Best Of
Re: Old HP system failed: new refrigerant choice? new equipment reliability?
I doubt it, at least the decent price part. Think about what happened to the price of 22, and that transition was much less …rushed… than the transition away from 410
ratio
Re: Vent placement in home 2-pipe steam heat system
Go with @Steamhead 's recommendation… he's about the best we have.
Re: HVAC tech awarded 75Mil in lawsuit
It also says freon 22 is toxic so I think one has to keep looking until they find articles that don't say that to find out what actually happened. I strongly suspect the employer was more concerned about the value of the freon than the employee in the way they managed their employees.
mattmia2
Re: HVAC tech awarded 75Mil in lawsuit
From what I read...he "jumped on the grenade" to save others...25 surgeries? Pay the man. Mad Dog
Re: New steam boiler - newbie help
You can easily check this yourself. Fill the boiler until the glass is full and then another 45 to 60 seconds. Then stick your head under the boiler and see if you see water dripping. You don't need any degrees or licenses to do this. This will give you the critical information that you need
Re: New steam boiler - newbie help
The individual that installed your existing boiler followed the instructions properly. That is rare to find someone that knows how to get it right the first time. When you get the replacement boiler (if needed) the piping should look very close to what you already have. Sometimes you may get someone that has no clue and will redesign the piping because it is less expensive, Don't let that happen!!!
As mentioned by others overfilling a boiler will not make it go bad. overfilling the boiler may have discovered a leak that you otherwise might not have found, but you want to be sure that you really have a leak and not just a defective steam vent the let water out on the floor as a result of overfilling. Second opinion is always a good idea. If you live near a steam boiler expert, chances are you will find one in the "Find A Contractor" link at the top of this page.
Using the same size as the old one may also be a mistake. If the previous contractor selected the wrong size boiler, you will want to correct that with the replacement boiler. If you even need a new boiler.
Re: New steam boiler - newbie help
I don't see a problem with the piping — or at least not the near boiler piping.
Why do you need new thermostats? A thermostat is just a temperature activated switch…
And is the boiler realty leaking? At this point I've got say I think you need a second opinion…
Re: Who owns who?
You guys know we've now gone into a bad territory……
The kind that gets threads shut down.
Hopefully stuff has become bad enough that enough people are fed up and the trend will start going in the other direction.
Products that are either broken out of the box, or failing 6 months to a year later will upset anyone, and it's happening more and more.
ChrisJ
Re: Zoned system or not?
I'm in the land of 2.5 story houses with finished basements. Often these only have a single air handler in the basement for the whole place. To make it work, you will need some seasonal adjustments (simplest is dampers on the main supply trunk) to divert airflow to the right floor. Also you need a large return near the ceiling on the top floor to reduce stratification. This bit is very important and often skimped on.
Zoning with heat pumps is possible and not too expensive especially if you don't need zones to completely turn off. The idea here is to use dumb zone dampers for small sections where you want extra control driven by a local thermostat that is not connected to the main heat pump thermostat at all. These dampers should be set to never fully close to allow some airflow, essentially just modulate the airflow a bit. Important bit here is the zones need to be overprovisioned as this will only work if the zone has extra airflow that can be throttled by the zone damper.
Depending on glazing and orientation, sunrooms generally need special considerations and in some cases their own heat and cooling source. A wallmount on its own compressors is usually the best option.
Two air handlers is the best option but does add cost. If you go this road, make sure to keep the air handler out of the attic.
If you have previous oil use, you can run through the math here to get an accurate heat loss number to avoid oversizing:
Cold climate heat pumps work just fine in your climate. Sized right and installed with some care, it should have no problem heating the place.
Kaos