Recently Completed Radiant Job

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Here are some pictures of a large Radiant job I completed this fall. The customer just called, and he was extremely happy to report that his gas bill for a 3700 sq ft house was only $200 for last month, up here in northern Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border, no one is in the house yet, and there are no appliances or curtains, yet the gas bills are ridiculously low, with the thermostat set at 68 degrees 24/7 and with the extremely cold weather we have had this year. The house has 6" walls with fiberglass and no foam except for the slab/ lower level and the ends of the bays where I have staple up. The slab mixing valve is set to 110 degrees and on initial startup the customer called to happily report that the slab, and room, had come up to temp in only a few hours. When I was working there I turned the thermostat down to 65 degrees overnight, and back up to 75 in the morning and it took 2 hours and 15 minutes for the room to hit 75 when it was ten degrees outside, I have 4", 8", and 12" spacing in this well insulated slab. The customer will use setback here, on the slab and staple up, once he moves in. Matching up a High Efficiency Boiler, Radiant with close pipe spacing and a well insulated house is a win-win situation.



Thanks, Bob Gagnon LEED AP

Robert_H

Beautiful

I love the boiler space layout.

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Thanks,

Robert, I have been working for this family for decades so they give me what I want, enough room for multiple zone boiler layout and plenty of insulation, that's half the battle sometimes.



Thanks, Bob Gagnon

Gordy

Awesome statistics

That is beautiful. Tubing is cheap keep the spacing tighter. I like that concept, keeps water temps low, and temps even.

knotgrumpy

Boiler?

What kind of boiler did you use, Bob?

Snowmelt

Good job

Good job, I do have some questions?



I noticed no plates but instead of just one tube going up then come back one I noticed you had had multiple in the just, what spacing did you use?

What size whole did you cut in the joist to run the tubes?

What linker feet and what size pex did you run?



I think that's wirsbo pex that you have with those manifolds?

What water temp are you running?

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

I Always Use

Utica Boilers, I have had very few problems using their cast iron boilers over the years, and I am really impressed with Utica's High Efficiency Boilers. This is a Utica SSC series boiler. The owner of this house has a house right next store, that he built about thirty years ago and we have a Utica Cast Iron Boiler in there, that house is only about 2000 sq ft, but the gas bill from that house from last month is $450. We figure the new house is using one-fourth the energy, when comparing house sizes. The houses are insulated similarly, except now we have the stretch code in Lowell and every crack and seam must be caulked on the building's envelope. The new house feels like a foam insulated house, by utilizing this low cost method to reduce air infiltration, I used to think you needed foam, now I'm not sure. I credit the High Efficiency Utica Boiler, with the Radiant heating and really tight construction, as the three biggest reasons that the bills here are so low.



Thanks, Bob Gagnon

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

I Like Staple Up Better

With no plates, I get more heat when using multiple runs, I run a max temperature of 135 degrees for the staple up, but with the boiler on outdoor reset, it gets cooler than that on warmer days. Staple up is easier for the other mechanical trades to get by, and is less likely to get drilled or nailed. I have never needed supplemental heat when using staple up with multiple runs. The pex is Wirsbo/ Uponor and the manifolds are too, I used 3/8" pex for the staple up. The holes I used varied from 1 1/2' to 2 1/2" depending on how many runs I had to get through the holes.



Thanks, Bob Gagnon