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: Oil to Gas Conversion Options
Before I make a final decision on CI+indirect, I did find a local Energy Kinetics dealer and have them coming over tomorrow. I suspect the price difference might be too much, but we'll see.
David_16
1
Re: Dunham steam traps
Here are the specs for the old Dunham 30 series F&T traps from page 10 of the Dunham General Products Bulletin of Low-Pressure Steam Heating Appliances, which you can find here:
Dunham General Products Bulletin of Low-Pressure Steam Heating Appliances
I don't think you'll go wrong with Mepco traps; when C. A. Dunham ceased operations, Mepco took over the manufacture of all the Dunham steam traps, so in that regard Dunham = Mepco (compare the above with the attached Mepco 30 brochure). That said, unless I'm mistaken, the smallest 30 series trap they currently make is the 30-7, which is an 1-1/2" trap, so your contractor should substitute the Mepco 44-2 (3/4") H-pattern trap instead. Don't let him sell you a 30-7 and bush it down, either. A 30-7 is way OVERSIZE and probably costs more than 4x the price of a 44-2. The 44-2, being an H-pattern trap, is also much easier to service; all of the guts come out attached to the face-plate and you just change it as an assembly, without having to touch any of the pipes.
ted_p
1
Re: Is it really Necessary
Replacing phillips screw that they put in a place you can't get a screwdriver with allen head screws can make them easier to install and remove.
mattmia2
1
Re: Weil McLain direct vent ultra oil boiler-has to be constantly reset
That boiler is extremely sensitive about its combustion settings. It has the Beckett NX burner and if the draft and air isn't setup correctly it will rapidly fill with soot. The boiler can be setup to run without making any soot but there's a much smaller margin for error than other boilers. Definitely not my favorite thing to work on. You need a good technician with a digital combustion analyzer to make sure draft and combustion are set properly. It also seems like the burner runs better on the Hago nozzle specified in the manual rather than the Delavan nozzles I usually use everywhere.
Re: How to prevent undesired water flow to indirect HW heater
wait a minute,
what is the temp at the boiler?
you're not running OA resest, are you?
what is the temp at the boiler?
you're not running OA resest, are you?
neilc
1
Re: New MA. Stretch Energy Code
Time for a bit of a rant. Move on if you no like.
First place, some of us -- such as myself -- were aware of the impending problem 40 years and more ago. We were also aware that the technology existed at that time to move to more and more electric and less and less fossil fuel usage. Nobody paid much attention, and then folks such as Hanoi Jane made a big production out of how dangerous said technology was and scared everyone off it. So here we are, and the hopeful types who think that somehow our existing grid, even with upgrades but shorn of reliable dispatchable power will be able to power us out of the problem are, bluntly, either dreaming or deluded. Physics is a b**ch, but you can't get rid of it.
Some of the proposed solutions will, I will grant, work at least sort of in moderately to densely populated suburban areas. These areas are the ones which have the highest turnover in build infrastructure -- many houses built today are lucky to last 30 years -- and the people who live there can, by and large, afford the mandates which are proposed. Of course I can have a fancy heat pump which works in my temperature range. Of course I have a place to park and charge my 6 figure EV. Of course I have room on the roof of my McMansion for solar PV. No problem. What are you complaining about?
But what about @jesmed1 's 100 year old condo? Or a few tens of thousands of other walk up apartment buildings in more densely populated areas? The people living there can barely afford the rent as it is. The landlords can barely afford minimum upkeep after taxes. Who is going to pay for the upgrades? They at least won't have to worry about charging their car, since they won't be able to afford to buy one, so they will need vastly improved and more flexible public transportation. Who is going to pay for that?
