Our First Solaia Commercial/Beckett CG-10 Install

Steamhead

We've been working on this big house for a few years, and they finally decided to replace the boiler. The system is converted gravity, currently with 1479 square feet of radiation. The sun porch used to be heated but the rads are long gone- maybe they froze- and the kitchen is on a separate loop with commercial fin-tube. I'm guessing it originally had maybe 1900 square feet or so. Look at those huge mains- one set is 4-inch, the other 4-1/2-inch!



The old boiler was a 1960s American-Standard G-4 series atmospheric, oversized at 450 MBH input and circulating the main house with a Taco 120 on the return, at about 60 GPM. Gordo has that pic on his camera and will see that it gets up here.



The new one is a Solaia CSL-6230, with an input of 322 MBH. These commercial Solaias have been out for a while, but this is the first one to be installed with the Beckett CG-10 power gas burner. Originally they used HeatWise burners, but that company went under a few months ago.



We again used a boiler-loop primary-secondary setup to make sure some warm water got back to the boiler return tapping, to prevent condensation. The primary circulator is a Grundfos VersaFlo UP-43-70-F, the second-biggest wet-rotor we've ever installed (biggest was a 2-HP Wilo), delivering 78 GPM or so. The main house secondary circ is a Grundfos UP-43-44-F, delivering about 50 GPM. And the kitchen secondary circ is a Taco 007, pumping maybe 10 GPM into the series-loop kitchen zone. With this setup, warm water reaches the boiler return quickly and the return doesn't see all that cold water from those huge pipes.



Dave Thomas, CEO of Boyertown Furnace, came down for the commissioning. John Krigger of Saturn Resource Management was in town too and joined us. Saturn publishes books and does online training in the energy-efficiency field, and I've worked with John on their hydronic systems field guide- which (naturally) also covers steam. Saturn's site is here: <a href="http://srmi.biz/">http://srmi.biz/</a>



From the left: Dave Thomas, Gordo, John Krigger.

Steamhead

More details

We had a Taco 2-inch commercial air separator that we'd gotten on clearance, so we used it here. The original expansion tank was a 30-gallon plain steel unit, which was not big enough for the static fill pressure of a large 3-story house with high ceilings. So we augmented that with a 90-gallon-equivalent floor-standing diaphragm tank, and the pressure never rises anywhere near the 30-psi safety-valve blowoff point.



Why keep the old tank? Because it gives the air a place to go, rather than venting it from the system with an automatic air vent on the separator. These vents are moving parts and will eventually fail and leak, so why use them if we don't have to? We did add an Airtrol fitting to the tank to keep the air from migrating back into the system.



We handled the transition from the 1-1/2" circs to the 2" pipe with swage nipples. These provide a much smoother transition with less turbulence than if we had used ordinary reducing couplings and regular nipples.



Gordo crafted these floor-mounted pipe supports. This is one of many reasons he's my partner.

Steamhead

And we broke out the FLIR, of course

Overall view of the installation, temperatures taken at the air separator, bottom elbow of the primary loop  (11° ΔT across the loop) the big tee where the flow mains branch off, then a couple rads and a length of fin-tube in the kitchen.



The system heats quickly and should run much more efficiently.

Mark Eatherton

Congratulations on an excellent install...

And allow me to be the first to say THANK YOU for getting involved in their training manual. I've taken the BPI course, that references their manual, and I wanted to cry, or pull my hair out, or yell at my dog when I read their recommendations/guidelines. Archaic to say the least.



I think their heart was in the right place, but they didn't seek professional advice (obviously) when constructing their books.



Keep up the great work, and don't work for free on anything... Including their very pricey manual.



ME

RobG

Nice Install

Steamhead, as usual, nice install. Couple of questions. How is the noise on the burner? Is that strap iron supporting those big old existing pipes? I guess if its held up this long it probably will forever but you might try talking the HO into putting a few bucks into having Gordo work some of his hangar magic on the ceiling.

Nice job.

Rob

Steamhead

Thanks, guys!

that ceiling is covered with what looks like it might be asbestos, so we didn't want to touch it. There were some other straps on the mains, but nothing around the boiler itself, so that's why we added those floor supports. The owner is supposed to have that suspicious material removed, but had not done so when we started work.



The boiler room is fairly "live" acoustically, so the burner does seem loud, but once you get out and shut the door it's not bad. And you can barely hear it on the first floor.

kcopp

Wicked nice piping job...

I am curious about the boiler protection. I see you ran a full pumped bypass...that is great. But w/ all the system water (and those mains are HUGE) I still wonder if that is enough? Do you  have a way to measure return water temps and have you ever considered a more sophisticated way to make sure that the boiler does not go into prolonged condensing mode...like a Tekmar boiler control? Also would you and did you consider a Mod/Con boiler? ty,kpc

Dan Foley

Beautiful

Beautiful looking job, Frank.  Where was this one located?  Do you have any exterior pictures of the house? 



- DF

Steamhead

Greetings from Japan!

didn't know if I'd be able to get on the board from here. The Lovely Naoko and I are here to attend her sister's wedding and celebrate our own anniversary.



Kevin, If you get your flow rates right the return will heat up as fast as it needs to.  Dave says these boilers can handle lower return temps then the usual, and we've never experienced a problem doing it this way. We shot the pipes with the FLIR while he was there to verify the temps.



Reset wasn't in the budget on this one but could be added later. Our next CSL will be in a 5-unit apartment building so that one will have reset- I think we will try using Taco's VSI circ with built-in reset controller. It looks like that unit uses stock Tekmar sensors.



And this was yet another old house where a mod-con could not be used safely. The only outside wall in the boiler room with enough clearance from windows was in an inside corner, and the chimney was tall enough that maximum developed lengths were an issue. Plus, using the chimney would have orphaned the water heater, and they weren't going to replace the water heater with an indirect this time.



I know some of us exclusively love our mod-cons, but they can't be used everywhere. This is the state of the art for non-condensing gas-fired hot-water as far as we know.



Dan, this was in Roland Park. The house was built in 1911, and the system is original to the house.

kcopp

Thanks for....

the clarification. Have a great time overseas!

Gordo

Before Pictures

Here are some "before pictures" of the boiler we replaced.

Many of the pins in the flue passages had been rusted down to nubs.