draining a zone in HW baseboard

moey

I have 5 zones one of which goes thru my garage then a crawlspace and finally heats a not so well insulated attic. Id like to remove the zone and not heat the space with HW baseboard heat it will eventually be electric so I can turn it on only when its used. I had planned to do this in the spring but I'm amazed at how fast the room loses heat so Im wasting a lot of oil even to keep it at 40, especially since the rest of the house is heated with wood primarily.



What can go wrong? :)



It looks like after the taco zone valve on the outlet side there is a shutoff/valve, on the inlet side there is a shutoff right before it comes back to the main line and a drain right before the shutoff. So Im thinking the correct procedure is:



1. Shut off valve right after taco zone valve

2. Shut off valve right before the outlet pipe returns to the main line

3. Open drain for that particular zone



I wasnt going to blow it out 90% of it would empty out and I would leave the drain open to allow air to escape. I do have a compressor but Im unsure where it would actually get hooked and have a benefit.



So what could go wrong besides human error. The valves not closing I guess and air getting in the system is all I can think of. Is this the right procedure?

Mark Eatherton

Right procedure, questionable results...

Simply opening one drain valve on an isolated circuit cannot guarantee that everything in that circuit will drain back into the heat of the house unless it was specifically designed that way (no traps, continuous downward pitch, etc)



As a precaution, I would recommend the installation of an ice maker tap saddle valve to let air in while water is running out. Worse case scenario, you can use a compressor and blow gun to force air in and water out, insuring that ALL water has been evacuated from the circuit, thereby avoid freeze burst pipes in hard to access areas.



And yes, valve failure is always a possibility, but less so in a closed loo heating system than a potable water system. You can always run down to HD and get some shark bite caps just in case...



ME