And where will the power be generated to power all of this? Never mind stored for the moment -- just generated. The most recent figure I can find for New York City, for example, with other energy sources converted to electricity, is around 100 terawatts hours of energy per year. A terawatt is a million megawatts. Let us suppose, for the moment, that half of that is to be supplied by photovoltaics, and half by offshore wind (let's ignore the unknown environmental impacts of offshore wind...). That means we need 50 terawatt hours of energy from photovoltaics. Now the latest, and still very experimental photovoltaics can produce somewhere around 300 watts of power per square meter of cell. In the northeast, the best estimate for solar arrays is that there are about 3 hours of usable sunshine per day, on average, so it is safe to suppose that one can get around 1 kilowatt hour of energy from a square meter of array. That works out to around 4 megawatt hours of energy per acre of array per day or, very roughly, 1 gigawatt hour of energy per acre per year. So... I need somewhere around 50,000 acres of photovoltaics. And that's just the city -- not the metro area. Where is that land to be found?
Good question. Please don't tell me that it will be from photovoltaics on the rooftops...
One might also note that first thought -- all the power will be electric. That's twice what is used presently, so the grid capacity will have to be doubled throughout the city.
Then there are other problems in rural areas which no one wants to talk about. Expanding grid capacity is one; it will need to be more than doubled almost all areas. EVs are all very fine for your grocery getter, but not so much for agricultural machinery or the family pickup truck (and yes, I have driven an electric full size pickup. Very impressive. About as useful as a velvet lined frying pan, but very impressive).
And so on.
At some point in the future I have no doubt that most, if not all, energy use may become electric. It's not going to happen by 2035 or 2050 or some arbitrary date, and if a country is forced to try to meet such an arbitrary target times are going to get really tough for most of the population.
Let it happen, yes. Work towards it, yes. Force it? Not a very bright idea, however much the elites want it.
First place, some of us -- such as myself -- were aware of the impending problem 40 years and more ago. We were also aware that the technology existed at that time to move to more and more electric and less and less fossil fuel usage. Nobody paid much attention, and then folks such as Hanoi Jane made a big production out of how dangerous said technology was and scared everyone off it. So here we are, and the hopeful types who think that somehow our existing grid, even with upgrades but shorn of reliable dispatchable power will be able to power us out of the problem are, bluntly, either dreaming or deluded. Physics is a b**ch, but you can't get rid of it.
Some of the proposed solutions will, I will grant, work at least sort of in moderately to densely populated suburban areas. These areas are the ones which have the highest turnover in build infrastructure -- many houses built today are lucky to last 30 years -- and the people who live there can, by and large, afford the mandates which are proposed. Of course I can have a fancy heat pump which works in my temperature range. Of course I have a place to park and charge my 6 figure EV. Of course I have room on the roof of my McMansion for solar PV. No problem. What are you complaining about?
But what about @jesmed1 's 100 year old condo? Or a few tens of thousands of other walk up apartment buildings in more densely populated areas? The people living there can barely afford the rent as it is. The landlords can barely afford minimum upkeep after taxes. Who is going to pay for the upgrades? They at least won't have to worry about charging their car, since they won't be able to afford to buy one, so they will need vastly improved and more flexible public transportation. Who is going to pay for that?
And where will the power be generated to power all of this? Never mind stored for the moment -- just generated. The most recent figure I can find for New York City, for example, with other energy sources converted to electricity, is around 100 terawatts hours of energy per year. A terawatt is a million megawatts. Let us suppose, for the moment, that half of that is to be supplied by photovoltaics, and half by offshore wind (let's ignore the unknown environmental impacts of offshore wind...). That means we need 50 terawatt hours of energy from photovoltaics. Now the latest, and still very experimental photovoltaics can produce somewhere around 300 watts of power per square meter of cell. In the northeast, the best estimate for solar arrays is that there are about 3 hours of usable sunshine per day, on average, so it is safe to suppose that one can get around 1 kilowatt hour of energy from a square meter of array. That works out to around 4 megawatt hours of energy per acre of array per day or, very roughly, 1 gigawatt hour of energy per acre per year. So... I need somewhere around 50,000 acres of photovoltaics. And that's just the city -- not the metro area. Where is that land to be found?
Good question. Please don't tell me that it will be from photovoltaics on the rooftops...
