Tempoary Heat - Solution

Jeff Perry_3

So if you read my previous thread I asked about some temporary heat. When the job was bid Bruce (my brother) got quotes from these outfits that bring in a big **** trailer with some mega boiler on it. That quote was used and submitted with the job. The problem with that was the boiler was really, really oversized. And the cost was incredible. And then when the job was awarded the companies said... " Oh ya, all our boilers are rented out for the winter." Great.

So ME was saying he had acquired a boiler that he hooked up for a job. And that's kinda the way our thoughts were. And the idea of paying that much money for a boiler rental and at the end of the day having nothing in hand irritated everyone. So here is what was done.

Bought a heavy duty reinforced trailer.
Hung 8 - AO Smith condensing units, 4 on each wall. 200,000 BTU's each.
Left side for heat using flat plate heat exchangers. Right side for domestic.
Quick connect hoses for going in to building.
Flue thru side of trailer.
Full breaker panel in trailer with long pigtail for all electric supply.
The LP tank in the trailer is for initial startup only. All gas piping goes to connections out the front for connection to 1000 gallon tank delivered.

Cost just a little over what the temp boiler company was gonna charge for a month. And when the job is done.....

Anyone on east coast need to rent 800,000 BTU's worth of heat or hot water? We're gonna go in the business. Probably build more. Maybe a support trailer with multiple indirects in it. Maybe a trailer with 1.6 million just for heat. Or one just for domestic. And we're looking into remote monitoring. This would let us service the smaller contractor that doesn't need 15 or 20 million BTU's for a month. And a lot cheaper.

We'd love comments or ideas.
Bruce Perry
Perry Plumbing Heating
Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY

Jeff Perry
Piedmont Radiant
Charlottesville, VA

SWEI

Beautiful work. I've been thinking of building a portable rig for several years and you've pretty much covered all the bases.

I'm curious about what look like four thermowells in a row adjacent to the main circ?

VP

Thanks for the complement. The trailer is now back from the job, it was a success, it was up and running for 5 days and burned jsut a bit under 300 gals of lp. Now of course we have some ideas for improvements. We want to get some smaller hoses (diameter and length), for starters. The 4 wells are for aquastats that will control the circulators for the water heaters. They are set in 5 degree increments, up to 180 degrees for this previous job, but we can adust as needed. They allow for the water heaters (boilers in this case) to stage as necessary to keep the loop up to temp for the load. Keep in mind too, that we had to use old controls for the water heaters, because as of last year they now come with controls that limit the water heaters to 160 degrees max. The old ones will allow for 185. Appreciate any thoughts or input.

Bruce Perry
Perry Plumbing Heating
Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY

Jeff Perry
Piedmont Radiant
Charlottesville, VA

Mark Eatherton

You have done what Richard "Der Heatmeister" Graves had done many years ago, and still uses today. He is in the mountains of Colorado.

He also uses the trailer as a "demonstrator" which allows him to show his potential customers what his systems look like.

He also uses it every year for the last day of skiing in the parking lot at Arapahoe Basin ski area, where he uses it to power a hot tub. He said it causes hippy chicks to want to climb in and shed their clothes... Tequilla makes my clothes fall off...

Congrats on the new enterprise. You should advertise to people who own older apartment and condo complexes where replacement of aging physical plant is imminent.

When is your company going to re-join the RPA again?

(EDIT) PS, I have a name for it. The Perry Dragon Wagon...

ME

hot_rod

Very nice job on the trailer. I think Richard had a few different brands of boilers and components in his trailer, nice for explaining the features and benefits.

This temp. boiler, and remnants of an old one was being the hotel next to AHR when we were in Orland a few weeks back.

SWEI

VP said:

We want to get some smaller hoses (diameter and length), for starters.

Those look like they are at least three inch, and possibly four? Moving a three inch hose when it's full of water is hard work for several people. I suspect we'd need hydraulic machinery to move a pressurized four incher.

The 4 wells are for aquastats that will control the circulators for the water heaters. They are set in 5 degree increments, up to 180 degrees for this previous job, but we can adjust as needed. They allow for the water heaters (boilers in this case) to stage as necessary to keep the loop up to temp for the load.

I think I get it: Four tankless water heaters are "series injected" to the main loop. Each does what it can, but as you move down the line, they're starting with warmer incoming water.

Is the other wall of the trailer essentially identical to the one in the photo?

Paul48

Have you thought about permitting issues, and did you have any with using it on that job? You might want to consider meeting the requirements of some of the most strict cities, such as Boston or NYC. If nothing else, it might make a small town inspector back off a bit.

Jeff Perry_3

SWEI... the other side is purely domestic. It can be straight thru fed with cold water or turn on the circs and you can feed storage tanks. Maybe this pic shows it a little better.

Jeff Perry