Best Of
Re: Silly Question
Supply and Demand. Lots of heat pumps in the south. Not so many boilers. But I'm in Charleston South Carolina and wish I had a boiler heating system right now.
Re: Should a properly sized steam boiler run flat out at design temp?
A properly sized boiler would not likely be 50% oversized. As LRCCBJ states, the design goal is to have a boiler that operates 100% of the time at design temperature. The engineer (or master plumber) doing the design has great latitude in his selection, however. A pick-up factor must be considered that would start a cold system on the coldest day of the year. How about wind chill? That should be considered too in the design. And there's a safety factor too.
In practice, the engineer will usually oversize the boiler for these reasons. He's not going to be sued if the boiler is too large, but he will hear about it if it's too small.
If 50% oversized too large? Maybe yes, maybe no. Industry standards specify a 33% pick-up factor, and most manufacturers note that this should be adjusted for "special conditions".
In short, only the design engineer can answer your question. He knows why he specified that size boiler, and should be able to defend his calculations..
Re: Combines intake and exhaust on gas w/heater?
The Rheem SolarAide has a coil wrapped around the outside of the tank for the HX. Do you have solar panels? If not maybe the Polaris is heating the SolarAide.
If all those iron pumps were on potable water side you would have red water most of the time.
hot_rod
Re: Relocate Well Water Tank & increase PSI
First off, please do not use PVC for domestic water. PEX/Poly or hard pipe with mechanical joints would be ideal, but CPVC at the very least. Your existing well pump is what creates the pressure- it's often as simple as adjusting the pressure switch, or just replacing it to higher pressure one. Most are a 30-50 so if you have 30 now, you may very well be able to adjust it up to 50.
GroundUp
Re: New to solar
That is going to be a nice can of worms.
The first step is going to be finding out who owns the solar panels. Just because they are attached to the roof doesn't mean the party who owns the roof owns the panels. They may be owned by a solar company — which may or may not still exist — and the company may — or may not — be paying the property to lease the roof.
Then you need to find out who gets the revenue from the panels. The homeowner, as a credit on the electric bill? The solar company? Someone else who bought the power from the solar company?
If there truly are bypasses on the meter for solar production, then you need to find out who put them there and why. Then you need to find out whether the installation is net metered or separately metered for usage and production.
You will also need to go over the agreement between the local utility and whoever benefits from the solar panels — as I say, not necessarily the homeowner.
You also need to at least take a look at the State public utilities regulations regarding who gets connected who gets paid, and how much. That varies by State and, in some States (e.g. California) may change with time; the changes may or may not already installed panels.
I might add that all of this should have been straightened out by the title search and by the new owner's real estate agent…
Have fun…
Re: potential for gas leak in enclosed area
Have you considered that the "mesh vent" compromises the fire protection that plaster board imparts? It's probably statistically more likely that you'll have a fire there than a gas leak… just saying.
Re: Rebuild this trap
I have never seen one like it. Does it say B J on it? If so it could be Barnes and Jones, Randolph, MA.
@Steamhead may be able to help you. If not, I would send a picture to Barnes & Jones & to Tunstall Associates, Chicopee, MA. Someone will probably be able to identify it.
Worse comes to worse you get a new trap and repipe it.
Re: Steam Boiler swap savings
at best 20%
Get a blower door test done. Find and fix the leaks. You might even get to 40% savings.
Will you ever see a return on investment………doubtful.
pecmsg
Re: Musings on the "Design Day"
Being a "bear of very little brain", I am at a loss for words. Unable to follow much of the logic of this thread very far I've come to the conclusion that it has devolved into a discussion about how many angels can sit on the tip of a pin.
At 80 years old I have known privation. Hunkering down in dank muddy fox holes, clattering down the tracks in the far corners of empty box cars wrapped in a thin blanket, spending an unscheduled night in a snow cave next to a dead snowmobile at 11,500 feet, feeding the tiny firebox of a small woodstove in a drafty Montgomery Ward "kit house" - I have known privation.
Is there no tolerance left? No willingness to undergo a little temporary inconvenience? Is there no sweater in the closet to don when the design day calculation turns out to be off for a few hours. Not all of us here in these United States expect to spend the winter indoors at 70 degrees Fahrenheit - actually, probably less than 50% of us do. (That would be about 2% of the population of the planet.
Please don't misconstrue. I like comfort. I never became accustomed to want and strove to overcome it. But having experienced and survived it gives me an appreciation of comfort, not an expectation of it. Some automobiles can go 170 mph yet the speed limit is 75. The prudent drive slower yet.
Remember "Cold 70"? I wonder if we could become accustomed to "Cold 60". Talk about energy savings!
ccstelmo