers and the cost to operate vs gas boilers. Overall this was a very thought provoking episode and helped outline the importance of steam in our current and future society! For more information on us check out our webpages:

https://www.vsenergy.us/

https://www.appliedfacilityscience.com/

https://dipasquale-eng.com/

https://www.steammgt.com/