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Re: Stop Leak for my Burnham
When you install the new boiler you can flush out all the stop leak. it will not foul or damage pipes
Re: Fish House in Berkeley
The non- barrier polybutylene has held up very well - no issues. Radiant heating is only in the lower floor which is about 500 square feet and the heat source is a domestic water heater; stainless steel pump. A marriage made in heaven. Oxygen intrusion? No problem.
The neighborhood has mostly small, working class homes that go at a premium because of their proximity to the Fish House. It’s considered good luck.
A previous tenant was a group of start-up entrepreneurs that claimed that all their most brilliant ideas came to them while living here.
Have you ever been to Sedona, Arizona and experienced standing in a vortex? Being in the Fish House reminded me of that feeling. Safe, secure, inspired ……
Re: Which residential, variable speed, ECM pumps, controllable with 0-10 volts, exist in 2024?
The Taco 0026e, the 0034e and the 0034eplus all have 0-10v control.
Now these may not be ECM, but any size, standard AC, 00 circ can be ordered with the "VV" control that would accept 0-10
Whats your application or flow and head needed?
Now these may not be ECM, but any size, standard AC, 00 circ can be ordered with the "VV" control that would accept 0-10
Whats your application or flow and head needed?
Dave H_2
1
Re: Steam/Hydronic Combination Boilers?
Almost any steam boiler can be set up with a hot water loop.
I had very easy success with Peerless (63 or 64 series). They give you two 1" tappings expressly for this purpose that are above the bottom of the boiler by about a foot (minimizing mud flow into the line) and below the waterline.
I even ran mine directly from the boiler (no heat exchanger, fewer circulators required), pumped with a cast iron circulator (not usually advised with boiler water, but my water is treated and clean) and it has been doing great for 3 years so far.
You will want a bypass loop so you can moderate the temperature of your hot water as desired (you don't want 212F water in your floor radiant)
This article tells you everything you need and more:
https://heatinghelp.com/systems-help-center/how-to-run-a-hot-water-zone-off-a-steam-boiler/
I had very easy success with Peerless (63 or 64 series). They give you two 1" tappings expressly for this purpose that are above the bottom of the boiler by about a foot (minimizing mud flow into the line) and below the waterline.
I even ran mine directly from the boiler (no heat exchanger, fewer circulators required), pumped with a cast iron circulator (not usually advised with boiler water, but my water is treated and clean) and it has been doing great for 3 years so far.
You will want a bypass loop so you can moderate the temperature of your hot water as desired (you don't want 212F water in your floor radiant)
This article tells you everything you need and more:
https://heatinghelp.com/systems-help-center/how-to-run-a-hot-water-zone-off-a-steam-boiler/
Re: The Rise and Fall of Radiator Foundries: A Two Century Journey to Casting Radiators for Today
@Waher thank you, I know what you mean. I like your idea of making the scroll bar more obvious. Should be pretty simple.
I'm actually in the process of mocking up an additional tool that will sit below that size table. User selects the number of sections and heating mode (steam, hydronic, heat pump), to reveal all the specs for that specific size.
At present, I've got:
- Length
- Height
- Depth
- Empty weight
- Internal volume
- Output (BTUs)
- EDR
- Flow rate (hot water only)
I have a few questions on this that I'd love your (and anyone else's) input on if you're feeling generous enough to spare a few minutes:
1. Are there any other specs you'd like to see? Are these the right specs? What format would you like to have these available in? (I was thinking PDF and CSV downloads in addition to the on-screen display).
2. For heat outputs, I could go really granular and allow the user to select precise flow and return temperatures, or I could keep it as a black box (steam 215F, hydronic 170F, maybe with a heat pump at, say, 120F).
I'm erring on the side of a simplistic three options with the option to enter precise temps via an "advanced" function.
Would you find this useful? Do you often find yourself correcting outputs for different system temps? If you would find it useful, how would you design the system temp selector?
3. Are there any other features similar to this that you'd like to see?
With many thanks in advance
Nick
I'm actually in the process of mocking up an additional tool that will sit below that size table. User selects the number of sections and heating mode (steam, hydronic, heat pump), to reveal all the specs for that specific size.
At present, I've got:
- Length
- Height
- Depth
- Empty weight
- Internal volume
- Output (BTUs)
- EDR
- Flow rate (hot water only)
I have a few questions on this that I'd love your (and anyone else's) input on if you're feeling generous enough to spare a few minutes:
1. Are there any other specs you'd like to see? Are these the right specs? What format would you like to have these available in? (I was thinking PDF and CSV downloads in addition to the on-screen display).
