Most hydronic systems have the boiler running up to 180° F with water returning from the system at 160°. This rarely happens in real life, but it’s the traditional way we do things.
Have you ever wondered why that is? I sure did, so I did some digging in the old magazines. There was once a wonderful magazine called, The Metal Worker. It came out weekly and carried all the trade news of the day, both good and bad. I have access to every issue of that magazine for 1899, which was an important year in heating history, and a very wacky one as well. Many of the oddball devices that I’ve seen in basements over the years — the things that made me scratch my head in wonder — appeared as new products in that magazine during that fin de siècle year. Reading through those 52 issues is like getting into a time machine. And there’s a certain peace to that. There is no uncertainty when spending time in the past. We know exactly what’s coming next.