System pictures.

Jean-David Beyer

Many people post pictures of systems they have installed or worked on here. But from one homeowner's point of view, these systems are not "quite done." Or so it appears. Is this because they are, in fact, not quite done, or to expose details that would not be visible when the systems are completed?



For example, I see pressure relief valves with no drain pipe attached. I see many pipes containing steam or hot water that are not insulated.



It his because the person who photographed system wanted to make sure we could see details or pretty copper pipe? That would be fine with me.



When my contractor installed my hot water system, he did not insulate the pipes to the house (system in unheated attached garage) or to the indirect fired hot water heater. I am not sure how important insulating the pipes to he house actually are; most of them have only 120F water in them. But the ones to and from the indirect can go up to 180F and they certainly benefit from insulation. It was not much trouble for me to insulate these, but I would like to know if the systems I see here are left that way, or is the final "finish up" work done after the pictures are taken.

Devan

Pipe insulation

may only be required in unconditioned spaces. If a basement is insulated I don't usually insulate the pipes. And NYS energy codes requires all slab and foudation walls to be insulated.I do admit I usually forget pipe the relief down, but the inspector always catches me on it.

Unknown

Hey JD,,,,

Install pics are usually taken when we are 90-98% completed,,,, typically relief -valve lines are added last(but added nonetheless),,,, it is assumed you(or anyone else) would know that!

Jean-David Beyer

Maybe the pros do.

But I did not. I started to suspect it because I found it hard to believe so much work appeared to be not quite complete. That is why I asked. But I began to wonder when my contractor did not insulate the pipes in my unheated garage. Was it on purpose because it was unneeded, because they forgot, or to save a little time and money?The contract was silent about insulating those pipes. I had not thought about it at the time we drew up the contract, and apparently they did not either.



So I did make a few little changes in their installation.



1.) I did insulate the pipes in my garage.



2.) The plastic hose that carried the condensate away went along an exterior wall of my unheated garage and they put it in very neatly, everything square (horizontal or vertical), But since my garage is unheated, the water that collects in the plastic tubing could freeze in cold weather, and that would not be good. So I rerouted the hose so it was always downhill and put a little "vacuum breaker" at the high point so that water could run out. The vacuum breaker is just a T with some spare hose running high enough that no water would come out.



3.) I put an aquastat on the main delivery pipe to my radiant heating zone so if the water got over 140F it would stop the boiler until things cooled down. This was recommended by the boiler manufacturer, but they did not put one in. As a practical matter, this should never trip since the maximum temperature going to that zone should not exceed 125F (i.e., 120F +|- 5F), but if the control board failed it could run very hot water into the slab.

Wayco Wayne_2

Very nice

to follow up your contractor. If all customers were involved to that level it would be a better world. Singh, you made me laugh. I am awful at remembering to pipe the reliefs. It's good to know I'm not the only one

MarkPFalade

In my case,

Those were the most recent pics I had so that's what I went with. hey were taken when I was about 80%. I STILL need to go back and take the final product pics. FYI, all my pretty copper is now covered by insulation. ;-)