Best Of
Re: How Do I Connect This Wire?
Nice job @EdTheHeaterMan good info.You can use the search feature above and look for "How do I connect that wire" and you will be able to find this discussion... even after I'm one of the Dead Men
Maybe Erin can scoop this up and keep it somewhere where it can be found like in a file. Don't know how you would organize the different drawings though.
It is definitely a good idea with all the Nest questions we get. There are probably 2-3 every week.
That's why I started it, just so I can find it easily
Company Video, 6 years apart
Do I look 6 years older 😊: my two 2-minute vids. It's so much energy to slow down and do this stuff.
I don't really hate cameras, I just hate talking at them. I goofed a few times, but good enough!
GW
Re: Clow Gasteam Radiator Notes
Here's a vented Clow Gasteam Radiator with its original Robertshaw 2ES "snap" mechanical thermostat gas valve. The valve snapped closed when the set temperature was reached and then snapped open with a 3-degree differential. Settings were between 60 and 80 degrees.
A pilot light and thermocouple were early safety features.
It was offered as an "automatic" option from about 1942 through at least 1958…
Re: Ever seen one of these??
Not the only "FootRest" idea on the market back in the day!
Re: Connecting AC to Hydronic System
The longer the compressor in the condensing unit (outdoor) operates the more condensation will be formed on the evaporator coil (indoor). So logically the lower you set the temperature for that zone, the morehumidity will be removed from the air in that zone.
If you choose a higher temperature during the day time, the evening temperature setting will not be reached for several hours, because the temperature can not drop from 82° to 72° until you remove enough humidity from the space to allow the temperature to drop. Depending on the amount of humidity in a space where the air conditioning system has been off for hours or even days as a result of a breakdown, or being unoccupied, that space may take as much as 24 hours of operating time before a 90°+ space will even get to the point where the thermometer will drop to 78° even if you set the thermostat to 72°. I have experienced this when summer residents return to the Jersey Shore vacation home and set the thermostat to 72° for the first time since the previous summer. The actual room temperature is 98° with 60% relative humidity at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a hot summer afternoon. then i get a call at 5 o'clock saying the there thermostat is set at 72° for the last 2 hours and the temperature only went down to 95°.
"This is normal" I tell the customer "but if you want to pay for a service call I can come out to your home and tell you to wait until tomorrow and see if the AC is working. OR… you can just take this free advise and see if the AC is working tomorrow after all the humidity is removed from that house." It happens every year… at least 4 or 5 times around the middle of June.
@loamyroots11, Just leave the thermostat at 72° if that is the temperature you want to sleep with. That way there is a better chance that the bedroom will be 72° when it is time to go to bed. If 72° causes an excessive electric bill then you need to see if a higher temperature is comfortable for your family. You can try this experiment:
After installing my own central air conditioner in my own home, my wife and kids were very happy with the whole house comfort of central AC. I also used multiple air handlers with hydronic heat coils, so my system is very much like yours. I set the thermostats at 72° like most folks do. This was great until my wife received the first summer electric bill. Of course she wanted to know if there was something wrong with the new air conditioners because the electric bill was so high. I told her I would look into it. The nis set all the thermostats to 73° and left it there for a day. The next day I set all the thermostats to 74°, no complaints. I continued this process until I had the thermostats set at 79°. That is when my 14 year old daughter asked “Daddy, is there something wrong with the air conditioner in my room?”
The experiment was over… 78° there were no complaints, 79° there was a complaint. So I set all the thermostats to 78° for the entire home and everyone was happy, and the electric bill was much more reasonable. My electric usage dropped by about 18% with that 6° temperature change. Happy wife , Happy life! We all still use 78° for that home. My son lives there now, and has replaced all but one of those original AC units. That one is scheduled for next summer.
Re: Trane Air Handler Fan Constantly Running
This Hydronic coil air handler may be a different zone, but the concept is still the same. Operate the AC with the controls system that waere installed by the manufacturer to use as an air conditioner. The existing original relay is for Fan on and for Fan auto operation for cooling. the G terminal on the thermostat takes care of that function.
to make the fan operate for heating, someone added an aquastat and a heat relay to that air handler. Just like zone 6 in your other post, the heat relay is there to
- Turn on the fan to blow heated air from the hydronic coil to the rooms
- Turn on the circulator pump and boiler to send heat to the hydronic coil
- Then the aquastat is there to keep the fan from blowing unheated air in the winter until the hot water coil gets hot water in it. then the aquastat will allow the fan to operate.
Every air handler will have a similar design. There may be different ways to wire the system but the principle will be the same.
Re: Magnesium anode vs Electric anode vs No anode
With the Mg Fe cell, the current is going to deposit the iron in the water on to the iron electrode, the pipe. It takes very little iron in the correct oxidation state to be orange to dye the water orange although that looks to be in an insoluble state. A toilet tank starts to get that type or precipitate pretty quickly. It may be in a clear and soluble oxidation state until it gets better contact with air where it changes to an insoluble orange oxidation state.
mattmia2
Re: Looking for help with my AC condenser
I love it that you guys are still debating this one!
There was no one else who did any work on the condenser, just me. And yes I have little (but growing) HVAC experience. The wiring as described above is how I found it; nothing connected to the common. And now that I have much better understanding I still don't understand how the unit was working in the wiring configuration it was in.
My only mistake really was presuming that I needed a new fan motor when the fan motor stopped. I haven't tested it but I'd guess the old motor sitting in my basement works fine. I guess a second mistake would be not fully understanding how the various capacitors work before changing them. I could have solved the problem quickly and easily by removing all 3 capacitors and replacing with the single properly sized dual capacitor that I eventually installed.
Into the 90s today after an unseasonably cool spring and the house is as cool and comfortable as ever.
Re: Just wanted to thanks the good men of this forum for helping me thru my 1st winter
I love "those" kind of service "technicians". They throw a soot stick in the boiler and call it good. I wonder if they still even make those?
@EdTheHeaterMan I started in 73' as well. We had one oil driver who worked the summers and he would help us clean or install boilers. He was in his 60s but was a real good worker. He drove TT for a moving company for 34 years and was a piano mover so he was good at helping out with the boilers. And he had been taught to run the pipe machine and thread pipe.
