My first pre-build

delta T

I'm sold. Great way of doing this, saves time, saves effort, absolutely worth it.

Thanks to @Stephen Minnich for the inspiration. Now if only I could get my solder joints to look as nice as his....

HVACNUT

Nice job.
Looks purty.

STEVEusaPA

Nice indeed!
I would've painted the plywood, and used a Webstone exp tank valve.

Steve Minnich

I give it an A+! Now you’ll inspire others and on it goes.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Lookin good

hot_rod

real nice

Dave H_2

Looks great, one thing I have done with pre-built boards is pull the wiring behind the panel. It really cleans it up.

Dave H.

hot_rod

Check out the trim kits on your next job, they usually come in less $$ than buying individual components.

This one has all brass nipples and an expansion service valve included. And a high performance, easily serviced air separator

Le John

@delta T How long did it take you to build? I see a potential need to have these available at the supply houses. I would buy one.

R Mannino

I do it all the time huge time saver at residence.

woodrow

nice job what is the connected btu of the 5 zones

delta T

Thanks for the kind words and advice everyone!

@Stephen Minnich Thanks! An A+ is high praise indeed coming from you.

@STEVEusaPA Yeah, I am definitely going to paint the next one, thinking a dark color to keep the smudges and flux from showing up. Tried my best to keep it clean, but you always get a little...I haven't seen those exp tank valves before, I sill have to try it!

@hot rod Thanks, I will look into those, looks like a good time saver!

@Le John I got it built in two days, hung and connected to the boiler and the radiation the third day. Had a hand hanging the panel, but other than that it was just me.

@woodrow This is connceted to 4 zones of fin tube baseboard for a total of about 55k and a 50 gallon IDWH. I tried to get the customer to keep the zones to three (two up stairs and the basement) but they absolutely HAD to have the master suit separate. So.....4 heating zones. CBN090 (at 6000') with modest outdoor reset (boiler low setpoint is 140, high is 185).

This system went in to replace a fantastic converted gravity system with cast iron radiators. It was a sad day when we had to tear it out. The current homeowner bought the house out of foreclosure and asked us to come get the heat turned back on because it had been winterized.

Well...... every radiator was cracked and leaking on the bottom. Every, single, one. Such a shame too because it was almost all original. The piping was gorgeous, even found a Honeywell no. 1 from the original gravity system tucked in a corner (disconnected). I have it at the shop now, I want to clean it up and I will show you guys (yes I got rid of the mercury). All told we removed 4000 lbs worth of radiators from the house and took them to the scrap yard. So sad.

Customer wanted to keep the pricing down for the new system as it was an unexpected expense, so this is what we came up with.

Thanks to all and thanks to Dan and Erin for making this site such a valuable forum for us to all share and improve our craft!

Steve Minnich

I agree that running wiring behind board would clean it up for most, but I’ve never done it. If you do, you better run EMT or something else you can pull wire through for unforeseen future service.

I think the better solution is to do it professionally like @delta T did. I see too many drop the ball on the wiring.