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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?
Re: Why purge valve above boiler? Pumping Away.
It makes a neater job and simple to purge the system , one hose .
Always makes me think of Dan's story of launching torpedos , Back in my Rite Fuel days, how many year . I am still launching them :)
Big Ed_4
Re: Why purge valve above boiler? Pumping Away.
I don’t have any experience with that fill valve
If it is working, may as well keep it.
If it fails, consider the 573.
I do work for Caleffi, so….
hot_rod
Re: Why purge valve above boiler? Pumping Away.
Very simply...its the last spot before the unwanted air gets out in to the system. Mad Dog
Re: Steam device to be identified
it is all the same yet all different. Everything is the same controls we have on US boilers but it is all a different design and manufacturer. It looks like the low water cutout is a Mcdonnell Miller low water cut out that we use in the US.
Unless there is something special about European boilers that can separate the steam and water, the near boiler piping is very wrong.
I assume that this is a 2 pipe steam system, each radiator has a supply and a return, not a single pipe where steam enters and condensate exits through the same pipe at the bottom of the radiator.
I think that is some sort of "boiler return trap". If the pressure in the steam supply main gets too high in comparison to the return for the water to be able to return to the boiler, it allows some steam in to the condensate return to equalize the pressure and allow the water to return to the boiler.
You would have to find the European @DanHolohan to figure out exactly what that device is.
mattmia2
Re: Piping from scratch
Scrap the system and run new panel radiators . I would run a home run system (3/8" works here).
Big Ed_4