One might also note that first thought -- all the power will be electric. That's twice what is used presently, so the grid capacity will have to be doubled throughout the city.
Then there are other problems in rural areas which no one wants to talk about. Expanding grid capacity is one; it will need to be more than doubled almost all areas. EVs are all very fine for your grocery getter, but not so much for agricultural machinery or the family pickup truck (and yes, I have driven an electric full size pickup. Very impressive. About as useful as a velvet lined frying pan, but very impressive).
And so on.
At some point in the future I have no doubt that most, if not all, energy use may become electric. It's not going to happen by 2035 or 2050 or some arbitrary date, and if a country is forced to try to meet such an arbitrary target times are going to get really tough for most of the population.
Let it happen, yes. Work towards it, yes. Force it? Not a very bright idea, however much the elites want it.
Re: Is it really Necessary
I'm not sure I would say they swept that under the rug. There is a really long story to go along with those studs breaking, but basically 8 months of shoddy manufacturing from the partner that made the heat exchangers has haunted TT for the last 5-8 years, it actually put them out of business but Ideal bought them before that happened. For what its worth I have never been denied a warranty claim due to broken studsThe issue went on in some capacity for closer to 8 years. It is rare to come across an older prestige with Mtba 3 or 5 controls that don't have at least one broken stud. I remember pulling boilers out of the box in 2008 and seeing broken studs. At that time TT would say to just keep an eye on the rest of the studs.
My understanding is that the materials being electro-welded were not compatible.
They replaced them within the warranty period, yes. Anything outside that period was not covered. My point is that the defective studs are a serious safety concern and the boilers should have been recalled immediately. Triangle Tube did the math and the consumer/contractor paid the price.
Back to the OP, when I hear deteriorated insulation and bad venturi, I am willing to bet it is caused by broken studs. Probably on the back side where they are not readily visible.
Zman
2
Re: Piping radiant using a water heater
70- 75% is typical efficiency for a tank type heater, power venters may be an the higher end.,
40,000 X 75% = 30,000 btu/hr as a realistic output.
2600 feet of pex tubing on 12" centers would cover about 2600 square feet of space.
If the load is 11 btu/ sq ft or lower you are covered.
To know for sure you need a heat load calculation.
Usually what you find is the system will heat adequately until you get colder outdoor conditions. Then you may run of of output from the heater. If it runs non stop and doesn't heat the space, it is noit a pump issue, you don't have enough heater capacity.
If tank type water heaters they run below 100F for long periods they tend to start corroding from constant condensation inside, keep an eye on that.
40,000 X 75% = 30,000 btu/hr as a realistic output.
2600 feet of pex tubing on 12" centers would cover about 2600 square feet of space.
If the load is 11 btu/ sq ft or lower you are covered.
To know for sure you need a heat load calculation.
Usually what you find is the system will heat adequately until you get colder outdoor conditions. Then you may run of of output from the heater. If it runs non stop and doesn't heat the space, it is noit a pump issue, you don't have enough heater capacity.
If tank type water heaters they run below 100F for long periods they tend to start corroding from constant condensation inside, keep an eye on that.
hot_rod
3
Re: Vitodens 200W interior corrosion
Is it dripping from the bottom of the HX...We have seen some of the WB2B and HA series that had concentric venting system regurgitate on the termination just to bring the condensate back to the cabinet, drip onto the top of the HX,follow the circumference of the HX and the drip onto the wiring harness of the gasvalve...The control console and wiring harness would then need to be changed. 😔
Re: Junk
Me personally i don't mind combi as long as you buy a product designed for heat with the ability to make hot water and its from a good quality company. Meaning the BOILER is a BOILER being used to also make hot water. Not a hot water heater pretending to be a boiler. Noritz is an on demand water heater being used for heat also. there is a huge difference. The heat exchanger design for a noritiz, rinnai, navien etc are all heat exchangers designed for on demand hot water, not heat.
i prefer to do a mod/com with an indirect
i prefer to do a mod/com with an indirect
pedmec
3