Best Of
Re: The Result of Using Non Barrier PEX
I would recommend replacement of any ferrous materials for Brass,bronze and Stainless steel. A magnetic filtering device which is not made off ferrous materials would be a great addition as well.
The Result of Using Non Barrier PEX
For those who still think that it doesn’t make any difference whether you use O2 barrier PEX, look at the rust and sludge in this water.
This is after 8 years and the only iron or steel in the system is the the pumps, two steel headers, and the expansion tank. The rest is copper or non barrier PEX.
This was one of several buckets full and I still haven’t finished flushing it.
Ironman
Re: Heating System For a Small Off-Grid Cabin
Found the link
The store energy at up to 600c using a closed loop fluid and heat exchangers. If water is the fluid this is comparable to temperature and pressure used in modern turbine steam plant.
Re: Heating System For a Small Off-Grid Cabin
That is a bit more engineered Bob Ramlow sand bed storage concept.
Bob has been promoting and installing sand bed radiant, throughout Wisconsin, charged all summer with solar thermal for maybe 30 years now.
His systems are not top insulated, so they radiate through the winter at a bit of an uncontrolled rate
Spending many years at the MREA event and meeting owners of these sand bed homes they love them, and learn to live with the idiosyncrasies.
hot_rod
Re: Heating System For a Small Off-Grid Cabin
For off grid, you have plan a bit differently. All those 24/7 loads add up very quick when you have a weeklong storm. A modcon plus pump you are probably looking at around 150W draw so 25kWh a week. I have a cottage in northern Ontario with a 10kW array and there are snowy weeks when the array output never goes above 100W.
Generators have a nasty habit of not starting when you are away, so not something you can rely on to keep your place from freezing.
You are on the right track in making the structure efficient first. With good design and a bit of south facing windows you can keep the place above freezing down to pretty cold temperatures.
For the rest of the time, you need something that doesn't require power to run to heat. That is typically a through the wall vented propane heater.
You can also reduce the amount of heat you need if you move all your plumbing into a central core area of the house and only heat that.
As for space heat the rest of the time, the tried and tested is a high efficiency wood stove.
If you want to run space heat off your PV, you can use a wall mount minisplit connected to a load shed output on your PV setup. This way if there is enough sun, the minisplit would heat the place but once the batteries run low, it gets disconnected and propane heat takes over.
If you really must have hydronic floor heat especially with a crawlspace, I would do a direct vented water heater in thermosyphon to oversized pipes in the floor. No power needed for the operation.
Kaos
Re: V- Groove
We use the Victaulic groover that mounted on a Ridgid 300. Don't know the model or if it fits a "compact 300"
They make a lot of different models and so dose Ridgid.
What you pick depends on what pipe size you're doing.
If doing 4" or smaller you can get away with less expense and weight to drag around. If your doing a lot of 6" and up be prepared to spend $$$$$ and it will be heavy
Re: Bronx apartment gas explosion
Well, one good thing is no one got hurt whatever the cause.
Re: #2 oil vs Bio- Fuel
On a side note Rudolph Diesel invented his engine initially to run on coal dust but it exploded, he then moved to Hemp oil because he felt that since all farmers grew hemp they could use the hemp oil to run their equipment for free, big oil had other ideas and wanted him to endorse #2 which was already in use for lamps, etc instead of whale oil. History books wrongly state he made it to run on soybean oil, it wasn't a large crop back then.
Diesel was found floating in the English channel. Big oil called #2 diesel oil and the rest is history.
GBart
Re: Rinnai i150s Circulator Pump Question
FWIW….
According to Rinanni…a user supplied circulator pump is necessary for the boiler loop, in addition to the radiators loop(s) circulator pump(s) for the Rinanni i150s Non-Combo Boiler.
Thanks Again,
Bill
Re: Rinnai i150s Circulator Pump Question
if there is no built in circ I recommend putting the external circulator on the return pipe flowing into the boiler (blue vertical line under boiler) and yes you will want some drains and valves. webstone makes pump flanges with and without drains that are nice, they also make ball valves with drains built in.
