Best Of
Re: Vaporstat shelf life?
Doubt that any storage time would affect it if stored under normal temp and not exposed to high humidity or moisture.
Re: Water heater leak? Cause?
The leak is small enough to not actually be wet. That means that some moisture is coming thru a fitting and evaporating away. That needs to be taken apart, cleaned, redressed with pipe joint sealer/compound, teflon tape or all of the above. Then re-assembled tight enough to not leak in the future. Then the union must be re-assembled with the proper gaskets.
Once the repairs are completed I would use a wire brush to get rid of as much rust as possible. Then I would put a coat of Rustoleum over those spots. That way if the rust comes back, then you will know that it is not fixed.
Those are the correct unions for connecting copper to the steel tank.
You may also have a venting problem. when the water heater starts hole a smoking cigarette (or Joint) neat the vent hood and see which way the smoke goes. If you do this on a muggy day when there is some light rain happening, is the best time to take that test. (basically we are looking for low barometric pressure for that smoke test). If the smoke blowa away for a fes seconds on start up then swiftly mover inti the draft hood and uo the chimney, then you dont have a venting issue. If however you the smoke does not enter the chimney of is entering the chimney very slow and lazy, then you may have a venting problem.
In either case you may want to have a professional chimney sweep or a professional HVAC or Plumber that understands venting systems do an inspection to be safe.
Re: Custom Finned-Tube Enclosures Possible?
To calculate the actual heat output of that home made design would be difficult, but it will work. I believe that you can use the elements of any common brand of baseboard element only. They do sell element only.
Use the ratings of the baseboard as a starting point. If the air way you create ends up with more cubic foot of convection air passing by the element then you may get a little better performance that the baseboard ratings. If, however, you end up with less air flos then you will end up with less heat output.
Re: Custom Finned-Tube Enclosures Possible?
Yes. Just make sure the openings are large enough. You need air coming in the bottom below the fintube and out the top. The fin tube when hot acts like a chimney
Re: 99-year-old reliable (?) boiler - what would you do?
As of last month, it was $0.85/therm ($0.25 for supply and $0.61 for delivery).
@leaking We haven't flushed it. I am not confident in my ability to do the work and I haven't found someone in town willing to work with this boiler (yet). It does not knock. It does have an electronic pilot. Haha, yes, I think some little flames painted on the side would spiff it up quite nicely.
muvvin
Re: Air to Water Heat Pumps for Radiant Heating And Cooling
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1812300#Comment_1812300
At least on min splits within Mitsu lineup, EVI does not increase COP. It does increase maintenance capacity by great deal. You can look at two similar units one EVI:
EVI:
https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/31992/7/25000/95/7500/0///0
non-EVI:
https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/107511/7/25000/95/7500/0///0
Even at low modulation, the non-evi COP is higher. The unit does fall flat at 5F but still well above on COP of the cold climate unit. The one big issue with looking COP only, is the non-EVI unit will blow warm air which is definitely uncomfortable.
Kaos
Re: 99-year-old reliable (?) boiler - what would you do?
Is it a water system? If so I would think about adding a reset control to throttle it down during the warmer weather. Is it steam? Make sure the company is well versed in marrying the new to the old. (Read Dan's books and most importantly read the "funny" directions)
This thing will run until it doesn't without much change in efficiency. The parts are readily available for the most part.
Don't forget to factor in maintenance and service to the new equipment. This can really add up.
Re: Air to Water Heat Pumps for Radiant Heating And Cooling
Fundamentally heat pump efficiency is driven by temperature delta, so yeah, low temperature delta is what makes heat pumps more efficient. Specifically, that it's practical to run at lower temperature deltas with an air-to-water than with other technologies.
For example, imagine a house with a 40K BTU/hr heating load. You could heat it with water leaving at 90F and returning at 80F, you'd need 8 GPM or a 1" pipe. That's doable. It would be a challenge to get 40K BTU/hr from water with an average temp of 85F, you'd need a lot of surface of radiation, but that's basically what the guys who do the extreme efficiency challenge do.
Now imagine trying to heat the same house with an air-to-air heat pump producing 90F air. It would be 20F above room temperature, you'd need about 1900 CFM of air flow. You'd need about a 20" round duct to provide that or maybe a 10x34. You start running into practical issues finding room for ducts that size and it's easier just to bump the heat pump temperature up.
I will concede that with cooling it gets more complicated because your choice of temperature gets driven by the need for dehumidification.
Re: Lochinvar / Knight Boiler 80-285 Issues
that picture where you have 120v on the line and system, and DO NOT have 120v on boiler and Domestic,
did you pull the black and white from the boiler terminals and see if 120 comes back or not, trying to see if that relay is shot or not.(I think it is)
and while you have black and white off the terminals, ohm out the black and white thru the circulator, how many ohms there? 40ish?
neilc
Re: Lochinvar / Knight Boiler 80-285 Issues
Funny. Someone just the other day was having a problem in Anchorage, and a name was mentioned. I forget, however, who it was.
Now. In your first post you said "The hot water heater appears to still be producing hot water which gets its heat from the boiler installed right next to the water tank. But, the baseboard heating is not giving off any heat…hence the cold house." and the picture of your water heater shows a SuperstorUltra. Which is what is called an indirect hot water heater — that is, it stores hot water, but it s heated by a boiler — in this case your heating boiler. So it is fair to assume that the boiler does run to make hot water. Is that true? Can you hear or see the boiler run to make hot water?
If you can, your problem is NOT the boiler. It is either in whatever asks the boiler to run for heat — thermostat or whatever — or the pump to run to circulate the hot water the boiler makes.
Now I see three circulating pumps in one of the pictures. At least two of them must run to heat the house. Which one, or ones, runs when the system is heating the hot water and the boiler is running for that? Do any of them run when you turn the thermostat for heating the house up all the way? Which ones?
Would it be possible for you to draw — and post — a diagram of the piping in the system — including the how water heater — showing all the valves and pumps and, if possible, flow direction through the pumps?
Also, since I think you said you are an IT guy, the complete wiring for the thermostat and any connected valves or other switches or pumps and controls?
