Best Of
Re: Sizing steam radiators
The trv or turned off radiator just doesn't heat that room at all and that is presumably what is desired by turning off the radiator or using a TRV to turn off the radiator if the room is too warm.
Let's start with the simple case. You have 2 identical rooms each with a radiator in them and each has a heat loss of 5000 btu/hr at design conditions.
It is an average 10 degrees warmer out than design conditions for the next 4 days.
Room 1 has a radiator that was sized when the house was built with no insulation and single pane windows. Its output is 8000 btu/hr.
Room 2 had a new radiator installed that was sized for the current heat loss after insulation was added and storm windows were added and some air sealing was done. Its output is 5000 btu/hr.
After say 20 minutes in to a cycle both radiators are fully heated.
The heat loss of both rooms is let's say about 3500 btu/hr at 10 degrees above design conditions.
The radiator in room 1 needs to run 43% of the time to provide that amount of heat.
The radiator in room 2 needs to run 70% of the time to provide that amount of heat.
Whichever room has the thermostat in it will be comfortable and the other room will either under or over heat. You can make up some imbalance through different venting but you won't be able to make up almost a 50% difference through venting alone, especially when some radiators are sized close to the actual heat loss so they need to run most of the time as you near design conditions so even a radiator with a slow vent will spend a significant portion of the cycle fully heated.
mattmia2
Re: Stuck with oil boiler, but go forward with pipe changes ?
so total load is 70K?
One rule of thumb is the low temperature load should not be more than @10% of the boiler capacity. That is to prevent the boiler from extended cold run times as it will see the radiant return temperature. At design the radiant may be returning 95F to the boiler (SWT 105-10 delta) If the boiler is keeping up or gaining on the loads that radiant return temperature blends with the boiler operating temperature, so that RWT is a moving target. You could calculate that number knowing flows and temperatures. You want to assure the oil boiler return is above 130 within 10 minutes or so of run time.
If the buffer tank is hot and any call for heat comes on, it will just pull from the buffer tank. The boiler and its circ will just run when the tank aquastat drops low enough to call. I'd guess you would run the buffer 140 or so + the 25° diff, so up to 165. That may be cutting it close to assure warm enough return to the oil boiler, worse case you run it 150- 175. Calculate that, or sit and observe for an hour or so.
Do so until you reach thermal equilibrium. That being when the boiler is no longer adding heat to the system, SWT and RWT are staying put. Heat input and heat output are perfectly matched at this point.
The hotter you run the boiler the less efficient, but the hotter the buffer tank, the longer the drawdown time. So tradeoffs there. Obviously a non condensing boiler has a min imum return temperature requirement, 130 seems to be the industry agreed number.
Any addition heat input, mod con, heat pump, solar, etc, just ties into the headers off the buffer tank. You could have a multi, multi fueled system, selecting the most efficient heat input device at any point in time.
More info and formulas here.
hot_rod
Re: Maintenance Plan for New EK System
Thank you for your questions, @WalnutFarmer . Annual tune ups for Energy Kinetics boilers and all others are the right way to go. We publish tune up guides here and information in our installation manuals.
Best,
Roger
Roger
Re: question about 120v stats
It was a cheap way of wiring a 2 story, 2 zone house.
14/3 Romex from the boiler to the first floor thermostat.
14/2 Romex from the first floor thermostat to the second floor thermostat.
White is Common and connects to the Line side of each thermostat, and R on Zone 1. (You might need to make a splice in the fist floor Gem box if there's not 2 Common posts on the thermostat.)
Red connects to the Load side of the first floor thermostat, and W on Zone 1 in the Zone Panel.
Black connects to the Load side of the second floor thermostat, and W on Zone 2 in the Zone Panel. (Black must be sliced through in the first floor Gem Box.)
The reason only one R is needed at the Zone Panel is because both zones share a what?... Beuller? Beuller? A "Common" feed.
**This ONLY works the way described if you're using a Low voltage circuit with Line voltage thermostats. And these Line Volt thermostats are obviously battery powered for switching because 24 volts isn't going to cut it.
If this is somehow still a Line Volt circuit with a "Zone relay", then there should be a couple of additional transformers somewhere.
HVACNUT
Re: First Stillson Wrench
It had a wooden handle that was burned off in the Patent Office fire. Those were the end caps.
Old Radiator Ratings
Old Radiator Ratings
If you're replacing a steam boiler, there's only one right way to size that boiler, and that's to measure the radiators. If you're replacing a hot-water boiler, you'll do a heat-loss calculation on the building as it is today, but it also pays to measure the radiation to see if you can reduce the water's temperature and save fuel. The challenge, though, is that it's often difficult to find the ratings for many of those old radiators and convectors, and that's why Dan Holohan compiled E.D.R.: Ratings for Every Darn Radiator (and Convector) You'll Probably Ever See.
Dan collected a ton of heating books and heating-manufacturers' literature from the past. E.D.R. is 272 pages of nothing but radiator and convector ratings and if that old unit is out there in the field, it's probably also in this book. This is a terrific resource for any heating professional who wants to get it right the first time.
Re: Home heating oil pipe
The best pipe to use is copper with a plastic cover. Even Amazon has it:
Re: Home heating oil pipe
I haven't chimed in — folks seem to have covered this pretty well — except for one things: the reason I am frankly horrified at the garden hose idea is that over time the oil can and will attack the material of which the hose is made. Now if the valve at the outside tank is always off, OK — though always is a dubious fail safe measure — but one of these days you will open that valve and the garden hose will burst. If you are there and can see the length of it, OK, it will be a minor spill, but still not what you want.
I'd use copper pipe myself, and I'd get a long enough coil as to reach the full length with no joints except, obviously, at the ends. Fewer points to fail.
I'd also see if I could find a float controlled shut off for the system, so that you CAN'T overfill the basement tank, even if someone isn't paying attention.
I still don't like the setup, but…
You are quitee right — in most areas propane is anywhere from more expensive, per BTU, or wildly more expensive.
(I always get a slight chuckle out of "if you have natural gas" — considering that the vast majority of the land area of the US does not have natural gas, nor any likelihood of getting it, it seems an oddly urban oriented question. But maybe that's because I live on a farm…)
Re: Home heating oil pipe
If the shut off valve at the garage tank is left "off" at all times it also should be capped off when you are not filling the basement tank in case someone opens the valve by accident…. oil spills are expensive Likewise the hose/fill connection at the house tank should be capped when not in use.
I am not in favor of using a hose between tanks because a hose can deteriorate and crack when left outdoors exposed to the elements.
If you continue to use the hose, make sure the valves are shut off and capped and the hose is only used with someone in constant attendance, Galvanized pipe would be a better option.
A better option would be to have the oil truck fill the basement tank. I am sure there is some way to make the fill and vent pipe with an alarm whistle accessible to the driver
Re: Triangle Tube boiler is back firing
When was the last time the heat exchanger tubes were cleaned? Propane and 2009, they could be well clogged up. Is this happening on low fire? Meaning, the boiler fires up then modulates down and then it starts to back fire? The logic of the gas valve to the blowers air movement is to always maintain a negative pressure and fix ratio. If the HX is clogged and restricts the blowers low speed air flow and the gas valve is tuned very rich or leaks, I can see this happening. Don't tinker with propane. Paying for competence, if you can find it, is well worth the cost.
Teemok