Best Of
My first time using a purge valve after reading Pumping Away
In this week's video, I discuss the first time I saw a purge valve setup and how it worked. I had read about the purge valve in Dan's Pumping Away and never had a chance to see one. Most of my clients were commercial or lite industrial. When I did, it worked like a charm. So much easier than trying to access painted over radiator vents behind furniture. Hope you enjoy it.
Re: System 2000, nearly double the cost of Weil McLain, is it worth it?
Get him to put that in writing! I'll bet you don't see the difference in 2 years. 3 - 5 maybe.
It's still worth it BUT…..
Tightening the envelop has a greater return on investment. Then you can get a smaller boiler that you might see the savings promised.
Has an accurate heat load loss been done? Get it done.

Re: Replacing a nat gas combi boiler with electric alternative
That set up is fairly decent. Having the Natural gas is great… many would love to have that option.
I would try to have them just replace the Combi w/ another combi that is tried AND that you know well.
If they are drinking the electrification koolaid and cant be moved to gain the floor space maybe get a stackable washer and dryer?

Re: Seeking Engineer for Off-Grid Religious Facility Heating in the Mountain States
The passive solar houses and other structures my late father0in-law and I did back forty plus years ago were completely engineered, including thermal mass effects. A couple of the early ones we didn't get quite right, but later we usually came pretty close. Architecture wasn't our thing, so we worked mostly the The Architects Collaborative or Mies van der Rohe on that.
Re: A 30 year water heater??
I just got 26 years out of an inexpensive 50-gallon "American Water Heater". I'm sure it lasted that long because I have a sediment filter on the incoming water service, which helped keep the bottom of the tank clean. The failure point looked like a weld at the top of the tank, rather than the bottom rotting out like we see more often.
And I had a great helper:
Re: Replacing a nat gas combi boiler with electric alternative
An electric boiler with an NTI wall hung indirect WH is a great space saver if electric is cheap enough to make the math work out. Sizing an electric boiler (or on-demand) large enough to meet the point load of an average home doesn't make any sense at all, so the whole combi type arrangement with a plate HX is not feasible under any circumstances- hence why nobody makes a wall hung electric combi.

Re: System 2000, nearly double the cost of Weil McLain, is it worth it?
I find that hard to believe. Can you give some examples? Tech Support saved my butt a few days ago. And I only waited 2 minutes. I didn't go into a que hole for 3 hours and need to have model and serial numbers of everything before I was connected. I'm also pretty sure my Territory Manager covers your area, and there couldn't be a nicer guy. So justification is needed.

Re: One year old Williamson-Thermoflo heat exchanger failure
Take it up the chain.
Ive read a few manuals and do not recall that requirement. Minimum, maximum sizes yes. Not in exterior chimneys?

Re: Cold only leak?
Hot metal swells/expands. Colder metal shrinks. Generally that is the case with most materials. Gasket under the tankless coil plate? Start spraying or soaking the bolts on the plate with penetrating oil in preparation for removal.
Re: Castrads' new Windsor One Pipe Steam TRV and the sink or swim moment that brought it to life
Congratulations to Castrads on the launch of the Windsor One Pipe Steam TRV!