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Re: Is this a staple up hack job?
@srandall , reading your post from 10:13 this sounds like a recipe for disaster. Things that begin badly usually end badly. Before he does any more work you need to have a frank discussion with this guy. As in, he needs to stop and give you a quote. No more work until you come to agreement on pricing.
If he really is just installing blind I'd be very worried, the odds of ending up with a satisfactory system that way are low.
Here are some back-of-the-envelope calculations you can do. First, if you have a heating history, follow the procedure in this article to estimate your overall heating load:
The thing about heated floors is the output is entirely determined by the floor temperature. The rule of thumb is that you get two BTU's per hour per square foot for every degree of difference between the floor and the room. So if the floor is at 90F and the room is at 70F that's 20 degrees of difference so you get 40 BTU/hr per square foot. Floors don't usually run hotter than 90F because they start getting uncomfortable underfoot, it's probably safe to assume a floor temperature of 85F, so 30 BTU/hr/sf.
If you follow the steps in the article you'll get a total house heating load in BTU/hr. The first sanity check is to take that number and divide by 30, that's how many square feet of heated floor you need. Compare that to the actual house layout and see if that's even achievable.
The tricky part of the design is whether a surface temperature of 85F is consistently achievable. This is where some of the workmanship issues that you've noticed come in. Gaps in the plates, plates not tight to the floor, plates spaced too far, all of that is going to lead to cooler spot in the floor. And you can't make up for the cooler spots by having other spots hotter, you still need to walk on this floor. If you have plenty of square footage you can get away with cold spots, but if you're tight this is going to cause problems.
Re: Is this a staple up hack job?
type A pex can be heated to remove kinks what type heat pex do you have?
What about floor coverings? Hard surfaces are best for radiant
hot_rod
Re: Is this a staple up hack job?
The fact that he didn’t even quote a price, let alone write a contract, is a huge red flag! You need to stop him from doing anything more until you have a contract, a load calculation, a design and layout, and a performance guarantee that the system will sufficiently heat the house. You should also confirm that he’s licensed and insured.
Ironman
Re: warm weather shut down
Perhaps a analogue outdoor temperature sensor like this, in series with the thermostat.
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Johnson-Controls-A19AAB-4C-Fluid-Cutout-Temperature-Control-30-110F This would act as a WWSD for each apartment.
This one is less expensive. https://www.supplyhouse.com/Johnson-Controls-A19ABC-24C-Single-Stage-Temperature-Control-w-8-Capillary-SPDTYou can also look into adding an alarm system that has sensors on each window. I have scene where the sensors are connected to the security alarm in the event of an unauthorized entry. That output can be also be sent to a time delay circuit that will open a set of contacts if the windows are left open for more that 20 minutes. This then disables the heat to any apartment that has open windows regardless of outdoor temperature.
Re: Is it time to replace my outdoor oil tank? (Urgent)
I would use a priority relay if using overhead lines. The alternative is to use a separate overhead oil line to each appliance and a common return. That is what I would do. and eliminate the priority relay
Re: Hot Water Tank Failing Again
OK, I'm back to report on what I found and wrap up discussion. I don't like to leave these open ended.
I had the debris analyzes using energy dispersive analysis by a pal at work and it turned to be what I thought it was way back in April when this started.
Drum roll……! The sediment or debris is just iron oxide or rust. I think we all know what this means for my HW tank. And, although it was nice seeing the Mars Fontana corrosion book, it looks like i don't need to study aqueous corrosion for this issue.
No iron in the system unless my water softener is spewing iron, which is not likely.
Some lessons here, I think.
- The powered anode just didn't protect the tank, so stick with standard anode, preferably Mg and monitor/flush tank periodically. Of course, it's possible, the tank is defective, but I'm doubtful.
- Water softeners over-soften water, I've got it toned down so that my water has 4 grains of hardness. I may bypass the softener and see if there are any complaints, if not, I'll turn it off.
- Although I've gotten efficient at replacing HW tanks at this point and will replace this one before it leaks, I'd rather do other things than replace HW tanks.
- I will keep the whole house sediment and charcoal filters that I have.
Comments, as always, appreciated.
Mike
Re: Did Bradford White discontinue the Combicor?
I do think B-W will still make these for you. However the market dried up w the popularity and rebates w/ the HE combi wall hung.
kcopp
Re: Central air makes my wife sick. Could it be dirty evaporator coil or drip pan?
Sorry @Waterbury Steam. Your comment got held by our spam filter, but I've sent it through here. Thanks for your patience!
Re: Is this a staple up hack job?
I would be even more concerned with whether the radiant floor can produce enough heat for a 1840 house.
Was a Manual J heat loss calculation done to determine what the actual heat loss of each room is and to know if the floor can provide enough for each one?
How about a radiant design and layout? Or, are they just assuming that putting up tubing in every joist bay is sufficient?
Ironman
Re: Is this a staple up hack job?
it does look like the tube is pulled to tightly at the ends of the runs, you want to allow some movement
Fasten plates at least every 12” or less
Plates should not touch the joists on the sides as the will expand some, possibly squeak.
Yes you need to clean any burr whrn the plates are cut. Are they extruded or stamped plates?
Certainly no kinks allowed!
The more aluminum in contact the better
hot_rod