Best Of
Re: Another cold climate home with hydronic piping in exterior walls. Who does this??
In general, the efficiency hit of glycol is way overstated. It doesn't make your burner burn any less efficiently. What it means is that slightly more fluid needs to be pumped to get the same heat transfer. Your system will have a slightly lower maximum output, but unless it's undersized that shouldn't be an issue. The circulator pump will consume slightly more energy having to pump more fluid but that's the extent of the energy penalty.
Re: Repair small section of 3/8 oil line?
The normal compression fittings tend to leak when taken apart and put back together. Around here they were in common use for oil lines years ago but are no longer supposed to be used.
Standard compression fitting I have never seen on refrigeration while flares have been used for years.
People complain about flares but they just need to learn how to flare correctly.
Re: Lochinvar Knight Boiler Flame Fail Ignition Errors - ready to pull my hair out
Ideally there would be a pressure tap at the regulator before and after the regulator but a tap at the appliance itself before the internal regulator will also work, you will just not get the outlet of the regulator when there is flow, you will get the outlet of the regulator minus the pressure drop in the piping between the regulator and the appliance.
mattmia2
Re: Free standing cast iron radiators available
If that were my building I'd put them back in service. Why waste a great system?
Re: How to prevent hydronic piping from freezing?
Others have noted you can run your heat pump when the weather gets cold, but you probably SHOULD run your fossil fuel heating system system when it is cold. Your installer should have calculated the temperature below which the boiler is more cost efficient and set it up with your "hopefully" advanced thermostats. They will use your local fuel costs to calculate that. If you use natural gas its going to be pretty high (40+). If its oil or propane it might be quite a bit lower. Find out how that is (or should be) set up before deciding on glycol.
The heat pump was also designed and sized either to take on the whole load (less common) or only a partial load while depending on the boiler for the coldest temps. You need to know what the design was.
Once you know these things you can make a decision on running the boiler circ full time under certain outdoor temps, or using glycol, or draining it.
Re: How to prevent hydronic piping from freezing?
You system should not ordinarily be using make up water. If it is, it needs to be repaired, the water brings in oxygen which is quite damaging.
Once you have that fixed glycol is one solution. If you go the glycol route, turn off the makeup water valve, remove the handle and hide it.
Re: 50,000 Square Foot Snowmelt Project
@jumper the boilers used on this job are high efficiency condensing. When the boilers are on they are condensing like a water fountain.
EzzyT
Re: Measuring heat loss for a properly sized Combi
NTI has a 20 gallon, wall-hung indirect that would easily satisfy your DHW needs. It comes with a tempering valve.
Re: Our emergency steam boiler replacement in Brooklyn last week looked like this:
it’s true. The fittings are obscenely expensive.
JohnNY