heating fopars

Foster

I am a General Contractor who recently looked at a home to install a door into a 4 year old home between the mudroom and main living area because the mudroom was 10 degrees colder on average from the rest of the home. I never like to put a band-aid on things so I began to look around, first I found radiant staple up with R-19 craft faced insulation under it face down (no reflective insulation at all) in a 2x12 floor joist, next was a 140000 btu munchkin boiler with a 1/2" gas line going to it (roughly 55', I am having this changed to 1 inch.) along with other issues. This is a 1500sq' ranch with a full basement in Maine, the owner used 980 gallons of fuel last year for heat and hot water (she lives alone). Any ideas on how we can use this huge boiler more efficiently with out changing it. I am familiar with the boiler and they could have at least used the vision one kit and plumbed for it. I am in the process of doing a heat loss but I expect to see it around 50000 btu's.

Steve Whitbeck

Infloor

If the room is small enough - the floor area isn't enough to radiate enough heat for the room. I suggest heat spreader plates for the mud room.

Tim_D

Plates

Is the mud room on a seperate zone? If not why not make it one? In any case, I would consider switching to plates vs. staple up. Is the whole house staple up? It may be that the return temp to the munchkin is high enough that it is not condensing and therefore not very efficient.





Tim

kcopp

sounds like.....

you need supplemental heat in the mudroom. Run a panel rad or a freestanding rad off the manifold. Reflective back insulation is not needed... in fact after 6 months time the dust that settles on top makes any and few  reflective properties non existent. If no plates were installed it appears that they cheaped out on the install. Radiant w/ a mod/con w/ no plates is a waste of time. kpc

Foster

heating fopars

Thank you, I will defiantly try the plates and another zone, but the larger problem is this huge boiler. I need a clever way to pipe it to gain more efficiency, this unit will only turn down to around 47,000 BTU's. So what is going to keep happening is it cycles. As for the reflective value another gentlemen talked about, any intelligent people will disagree from time to time, this is one of them. Thanks again everyone I do appreciate the help.

LarryC

Install a large buffer tank to reduce short cycling

DISCLAIMER :  I AM NOT A HEATING PROFESSIONAL.



Install a large insulated buffer tank between the boiler and the heating loads.  The boiler will run less often but will have longer burn times when it is reheating the water in the storage tank.  The tank will store the excess heat generated by the large minimum burn rate.



Add outdoor reset to reduce the temperature of the storage tank water needed to heat the house during the shoulder seasons.



How is the domestic hot water heated?  Is it a separate zone?  If so, is it set for 140 - 150 F and has a tempering valve installed?  Greater than 140 F to minimize the growth of Legionella bacteria and low enough to minimize fuel for unnecessary heating.