copper Christmas project 08

joel_19

that's all i've got to say

hot_rod

this time

we went with and electrically powered radiator concept. Makes it more portable. This one has a 300W element with setpoint and overheat protection.

It is our fifth year building copper presents for Ellen, mostly from scrap copper tube.

hr

[Deleted User]

WOW...

That could sit in a museum!

Merry Christmas to you and yours HR.

ME

Eugene Silberstein 3

AWESOME!

That is one beautiful piece!

jackchips_2

Nothing

you do surprises, hot rod.

Merry Christmas to you and your family as you continue to play beautiful music together and share with the rest of us.

Jack

radiconnection

"Awesome" just about summed it up! I'll add "Wow!" to the list; very, very nice!

Bob Forand

Do us the honors

Hot Rod, would you do all of us the honors of showing us the other four ? I remember seeing a bed frame that you had done once.

My gosh ! Man, you are talented !!!

Bob

Unknown

Very, very nice Bob,

I am always partial to the beautiful sounds of the harp, this gives this instrument another purpose aside from its beauty of sound!
Bravo!

Dave

Larry Weingarten

That's pretty!

Harpists everywhere would enjoy the additional warmth this instrument brings. I suppose you've even tuned it :~)
Happy holidays!!

Yours, Larry

Mike Dunn

Great job

HR. That is a work of art.

I second the notion of seeing the other pieces.

You are inspiring me to say the least.

Thanks for all that you contribute Hot Rod.

Mike

NRTDave

Gorgeous

Hand cut and soldered art vs the A419 industrial mech box look... nice work hot rod. Functional art at its best. So are the tubes filled with water? The fill could be on the bottom and just fill it all holding it upside down.

I'll need one when I move to the land of forced air in the valley of high tech. I'll be leaving that xps/plate floor you suggested which came out so perfect. It felt great in the kitchen, and looked way better than the fin tube that was there. Temp wise and coverage-wise (75% emitted of total floor - fridge, pet food and garbage areas unplated) and the temps matched the fin tube) it matched the temp for the fin-tube. Math dodes work! All the water temps were 15 degrees less in reality however but that's because a manual J probably means the true heatload is about 2/3rds of that. The Prestuge always condenses, even on medium coverage fintube at design day temps (although it didn't the winter of the install before I added the kitchen floor - that branch was removed when installing the new boiler). The monoflo works against condensing by lowering the delta t, to about 4* according to the MCBA which can only count by twos (I'm sure in C in Europe it counts by 1s - thanks supporters of Ronnie). I added a positive branch on the return where I divert about 4 gpms through a 46 gallon former electric water heater, which now serves as an indirectly ODR buffer tank. The MCBA fires in ten minutes at a time so the tank is almost replenished totally each firing cycle, and the long postpurge depleted it over the next 12 to 15 minutes. It smoothens the heating cycles of the boiler. These cycles add quite a few BTUs since the minimum modulation isn't very low and the pulse is 10 minutes on and then the time in between is varied from an hour as as lottle as 2 minutes... although that can be prolonged through settings. The minimum gross firing rate of anyone I know that tries who tends to be around 37 MBH or higher, over 20% higher than what the manufacturer claims, but it still works ideally. The buffer tank lowered returns by 2* which is really good since it adds absolutely no mechanical cost to it and it only cost the price of fittings, and the tank just uses simple ¾" connections top and bottom.

SlantFin's HE and the Siggy CD in the back of his book showed that 2 80' loops would have a low enough pressure drop to have proper velocities is both the monoflo (guessed flow - beyond my math and siggy's freeware CD) since I wanted to run the monoflo/fintube and some radiant from the Prestige's internal pump, which it does. I want to add underfloor in small spots in 2 baths but will have to guess at the how much flow can be diverted from the radiant side since the cripple-ware only does three separate flows and the kitchen uses 2 of the 3.

Pumped direct (but doesn't hunt, but did possess the first cheap programmable t-stat keeping it .2F below target so that the boiler stayed in a 6 state, which effectively made constant circ so all was good, especially after DHW calls when 2½ gallons of 155 water is stranded in the HX.

All in, the total electric load of the boiler and everything else heating related (plus the t-stat battery) is under 100 watts and that's with radiant floor heating in part(s) of the house (kitchen - adding baths), 70 watts of that is just for the internal 15-58 running on speed 2 - speed 1 and the heat stays in the basement, good for spring when upstairs gets so much solar and the basement can feel so cold.

A great boiler... while I wish the Prestige 60 would have been out when I changed over or was even in discussion, I have a 110 with about a true 40 MBH heatload (Manual J = 56K), although since lowered by maybe 5 since the boiler room is now fully insulated. Anyway, the full 110 on HIGH will sure be nice for speeding the recovery from the 57* IAT that I left it at over the holidays while away. Pressing the the HIGH fire is 10 minutes at max RPM. The boiler really only needs a max fan speed of 2100 rpm for CH if the setback is kept low, and 3800 rpm, which keeps DHW cycles both fast and silent. I can easily speed things when I return and want speed up recovery by closing the buffer tank off for the first day off with a simple valve, and having 330 pounds of water isolated from recovery efforts.

Nobody should underestimate the added value of a buffer tank warehouses some ion between cycle BTUs on any system where the boiler is oversized or can have micro firing cycles like a Vitodens where very few BTUs are added to the heating system. Especially when that buffer tank addition can be done very simply and inexpensively with demonstrable results using simple inexpensive electric water waters that don't leak.

I'll have to use a digital indoor/outdoor t-stat with min max function to compare the with and without buffer tank return temps a bit better. That little t-stat matches the MCBA readings pretty well along with the IR gun. I also have a spare PC near the boiler that I may hook up to the MCBA using the W-M version of the GasCom software. That is if I manage to have time to first read all of the docs with it so that I don't mess up my own settings somehow.

Anyway, you're an inspiration to many of us here. Thanks.

Merry Christmas and have a very Happy 2009, and keep delighting us with your artistic functional eye candy creations.

The Boiler Dr.

AWESOME !!!

If the harp does not make sweet music, I am sure you sweet woman sing your praises. You are a true wethead treasure. I am proud to have been in the company of such a consumate industry professional.
All the best of the season to you and yours.

J.C.A._3

Nice Job HR !

I remember seeing an Italian design like that...but in stainless at ISH 2005. It wouldn't have the same feeling as your masterpiece though!

Happy New year to you and Ellen. Chris

Weezbo

The long forgotten pipe harp ...





Thank You .

Have a harmonious holiday...

*~/:)

hot_rod

a few other projects

The bed frame and chandler are radiators. The 4 cylinder Taco bike isn't.
And a Christmas card Max sent to Italy.

hr

lee_7

Hot Rod,

Didn't you also make a copper tricycle? Any pictures ?

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)_11

12 days of xmas

Next year's project - in copper? Nice work.