New Construction Game Plan

PureCon

So, Im in the process of building a New house(this is going to be a 3 unit building) in upstate NY, its 2 stories above grade (approx 1230 Each) and basement (approx 1360) I have radiant in the basement slab, and in both upper units( the aluming lined pex offset a 1/2 from the floor with the radiant barrier -not the bubblewrap kind) I used the insulated concrete forms for the basement ( considered R-50) and sprayfoam in the walls (r-21) and will have an r-60 in the attic.



I was orginaly planning on putting 3 combination wall hung boiler/instant DHW on each floor but because i'm spending so much on insulation i decided to just put one unit in the basement and include heat in the rentals,



I was thinking about going with the quietside DPW-199a to power the whole building, but alot of people are not fans of the brand,



I can get a triangle tube ps110 and 50gal indirect tank for like 1500$ more then the quietside, but i dont know if the indirect setup would provide much more hotwater then the quietside instant anyway?



suggestions? Opinions? comments?

Brad White

A thought from a happily former landlord....

I am not sure what utility requirements are in your area, but here in MA, if you have one boiler, you build that into your rent and cannot charge nor meter the heating use, legally. That is, unless you are registered as a public utility, even if all agree and you have BTU meters, etc. A form of consumer protection basically. They can all agree until one backs out.



My point being, once you commit to one system, you may be stuck with the bill between lease renewal times. Endless showers when they are "free" to the user can out-cost heating, especially with your good building enclosure.



I would look into one of the smaller wall-hung boilers for each unit such as the Lochinvar Knight 50 or TT Prestige Solo 60, weighing actual heat losses and DHW production of course. But put each tenant on their own gas meter and be done with it. Size carefully and know that you are offering a superior space of comfort and economy. Build THAT into the rent.



My $0.02 anyway.

PureCon

...

as far as codes go, I wont be metering it, just incrementaly adding to the rent for it, they will have there own thermostats however, and from the area units with heat/dhw included seem to get rented faster... i guess im gambling to some extent on usage and return



I did set everything up so it could be isolated  on each floor, even the radiant manifolds are on respective floor,  i was trying to recoperate some of the over insulating costs on including heat on such a low heat loss scenario. frankly i just dont have the additional margins to afford to buy 3 systems at the time being.

AHerra

Hot water flow rates......

I installed this exact boiler in a very large horse barn last winter. I was quite impressed with the boiler and hotwater capabilities. But you having three tennants I would be real careful with the hotwater heater needs. Even with a good mixing valve that is required by quietside you will be hard pressed to flow enough hotwater for 2 showers at 1.5 gal per min and a washmachine dish washer etc.....

But as far as the quietside being able to heat the building will be no problem.

SpeyFitter

Consider redundancy.

Since you're here at this stage, you might want to consider some redundancy just for peace of mind should something happen. If you went with 2 smaller boilers over 1 larger boiler, it could save you some future head aches. Yes it adds more cost, but it also affords you more efficiency as well since the boilers when combined through an integrated controller, will act as one boiler, and subsequently will have a higher turn down ratio together for shoulder heating days.

I'd look at something like 2 Lochivnar Knight WBN051 or the new Fire Tube WHN 055 and you could either have them heat one larger tank, or have 2 small tanks where each boiler heats their own tank and they are paralleled together on the domestic side. Again further redundancy for down the line. Combined, these boilers would offer you a 10,000 or 11,000 minimum firing rate up to 100,000 to 110,000 (depending on if you go with the WBN or WHN). If you gave them each their own 40 gallon tank, or went with a single 80 gallon tank, you'd be laughing.