Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
If our community has helped you, please consider making a contribution to support this website. Thanks!
Best Of
Re: Link to news article about heating fuel sources
The American Community Survey fails to take into account the number of coal users in the nothern states and Alaska. The number of households and businesses that burn, lignite coal, Sub Bituminous Coal, Bituminous coal and Anthracite coal are growing.
2
Re: Occupation
I remember the First time meeting Gary Wilson at a Jim Davis & Al D Ambola (RIP PAL) Somewhere deep in Penna . His beautiful young wife was there, met Mark Hunt & Darin Cooke (USAF Iraq & Afghanistan) in person, Jody Litten (Lost Touch). We all found out about this Carbon Monoxide Seminar at HH.COM The Wall. It was a great bonding & weekend of Camraderie, Education, Imbibing till all hours. Gary and I had just went out on our own, so this was 1999-2000ish. At its peak, Triple Crown P & H employed 5 Plumbers 1 helper and an office manager until 2008 Depression. With a Ginormous Mortgage, 3 Catholic School tuitions, after a great 12 year run, I went back to The Union. Very proud of you Gary. You done good, boy, real good 👍. Mad Dog 🐕
Re: Situational Water Hammer
Hello @KarlW,
As much as pressuretrol / vaporstat are relatively simple they certainly have their issues working correctly and holding calibration, if they ever had it. You may be able to re-calibrate it. I suspect in some cases if the system falls into a vacuum the vaporstat diagram may be damaged.
Did you catch "Money-Well" in the one video ?
If you want better control, you may want to look into controls like the Dwyer Photohelic 3030 or similar.
The Down sides;
Cost, may not be too bad, new, new old stock, used on eBay.
You have to think in inches of Water Column.
It needs its own AC power.
You have to install it, connect it to your system.
Up side, You may have much better control of your pressure and differential setings. And / Or maybe just use a timer to limit the run time and duty cycle.
Leave the other barely functional stuff connected as some marginal safety factor and to make the inspectors happy.
EDIT: Forgot the picture.

As much as pressuretrol / vaporstat are relatively simple they certainly have their issues working correctly and holding calibration, if they ever had it. You may be able to re-calibrate it. I suspect in some cases if the system falls into a vacuum the vaporstat diagram may be damaged.
Did you catch "Money-Well" in the one video ?
If you want better control, you may want to look into controls like the Dwyer Photohelic 3030 or similar.
The Down sides;
Cost, may not be too bad, new, new old stock, used on eBay.
You have to think in inches of Water Column.
It needs its own AC power.
You have to install it, connect it to your system.
Up side, You may have much better control of your pressure and differential setings. And / Or maybe just use a timer to limit the run time and duty cycle.
Leave the other barely functional stuff connected as some marginal safety factor and to make the inspectors happy.
EDIT: Forgot the picture.

1
Re: Risk of cracking gas hot water boiler when adding fresh water
These can be a compromise between leaving the water on or off. https://www.supplyhouse.com/Axiom-MF200-MF200-PRESSURE-PAL-Hydronic-Mini-System-Feeder-6-Gallon
It sounds like you may have added cold water to a dry and hot boiler and it flashed to steam. This may have damaged the boiler.
Does you boiler have a LWCO (low water cutoff). If not, it really should!
It sounds like you may have added cold water to a dry and hot boiler and it flashed to steam. This may have damaged the boiler.
Does you boiler have a LWCO (low water cutoff). If not, it really should!
Zman
1
Re: Radiant System not heating
That controller is a rebranded Tekmar. If you need parts or instructions it would be easier to get them from Tekmar. https://www.supplyhouse.com/Tekmar-152-Two-Stage-Setpoint-Control-4151000-p
You should be able to see what temperature the sensor is reading by scrolling through the menu. If the temp seems inaccurate you probably have a loose or bad sensor.
If you pull the bottom panel and jumper from 3 to 4 and/or. 5 to 6 the heat pump or boiler should fire if they are operating correctly.
