Best Of
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.
GroundUp
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.
HVACNUT
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?
pecmsg
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.
psb75
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!
Re: Experience I had with a boiler tech and what I learned along the way.
Some of this depends on how the companies are structured as well. There's a few companies in the Detroit area that have a high turnover rate of employees. I have gone behind some other companies and explain my findings to the homeowner where they say what they didn't catch that. I find some of the companies where they give commission to techs more times that not are the ones to stay away from. The tech is more focused on getting to the next call and sell parts so they increase their commission. Train and pay guys so they focus on quality rather than quantity of calls.
Re: Experience I had with a boiler tech and what I learned along the way.
Many of the residential "service companies" here on Long Island don't even employ mechanics who speak English. They call the office and hand the phone back and forth to the homeowner. Usually try to sell new equipment over the phone…
Re: Experience I had with a boiler tech and what I learned along the way.
Good job. When can you start?
Good idea to retrofit a spill and rollout as mentioned.
I usually pull the burners and shake them out
Then turn the vac around and blow out the boiler passages. Make sure you have a mask on (and your wife isn't around). The dust settles in minutes.
