Boiler is piped to elec..water tank is that ok?

Slowpoke

Hi,been doing hvac-r for awhile.I bought a 100 yr.old house .has a 130.000 btu , propane New Yorker hydronic boiler .I have very little exprierence with hydronics.

Been ordering books and trying to learn all I can to work on this house.

There are 9 cast iron radiators they are very large ,the house is 2 story 1600 sf.

There is also a weil-mclain oil boiler that ties into the elec. water tank. When oil prices dropped they would use the oil instead of propane. (Domestic water heater is separate )



My question is that on the New Yorker there is no bladder tank. There is on the return at the top of the pipe about 2 ft. From the circulating pump an automatic air vent.

I have ordered a extrol 90 tank to install . Before the circulating pump.

On the weil-mclain the bladder tank is piped on the pipe that the PT valve is on .

This doesn't seem right. Is it?

I want to take the electric water heater out of the system. Any thoughts on why the elec.water heater is there?

I have many pictures if you would please look at them. Thanks for any help

Zman

A mess....

So, you have a propane boiler, an oil boiler and an electric water heater all as heat sources?

How in the world is this mess plumbed?

The only reason I can see for the water heater is they may be using it as a buffer tank for the oversized boilers, to keep them from short cycling.

You are correct about the expansion tank.

I would start with a heat loss calculation on the home. This is going to tell you how oversized your heat sources are and help you make some decisions. To give you an idea, your heat loss is likely in the 30-40K/BTU range.

Maybe you should draw out how this mess is piped so it is more clear how to deal with it.

Carl

Slowpoke

Buffering idea

Thanks Carl,

I haven't done a heat loss yet. But if the boiler is oversized the HW tank must be used to

Buffer the boiler. Buffer the boiler means it keeps the boiler running longer so it doesn't cycle? But this means the boiler is using more fuel to heat water it doesn't need .is this correct?

What if I took off all the insulation on the pipes in the basement to heat the basement (it's he bad stuff anyway),since I want to use the basement as a work room. Would that be enough of a buffer? Thanks

Here is a drawing of the HW tank. Thanks

Slowpoke

Heat loss calculation

I did the heat loss using the ACCA Manual "J" 6th edition. I came up with 102.874 Btu loss, that's without the infiltration loss . The boiler seems to be sized correctly . I added an expansion tank and moved the auto air vent to the supply side.There is only one boiler used at a time, with the the Elec. water heater.



Should I cut out this water heater from the system? The only reason for having it might be to keep too cool of water from returning to the boiler ? I do not even know what delta t is supposed to be when the water returns.

Any help would be appreciated.