Houseboat Radiant

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

My first jobsite visit this morning. This will be a first for us.

Unfortunately, he has built his interior walls before we installed the tubing.

GroundUp

Way cool! What will the heat source be? Can't imagine the heat load will be huge on a houseboat. Here in MN, ice fishing is a huge ordeal and it seems everybody and their brother has got a big wheel house now- I've been doing quite a few with radiant floors, has been a big hit.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

@GroundUp
He wants to use a Sanden 83-gallon heat pump for DHW and heating (X-Pump Block).

What did you use for the wheel house heating?

GroundUp

Have done a variety of systems depending what the customer wants, but usually ends up with (gasp) an LP tankless water heater. I have done a couple electric boilers but the generator requirements to run them are nuts

Jamie Hall

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes said:

@GroundUp
He wants to use a Sanden 83-gallon heat pump for DHW and heating (X-Pump Block)….

Probably not a bad idea at all. Can the Sanden be set up to use the water as the heat source? Not, perhaps, directly, but through a keel cooler such as used on higher class lobster boats?

leonz

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes said:

My first jobsite visit this morning. This will be a first for us.

Unfortunately, he has built his interior walls before we installed the tubing.

=======================================================
Is this houseboat attached to a small concrete barge?
Will they be mooring permanently?

Will it employ a steel swivel frame to allow the houseboat to rise and lower with the tides?
In watching this old mouse many years ago they showed a moored house boat with potable water and sanitary sewer connections , electrical connections, telephone, television, natural gas etc., that had a steel superstructure that was as wide as the houseboat and welded together using tubular steel weldments that made for tall and long steel girder of sorts that allowed it to rise and fall with the tides and boat wakes the year round.

It certainly looks bigger on the inside than from the outside.
I hope that they installed a flat roof deck to enjoy the weather when its good.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

@leonz
Sausalito has a well-established houseboat community that is permanently moored.

The houseboat is built on a World War II concrete hull that was built as a pontoon for bridge building.

I don't have enough details to say how they account for tides and
wakes.

The middle picture above shows the basement. Those high horizontal windows are about 4 feet above the water line.

Here's a better picture to show size.

Paul Pollets

I've done several houseboats. Both used a gypsum based overpour and were powered by a Viessmann Vitodens. One used a combi. If I did one today, I'd be using the 222F cabinet model combi. The first one I did used a B/W combicore and QuickTrac. The combicore has been replaced twice in 18 years

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

We've replaced every CombiCor that we installed.....at least once. A great idea with a 100% failure rate. Surprised they still sell them.

hot_rod

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes said:

We've replaced every CombiCor that we installed.....at least once. A great idea with a 100% failure rate. Surprised they still sell them.

The original Combis has an aluminum/ plastic coated coil inside. 5/8" crazy pressure drop. The pic shows a piece of the original coils. They did have a high failure rater, but they covered every one I installed with the new version, I think for 7 or 10 years, no pro-rate.

I believe all the new "Combi 2" have this 1-1/2" glass coated steel coil, same coil we used in the Caleffi SolarCon and shows up in several other brands of indirects. The BW PowerCor indirects use this coil also. Very low pressure drop and you can move a lot of flow thru it. It is a 1-1/2" od coi, 1" connections

I see they offer an oil fired version Combi 2 also, that could be handy for remote installs?

I cut this coil out of a freight damaged new tank. The rust deposit is splatter from my plasma cutter. The smooth glass coated coils work great in high mineral water conditions.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Thanks, Hot Rod. That's good information on the new HX. Maybe I'll start using them again.

My local B-W rep. took 6 months of constant prodding for reimbursement of one of the CombiCors. It's only recently that I've started buying their products again.

hot_rod

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes said:

Thanks, Hot Rod. That's good information on the new HX. Maybe I'll start using them again.

My local B-W rep. took 6 months of constant prodding for reimbursement of one of the CombiCors. It's only recently that I've started buying their products again.

The Combis was a great choice for tiny and micro zoned jobs, probably a good fit in many of the projects in your area?

I've always like the B-W company, an early adopter of the employee owned model. They sell thru the trades as much as that is possible these days. Laars and Niles tank is under that brand also.

I attended a few small local seminars back years ago where the president of the company was the presenter.

Spent last week in LA making calls. That Title 24 certainly changes product selection decisions by the builders and new construction plumbers