Insufficient heat from system

Weezbo

my apology ,

my little pinner dawg wid one eye .( just got back from the animal hospital today and she like us is not a spring chicken ..last night a true friend had a heart attack and i am off to get a few things together with him this after noon , so i realise you think straight and it is not of your imagination these things are happening i too had a bit of a run in with a similar problem a time or two and like you i busted out a new coil of pipe and checked it just like you did . because i could not fathom what someone could have done wrong ....

ok so ,

if the pipe must be installed in an outside wall then insulate the supply and return with some one inch snap and seal 6'-0" and then make sure it is within the vapor barrier (poly sheathing ,wrap some sort of plastic bag for groceries around the tubing and seal any penatration between floors with fiill foam in the green can or the orange stuff..

the yellow stuff is not made for it .. put a couple small pieces of the one inch thick foam where it exits the plate.. and that part is pretty tidy right there ..



the header size could indeed be of consideration as well as some of the checks it is like tha t these days nothing is what we thought it is any more i spent time taking out a brasst 3/4" t recently that weeped water out of the cast brass go figure in a place where it should not leak for any reason and some two inch threaded checks that seemed to have the exact same leak in the exact same place ...so i get the check valve concern as well.



the temp drop could be due to

1. control issue

2 . temp ( Heat loss )

3. severe restriction to flow ,



still , at this point ...

flow itself usually is the least of the issues because temp is by far the biggest number we are dealing with.. however dwindling flow when it isnt air Might be able to be overcome temporarily by running the boiler water/ fluid slightly higher than 12 pound say even 24 may not be unreasonable as long as the water is circulating the heat should have a chance to assist the circ as someting that i would consider first ..

not that i think you have to overcome two atmospheres it just may be that way .. so i think i would at least try that first before adding different circ.



William.

FrustratedandCold

Heat!

Ok so last night about 5pm I was able to finish re-pulling the pex through the house to remove all the elbows. 27 were removed as was over 50 feet of pipe, bringing my total system loop to 185'. Then replaced the taco 0015 on which a bearing went out and fired the boiler back up. While the boiler is still manually modulated down to the low setting, we got great, and consistent heat!

At 5 pm the upstairs temp was 53, by midnight we had 70, and when I left at 2:15, it was 72! Remember its empty space. (no furniture) at the moment, so I expect it to heat slower than normal. BUT IT WORKED!

I still need to rebuild the portion of the primary loop to be bigger so that multiple zones don't starve for water, but at least I can close the walls and ceilings on the first floor now.



Any thoughts on 1 1/4 vs 1/1/2?

Mark Eatherton

As with any hydronic question there is only one correct answer...

and the answer is, "It depends!"



Size the header to the applicable flow rates to be seen.



As our good friend John Siegenthaler is prone to saying, "Headers should be short and fat"



3/4" = 4 GPM, 1" = 8 to 10 GPM, 1-14" = 14 GPM, and 1-1/2" = 22 GPM.



Size accordingly.



Congrats on geting heat back as well. Heat is one of those things you don't really miss until you don't have it, and THEN BOY DO YOU MISS IT!



ME

FrustratedandCold

good info

Thanks mark, great info. Guess now I should get the Boss's final decision about radiant vs baseboards downstairs so I can try to figure that out, correctly this time.