You should be able to see what temperature the sensor is reading by scrolling through the menu. If the temp seems inaccurate you probably have a loose or bad sensor.
If you pull the bottom panel and jumper from 3 to 4 and/or. 5 to 6 the heat pump or boiler should fire if they are operating correctly.
Zman
1
Re: pre-heating with electric tankless
Resol makes a PV control that can determine when there is excess PV generation. Instead of sending it back to the grid at low KWh prices it turns on a thermal tank
so a large electric water heater tied just to a PV array would store excessive PV as thermal for heating
Tie this tank into the heating system as a parallel load. It runs down to the lowest usable temperature, then the gas take over
A simple delta t controller would make that decision. Once the tank gains temperature again boiler goes off line, PV electric/ thermal takes over again
so a large electric water heater tied just to a PV array would store excessive PV as thermal for heating
Tie this tank into the heating system as a parallel load. It runs down to the lowest usable temperature, then the gas take over
A simple delta t controller would make that decision. Once the tank gains temperature again boiler goes off line, PV electric/ thermal takes over again
hot_rod
2
Re: pre-heating with electric tankless
Unconventional, but if it’s truly being otherwise unused, do it! You could also just use an electric baseboard.Simple to do. Often we overlook the obvious. Plug in oil filled is even easier.;
1
Re: pre-heating with electric tankless
A tank type electric water heater would make more sense than a tankless. It could store the solar energy in the form of hot water slowly, even when water is not being drawn.
bburd
3
Re: Occupation
Now thinking about the 1/6 second dot and seldom missing seeing one for 5 years or so, I wonder what the speed of an eye blink is. I don't recall holding back on blinking while watching for them.
1
Re: Munchkin M80 boiler not heating enough.
If the fan is spinning at full firing rate and combustion reading are at spec. and there is no boiler water path clogging, you can take accurate temperature measurements ( thermistor strapped to pipe and insulated ) of the water leaving the boiler and returning to the boiler and subtract those two numbers to get the Delat T. You can then estimate the flow from a pump curve and boiler flow vs pressure chart. Then you can do the math for BTU's/hr being delivered. Math: Boiler flow (GPM) x 500 x Delta T (difference in temperature of supply and return in F) = BTU/hr. If it's near or above 72,000 the boiler would appear to be doing what it is designed to do. The depth that tubes are set at in the slab, slab thickness and the difference between indoor air and slab surface are factors in how many btu/hr that slab would need to warm up.
After three weeks the slab surface temperature, measured 10' from foundation edge in areas the loops have been heating should be noticeably warmer than indoor air.
If the structures heat loss is greater than 72k btu/hr it will never completely warm up the air.
If you restrict flow to just a few loops you have limited slab areas reducing emitter area (heated floor area) and it will not heat the space well.
If the flow in the loops is not balanced you are not heating the whole slab evenly and slab output will be limited.
If the slab is covered with an insulator it will limit capacity.
The thermal mass of a 2,700sf 6" thick slab is substantial. If going from 36F to 80F slab temp., it's over 2 million BTU's or 28 hrs at 72k/hr. Trouble is, heat is lost while you are heating all that mass so a three day burn might be rational. The mass of connected block walls added makes it even harder to heat up.
Small boiler, hard job.
After three weeks the slab surface temperature, measured 10' from foundation edge in areas the loops have been heating should be noticeably warmer than indoor air.
If the structures heat loss is greater than 72k btu/hr it will never completely warm up the air.
If you restrict flow to just a few loops you have limited slab areas reducing emitter area (heated floor area) and it will not heat the space well.
If the flow in the loops is not balanced you are not heating the whole slab evenly and slab output will be limited.
If the slab is covered with an insulator it will limit capacity.
The thermal mass of a 2,700sf 6" thick slab is substantial. If going from 36F to 80F slab temp., it's over 2 million BTU's or 28 hrs at 72k/hr. Trouble is, heat is lost while you are heating all that mass so a three day burn might be rational. The mass of connected block walls added makes it even harder to heat up.
Small boiler, hard job.
Teemok
2
