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The Old Iron Files
Twenty-five years on the job and you start to collect them — the strange, beautiful, over-built mechanical systems hiding in old buildings. Century-old plenums. Antique boilers. Original ductwork still doing real work. This is where I document the old iron, honestly: what it is, how it worked, and why it still stops a guy who does this for a living.
From the basement up
The 30-ton rooftop nobody could read
A 1933 East Baltimore church called about the heat and air. Up top: a 30-ton gas/electric package unit so old and painted-over the data plate was gone. How you spec a unit when the nameplate's been lost.
Hidden split system · Part 2The hidden split system in the basement
I went for the roof. Downstairs was a whole second system the roof had nothing to do with — a 180,000 BTU York air handler still on R-22, old furnace venting, and caged condensers out back.
Plenum heating · 1917The 1917 mansion built for one of the richest men in America
A whole basement turned into one giant supply plenum — radiators hung in the ductwork, blowers pushing heat up through the floors. And they still run the original 1917 ducts to feed the modern system today.
The next old system
I'm always hunting the next one — an antique boiler room, original ductwork, some mechanical mystery hiding in a basement. When I find it, it lands here.
Got an old system in your building?
I'm always hunting the next one for the Files. If you've got a wild old boiler room, original ductwork, or some mechanical mystery in your basement, the Old Iron Files keeps growing. Subscribe and you'll get the next find from the field.