Best Of
Re: Bell & Gossett Circulator
Sounds like it could be low on water? What is the boiler pressure? 10- 12 psi is common.
That is a water lubricated circulator, so it needs to be filled and air free.
You can dead-head those circs for a short period, eventually they can boil the water out of the volute then you are running dry.
A leaking relief valve is often traced to a failed or water logged expansion tank, or a fill valve that is leaking past.
hot_rod
Re: Adding antifreeze to old boiler
The Rhogard is only 30% as-is and the Sentinel doesn't seem to show anywhere what its concentration is, but by the burst temp I would guess around 40%. The only way to do this properly is to get your hands on a refractometer and make adjustments as necessary, but you almost certainly don't have enough to keep the total concentration above 25% where it needs to be. With that said, why do you want glycol at all? If this space is occupied, it's not going to freeze and there is no reason to mess with glycol.
GroundUp
Re: Vapor Steam Heating System?
Maybe, maybe not. @JbPhillips , in the third pic where the device comes out of the housing and a pipe goes up, where does that pipe end up?
Also, where are you located? We might know someone who can help you……………
Re: Bell & Gossett Circulator
The leaking pressure relief valve was most likely either that valve was leaking or had failed to shut properly or the pressure reducing valve feeding the boiler required water had failed. They both do. Very common — and inexpensive to fix — failures. Nothing to do with the boiler.
Now on the running pump. You're best bet — other than finding out what is causing it to overheat — is to find out what is causing it to run and, related, whether it should be or not. The most likely cause of it overheating is that it is deadheaded — a valve on the outlet side closed. Hard to say without knowing more about the control strategy for the building whether it should be running or not.
Re: Air Vent at boiler. Necessary with Air Sep?
17 feet above the circulator pump that may be about 3 feet above the boiler pressure gauge indicates that you need about 8.9 PSI of static pressure to get the system filled. add a little extra for a buffer and you can operate at 12 PSI for that system. So 15 PSI at the boiler gauge is more than adequate without going overboard. Set the air charge in the expansion tank to 15 PSI when the expansion tank os not connected to the boiler water pressure. That would mean with the boiler pressure below 12 PSI if you want to check it without disconnecting it. Then set your auto fill pressure to 14.5 PSI to 15 PSI so not to add more water to the 15 PSI expansion tank at cold startup. You should be good to go with pumping away from the expansion tank!
Re: Air Vent at boiler. Necessary with Air Sep?
Thank you @EdTheHeaterMan and @mattmia2 . Yes, on the supply side: boiler - expansion/airsep-circ.
circ to top radiator is roughly 17feet.
202,000 output boiler.
Once a gravity system.
Re: Viessmann Vitocal AWHP for hydronic baseboards or retrofit floor heating?
First step is to figure out your starting point. How many liner feet of baseboard you have and how much oil did you burn through last winter. Winter energy used in Therms*42 is about your heat loss. For more accurate number run the math here:
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/replacing-a-furnace-or-boiler
AWHP likes to run at around 115F max, you can then see how much of the house heat your existing baseboards can supply at lower temp.
From there, you need to add extra emitters to make up for the shortfall. The easiest is oversized low temperature panel rads to replace sections of baseboard and a bit of floor heat where easier to get to without major demo.
Kaos
Re: Air Vent at boiler. Necessary with Air Sep?
That will depend on the type of compression tank you're using. (expansion tank). If you have a tank that has some type of membrane that separates the air from the water side of the system, then of course you should have an automatic air vent somewhere.
If however you have the older technology steel compression tank where the air and the water are in contact with each other, then you may want to make sure that the tank is equipped with the AirTrol® tank fitting, and use the top of the air scoop to vent air into the compression tank.
Can you explain the reason you feel you need the air separator? Are you experiencing air problems?