Temporary Heat

Jeff Perry_3

Got job we need temporary heat and hot water on. 24 apartments. Hydronic heat. 600,000 BTU heating load. 240 gallons of indirect fired water heaters.

If you've had a job like this needing temp services, what have you done. Looking for ideas or services.

Thanks
Jeff

Mark Eatherton

Hi Jeff,

Back when i was still turning and burning, we always TRIED to schedule boiler replacements during warm weather. In emergency situations, we set a temporary copper fin tube boiler outside the mechanical room and ran PEX for the S&R, and CSST for the temporary fuel supply.

For DHW, we'd set a 119 gallon, 400K btuH stand alone tank water heater, again using PEX and CSST. We'd then surround the whole shebang with heavy gage wire fencing (6 X 6, 10 gage WWM, 8' high X 20' long) to keep the kids away and out of reach of bored fingers....

We'd notify the managers to let the residents know that they may experience slightly cooler room temperatures, and ask them to put a letter out advising that the DHW was also limited, and people living in units that ended in an even number needed to shower between 5 AM and 6 AM, and the odd unit numbers between 6 AM and 7 AM. If that time structure didn't work out for the occupants, they could negotiate a trade with one of their neighbors.

All in all, it worked fairly well and resulted in very few complaints. On a 24 unit building, it would typically take our 2 man crews about a week to demolish/remove old system and set new equipment and get it commissioned. Transition between old to temporary required about a 4 hour time frame, and from temporary to new, about an hour. We slapped some new isolation ball valves on the heating system while we had it drained the first time so we could isolate and drain just the mechanical room and avoid having to refill and re-purge the whole building when we brought the new system on line. That was before we got into ProPress. Once we got into PP, transition times were less than half that time. Worth its weight in gold... Didn't have to wait for the cut lines to dry out. Nailed them wet.

We always did the switch overs in the middle of the day when DHW demand was the lowest. We kept the temporary boilers and tanks on flat bed trailers to facilitate moving them around.

The boiler was typically undersized (~1,000,000 btuH) for the load and would condense when first started, but it was a recycled boiler, so we didn't really worry about it. We NEVER attempted replacements when it was extremely cold.

In most cases, when it came time to fill and purge, we had to visit each and every apartment. That was a royal PITA, but with two way walkie talkies, it went rather fast. One guy manning fill and purge in the basement mechanical room, and the other guy running t-stats.

Good luck to you and the crew.

ME

Danny Scully

Look into a mobile boiler rental.

Tinman

If I'm tearing out a cast iron boiler and most of the near boiler piping, replacing it with wall hung mod con, and the room is big enough; I'll hang the new boiler, take all the new near boiler piping as far as I can; take all the electric, gas, flue, and drain as far as I can to the point that I can do the changeover in 1 day. How's that for a run-on sentence? I've used that method at least 4 times in the past 2 years on brutally cold days.

Jeff Perry_3

Ya..... I wish it was that easy. With the space we have and the major screwed up piping that has to be corrected this is an extended job.

Mark Eatherton

Sounds like serious sawzall surgery... Good luck.

ME