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Re: Difficulty in Properly Sizing Equipment - 2140 Sq Ft New Construction Spray Foam House
The comfort argument worked before the advent of EVI (aka hyper heat or cold climate) heat pumps. Old heat pump's output tanked bellow freezing and they would deliver at best lukewarm 85F-90F air which you don't want near an occupant.
The hyper heat units put out nameplate BTUs in cold climate, some even down to 0F. To get rated output, since the blower is fixed, these need to blow pretty hot air on those 0F days. That means you can get 110F+ output air out of the unit when cold. Also since most of them are modulating, they deliver some heat all the time so you don't have that typical blast of hot air followed by long wait times of the typical oversized gas furnace. Combine this with modern air tight construction and there are simply no comfort issues. The temperature inside is just even, you don't even notice the heat pump running.
As for backup, most will run down to -22F, so maybe in zone 6 or 7 you might want some backup, it zone 3/4/5 it is simply not needed. Even in cold climate, resistance heat backup makes the most sense as it is simple to install and for the couple of hours in the year it needs to run, the operating cost is noise.
Hyper heat units don't need to switch over to full electric backup like older heat pumps when it gets cold. Since they can deliver some heat with a COP over 1 even during those polar vortex days, the heat pump and backup can run at the same time so a fair amount of your space heat will still come from the heat pump.
Kaos
Re: Equalizer Return
Somebody needs to do some digging into the history of this thing. Can't have been whimsy — there must have been a reason!
Re: Weil McClain Natural Gas Hot Water Boiler
What model boiler? A 40 year old atmospheric gas boiler is nothing but a hunk of cast iron and some burners. It's hard to make it NOT burn clean. IMO, you're being taken for a ride.
HVACNUT
Re: LWCO Blowdown....Under a Little Pressure?
I told my customers that the LWCO flush is better done under pressure. And if the water feed is connected to the wet return before the HL, then you can add water right away.
Re: Weil McClain Natural Gas Hot Water Boiler
Find a different contractor. This one is Sales Oriented!
pecmsg
Re: Beckett NX burner
I have noticed that some Draft Controls are more sensitive to the start up of the burner than others. The one that looks like the lid of an old metal coffee can that has the counter weight that looks like some fender washers are very accurate, but do not have that much mass to them so they react too fast to that startup "Puff" no matter how delicate it is. The Draft Regulator from Field Controls model RC seems to be less affected by startup “Puff”. The old Effikal dampers are also good. But I don't know where to get them ever since Field Controls took them over.
Re: Weil McClain Natural Gas Hot Water Boiler
The most important thing is figuring out why it sooted up. They can do the best cleaning possible and it will be a waste of time if the boiler soots up again. Combustion air supply needs to be checked, the chimney/venting checked, gas pressures checked and a full combustion analysis performed. Hopefully you can find a tech who is trained in combustion analysis and equipped with a digital combustion analyzer.
Re: LWCO Blowdown....Under a Little Pressure?
It looks like they recommend flushing it during boiler operation:
http://s3.supplyhouse.com/manuals/1350816480646/83711_PROD_FILE.pdf
Re: LWCO Blowdown....Under a Little Pressure?
Whatever works. I see no particular problem with either of your methods. Main thing is to get that blowdown valve fully open. My own preference is to not just open it, but to open it, let it swoosh, close it, let the LWCO refill, open again, rinse and repeat until the swoosh is clean — then top off and go. Usually two or three swooshes will do… but as I say, whatever works.
Re: LWCO Blowdown....Under a Little Pressure?
For me, the main thing is to make sure the burner automatically shuts down while you're dumping the LWCO.
If it doesn't, the LWCO doesn't work and that's bad.
ChrisJ