Best Of
Re: Favorite multimeter?
I use MCM Electronics house branded "Tenma" meters for everyday things but I don't know if they are still around now that they got acquired by Newark. I have some bench Flukes that i pull out if i don't believe the cheap meter but that doesn't happen very often. What I do highly recommend is spend the money for a good set of long silicone leads. FLuke is the standard but a bit pricy for something that will get dropped and stepped on and connected to something while set incorrectly and such so I reserve the expensive meter for special situations, you only need something close for most HVAC things.
mattmia2
Re: Replacing Old Tekmar Controls
Please edit to remove pricing, discussing pricing of services is not allowed.
I would start by troubleshooting to figure out if the problem is the sensor, the control, or more likely a connection between the sensor and the control.
If the control is bad you could contact Tekmar about a replacement or repair, certainly the controls could be all replaced with a current version. Since this sounds like a complex system, installing and configuring it is likely to take a fair bit of time so it will not be inexpensive.
mattmia2
Re: Can this install be salvaged?
I suspect the struggle had to do with the near boiler piping rather than the size of the boiler but a heat loss of the building and checking the emitter sizes would be needed to figure out where the problem is, especially if it wasn't making 180 f or so water for the fancoil. A good heat loss would tell you if the fancoil can work with low temp water. If it can't you would have to make a mixed supply for the radiant or possible replace the fancoil with a gas furnace.
mattmia2
Re: pex?
This is PEX. ASTM F876 is the standard for PEX tubing in the US, and CSA B137.5 is the PEX standard for Canada, and both of these can be seen. The rest of the markings are a bit blurry, but it's a Watts manifold. The markings also indicate it's an oxygen barrier PEX tested to DIN 4726. I think the production date is 07/13/04, if I'm reading that correctly. I agree that it looks like 3/8 nominal tubing, which is actually 0.500" OD.
This PPI document explains all of the PEX standards
Crosslinked Polyethylene (PEX) Pipe & Tubing Systems (plasticpipe.org)
Feel free to contact me directly with any PEX (or other plastic pipe) questions. PPI is a non-profit, we don't sell anything. lmacnevin@plasticpipe.org
Re: Recommendation for 90,000 BTU (net) hot water boiler?
Probably not. Inducing flow into the other circuit probably isn't an issue, especially if you have correct zoning controls on the system.
Re: Recommendation for 90,000 BTU (net) hot water boiler?
I agree with the Steam Whisperer about getting the valves set just right the removing the handles. I allso tighten the packing nut so the valves cant vibrate to a different position. To be a real nice guy, hang the handles near the valves with a note. DO NOT ADJUST THESE VALVES.
I also agree with doing an easy Whole House Load Calc for your Mom. You should learn how to do them fast and easy. Mom's house is good practice @delcrossv. And it's not like you have not heard this before in your time here on HeatingHelp.com. You might find the EG 30 or the EG 35 will work just fine and save you on the boiler cost and the operating cost. WIN WIN!
Re: Recommendation for 90,000 BTU (net) hot water boiler?
You may have seen this before but is work repeating….My previous home was 3200 sq ft on 2 floors, wood frame, with 700 sq ft of glass area. 2800 sq ft was the original 1906 home with about 600 sq ft of original windows with storms. The heatloss was about 45,000 btu/hr. This was confirmed with several seasons of checking gas usage during sub zero temps… 100,000 btu/hr input condensing boiler was running about 50% of the time.
Unless your Mom lives in a mansion, I'd check the heat loss. If it is a high mass system, just pipe it primary/secondary with a supply to return bypass on the boiler loop. Often times all of the boiler loop piping can be 3/4 inch copper in modest homes and maybe 1 inch in larger homes. Makes it really easy to pipe it in. The main loop still needs to be size to the flow rate of the system usually 1 inch in modest homes and 1 1/4 inch in larger homes.
My experience has been: when going from a standard atmospheric CI boiler double the size needed to a properly sized atmospheric cast iron unit of the same rated efficiency, typically the fuel usage drops about 12%.
When it comes to residential cast iron boilers, there doesn't seem to be any particular standouts. Most are lower water content, which works really well if piped as above, since the boiler tends to heat soak on each cycle, drying out the casting if needed during the shoulder seasons. The Weil CG's ( which in my experience is thier longest lived boiler) have really low water content, so they tend to perculate if there's alot of dirt in the system. A Burnham or Dunkirk have a little bit more water.
Definitely don't use a standard efficiency copper tube…they simply cannot handle any low return temps without a lot of damage due to condensation in the heat exchanger.
Re: Polaris PBCG gas valve replacement
After a couple more failed visits from professional companies, and repairing a few bad spade connections and replacing a couple of electronic boards, I finally bit the bullet and did the gas valve replacement myself. I had to use a weird gas piping routing, but it works normally and seems to be set correctly. I think it may be built so that the negative pressure from the blower intake regulates the valve outlet volume/pressure, making it agnostic as to propane or natural gas.
Thanks for the advice from various people here, you were more helpful than most of the pros who actually looked at the heater.
gjh42