2. For heat outputs, I could go really granular and allow the user to select precise flow and return temperatures, or I could keep it as a black box (steam 215F, hydronic 170F, maybe with a heat pump at, say, 120F).
I'm erring on the side of a simplistic three options with the option to enter precise temps via an "advanced" function.
Would you find this useful? Do you often find yourself correcting outputs for different system temps? If you would find it useful, how would you design the system temp selector?
3. Are there any other features similar to this that you'd like to see?
With many thanks in advance
Nick
Re: Fish House in Berkeley
The owner built it for his parents in the mid-1990's. His grandchildren now live there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojo_del_Sol


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojo_del_Sol


Re: Energy Kinetics Introduces B100 Compatible Boilers
@BennyV , thank you for your comments.
I feel we need to take a "all in" approach and pursue different ways to use our natural resources wisely. That includes assessing the cost to operate, the source efficiency (how much energy is used to produce and deliver fuel to the home and to generate electricity and deliver that to the home), and environmental impacts (what are the full fuel cycle emissions like CO2 and particulates).
We all also know that fuel prices vary, so as consumers, what makes sense today may not make sense in a year or 5 years. For example, New England residential electricity prices averaged over $0.31/kWh a year ago - that's the equivalent of $12.60/gallon of heating oil, and $9.11/therm for natural gas. Since the price of electricity in these examples is 3x higher than oilheat and 5x higher than natural gas, heat pumps will have a difficult time competing on the cost to operate during New England winters. From that simple cost perspective (and from a reliability in cold weather perspective), it makes sense to have a boiler or furnace in addition to a heat pump so it's an easy decision on which to operate. And with biofuels, the environmental impact gap closes or is even eliminated in cold weather as well.
For reference last year over 4 billion gallons of biofuel were produced, up from 3 billion gallons the year before. Bioheat fuel is uniquely well suited to homes that have oilheat.
Roger
I feel we need to take a "all in" approach and pursue different ways to use our natural resources wisely. That includes assessing the cost to operate, the source efficiency (how much energy is used to produce and deliver fuel to the home and to generate electricity and deliver that to the home), and environmental impacts (what are the full fuel cycle emissions like CO2 and particulates).
We all also know that fuel prices vary, so as consumers, what makes sense today may not make sense in a year or 5 years. For example, New England residential electricity prices averaged over $0.31/kWh a year ago - that's the equivalent of $12.60/gallon of heating oil, and $9.11/therm for natural gas. Since the price of electricity in these examples is 3x higher than oilheat and 5x higher than natural gas, heat pumps will have a difficult time competing on the cost to operate during New England winters. From that simple cost perspective (and from a reliability in cold weather perspective), it makes sense to have a boiler or furnace in addition to a heat pump so it's an easy decision on which to operate. And with biofuels, the environmental impact gap closes or is even eliminated in cold weather as well.
For reference last year over 4 billion gallons of biofuel were produced, up from 3 billion gallons the year before. Bioheat fuel is uniquely well suited to homes that have oilheat.
Roger
Roger
3
Re: Energy Kinetics Introduces B100 Compatible Boilers
Thank you to everyone on our team and in the industry for the tremendous research, development, field trials, standards development, and more that all made the broad application of biofuels (B100) for cold climate heating possible. This offers a near term pathway to advance decarbonization, with results that extend all the way up to affordable Net Zero Carbon Home opportunities. These fuels and the applications have made remarkable advancements in the last two decades, and those successes continue to accelerate. For example, our B100 listed boilers can run with No. 2 fuel oil through 100% biodiesel (B100) without any burner adjustments through fuel transitions.
Thank you,
Roger
Thank you,
Roger
Roger
3
Random NYCHA maintenance man on YouTube documents a building right out of the 25 steps
https://youtu.be/yLyYXOi9Fto?si=srNaMBZqILvWmFWrThis video has it all.
Cramped basements. Double trapped return lines. Water and steam spewing from overhead. A zone valve on a steam main. A gauge reading 8psi. A vacuum pump that's completely **** and dumping water all over the floor. Commenters cursing out the man behind the camera.
I'd guess he's arrived at this building somewhere between steps 19 and 20.
He doesn't seem to have figured out that the root cause is steam traps (instead calling it "too much steam") but apparently he's the first person to arrive at that building with more than zero curiosity 🤣🤦♂️...
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