A Building In Maine with a Vito (Ragu at Work!)

ALH_4

150 gallons for a month? Jack, I am impressed. How is this building insulated?

Brad White_9

A Steel Manufactured Building on a Slab....

I get this e-mail from Jack Ragusa asking for an opinion on fuel consumption for this manufactured steel building. Slab on grade radiant. Heat loss I figured at about the 150-160 MBH range for a 100'x50'x14'high building with a 21' peak.

Actual design heat loss was 166 MBH by the way, a fair guess.

Radiant slab heated by a Vitodens, his first.

What would I expect the propane consumption to be for the month, given below zero nights and barely reaching 10 above in the daytime? Space maintaining 61 degrees (warehouse and showroom).

Quick back of napkin calculation for about 1650 degree-days, 90% efficiency, (insert humming here....), I said, "583 gallons with a 0.65 Cd factor". About 19 gallons a day for the 5,000 SF.

The real number?

150 gallons of propane.

I just had to share this. Extraordinary. Either the heat loss is off or energy calculation method is way off or the benefits of radiant comfort to temperature is incalculable or the Vitodens is a brilliant machine...

Jack- you must be very pleased, just not as pleased as the Owner

Ragu_5

Thanks, Brad

I appreciate your help and your posting. I think that our Vitodens is a good machine, eh?

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Constantin

However...

... can you think of a better reference than the owner re: Jack's brilliance at this point?

Without Jack, the place probably would have gotten a furnace, rotten insulation, and much higher fuel bills. The marginal cost of installing a Vitodens and proper insulation is going to be made up rather quickly at this rate of fuel savings.

Kudos to Jack!

Ragu_5

Andrew...

The owner builds steel buildings for a living. He used his standard 6" fiberglass package on this one, but hopes to add more in the future.

It's that hairy, nasty yellow fiberglass (which I think has a higher R value) and is lined on the interior with white vinyl.

The slab is standard 2" foam below and along the perimeter. I honestly don't know why this place heats so well. The only trick thing we did was run 300' lengths of 3/4" tubing in the slab. According to the calculations, there is only a miniscule difference in BTU's per square foot as opposed to 1/2" tubing. Yes, a decrease in head also.

I dunno; I piped the system as per Viessmann and it works well. I think that the Vitodens is a better machine than any of us ever knew. I just used the best and followed the instructions.

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Weezbo

*~/:)

NiCe

I just Love this Place:) it is a veritable Treasure trove:) What can i say ?