Looking for advice to correct heating issues

William_Mc

I have a 5 zone (radiant&baseboard) system using a Burnham PVG6 boiler. Overall the system works very well. My issue is in two rooms that are consistently 6-10 degrees colder. The first room is a small laundry/bath on the first floor, which uses in-floor radiant. The second room is a bedroom on the third floor using baseboard. The entire system was installed in Jan 2014 and we moved into the house in Mar 2015. I have included a more detailed description of the system below and a link to photos of floor plan and boiler.
The small room on the first floor has one window, three exterior walls, a roof above and cellar below. The cellar below is heated but the room directly below is also always cold. The rest of the 1st floor on the same radiant zone is always comfortabIe. I don't know if the plumber didn't account for the added heat loss in that small space or it is because we usually keep the door closed. I did a heat loss calculation and the room requires 1450 BTU/HR. I was thinking of adding a panel radiator to supplement the in-floor radiant, but have a few questions.
1) Should I add panel rad to existing in-floor radiant loop? If yes, should I change circulator to a variable circulator?
2) Should I add panel rad to new zone?
3) Should I add baseboard to small room in cellar below?
4) Should I add panel rad to existing baseboard loop in cellar?

The bedroom on the third floor was empty until this winter when I put my 1 y.o. son in that room. I never realized how much colder it was up there until I started going up there. His baby monitor records the room temperature and his room is also consistently 6-10 degrees colder. The room is heated by 5' of baseboard (last baseboard on loop) and is controlled by a t-stat in the master b/r that controls all 4 b/rs. The 2 b/rs on the second floor are heated evenly. The third floor is the only area of the house that has not been renovated (house built late 1800s-early 1900s). I'm positive there is some fiberglass insulation in rafters but the walls are lathe/plaster with no insulation. Can I add panel rad to baseboard loop? Should I reduce amount of baseboard in master b/r so heat stays on longer to heat 3rd floor? Is it possible radiant in master bath greatly affects master b/r t-stat?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated,
William

Boiler: Burnham PVG6
Zone1: Cellar (18' baseboard) t-stat set@70 (Estimated entire loop w/ baseboard=60')
Zone2: Entire 1st FL ( 3 loops in mud floor under tile) t-stat set@74
Zone3: Master Bath (1 loop in mud floor under tile) t-stat set@74
Zone4: 2nd & 3rd FL baseboard t-stat set@74 (Estimated entire loop w/baseboard=175-190')
Zone5: 2nd FL bath (2' baseboard) t-stat set@74 (I added this zone myself after our first winter in house)(Est loop=75')
I know t-stats set@74 is crazy, but my wife is from Costa Rica still complains its cold.
Link with photos of layout and boiler:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By7nhB6cFn_zakdpa1NONG0wenM
If anyone needs any further details please let me know.

Jamie Hall

That little room on the first floor sounds like a nightmare to heat -- and it's very unlikely that the radiant comes even close! But yes, you could add one -- or more -- panel radiators in there. Were it mine, I would figure out how to hook them into one of the baseboard loops -- probably your zone 1, operating at a higher temperature than the radiant. You can figure out the heat loss of that room and use that to guide how many radiators you might need. It would probably be best to run them in parallel with the Zone 1, and provide balancing valves.

The third floor room... probably just needs more radiation. I would consider panel radiators up there, too.

In both cases, you may need to increase the pumping.

You can add insulation to the lathe and plaster walls, using blown in cellulose. This can usually be done with remarkably little damage to the walls, and might help a lot on the third floor.

William_Mc

Jamie&hatterasguy thank you for the quick responses.

William_Mc

@Jamie Hall any recommendations on panel rads? Do you prefer a certain brand. I have looked at Buderus and Runtal but have no preference.

William_Mc

@Hatterasguy , Thank you for your suggestion. I can put about 7' of the HE2 in that room. I will see if my local supply can get it for me.

William_Mc

@Jamie Hall I decided on installing a Runtal vertical panel in the small room one the first floor. The room requires 1450 BTH/hr and the rad I chose is rated for 1680 BTU/hr @180F. Would you mind looking over my plan ? I have a few questions and it would be great for some professional insight.

Using Runtals formula to determine Flow: GPM= (BTUH/ft x ft Rad) / (ΔT x500)

GPM= (560 x 3) / (20 x 500)
GPM= .168

There were three baseboard zones run off one Taco 007 using zone valves. You mentioned I may need more pump. The drawing below depicts what I have planned. I would keep two zones on the Taco 007 and install a Taco VR1816 for the cellar zone and the new panel rad. I decided to give the panel rad its own zone using a zone valve for maximum control.

Jamie you also mentioned balancing valves. The flow needed for the panel rad is only .2GPM. I was looking at caleffi flowcal balancing valves. Would a .5GPM on panel rad loop and 1GPM on cellar baseboard be sufficient? Also I already have ¾” O2 barrier pex left over from the baseboard I added last year. Is it wise to use the ¾” pex for the radiant panel or should I run it using ½”?



Thanks again for any help.

Jamie Hall

Looks good to me. If you have a separate zone valve for that panel radiator you don't really need any other valves on there. There's no good reason not to use the leftover 3/4 PEX, so long as you have it lying around!

William_Mc

@Jamie Hall thanks for all your help.