The Tiny Boiler Room

Wellness

I didn’t want to waste space when I built my house two decades ago so I ended up with a tiny boiler room like the one @EzzyT recently overhauled and boy are tiny spaces a challenge to work in.

I recently added a larger boiler expansion tank and replaced an iron return header.





Dinkle color-coded terminal strips and a generous use of junction boxes keep all my wiring neat and traceable. An old tablet computer consolidates outside weather reports, inside temp adjustments, viewing DHW and boiler firing logs and thermostat settings all in one place. Pipe insulation will come this summer, when things cool down. Wiring and piping scheme can be viewed here.

ratio

Is the on/off switch in the panel door backwards?

Ron Jr._3

Tiny ? I'd call that a huge area for where we work !

Nice layout to fit all the equipment and piping to make it accessible.

Wellness

@ratio. Good catch. Will fix.

EBEBRATT-Ed

I guess tiny spaces are ok if your doing your own work, but if you hire someone to do the work over the (20?) year life of the equipment you will pay much more in labor that the guy next door who has a larger space.

But
to each his own

Wellness

@EBEBRATT-Ed . Yes, I definitely agree small spaces are a challenge for a boiler room. But I'm not sure I understand why tiny spaces would add to cost after a boiler is installed. Initial setup and design, trial and error, sure, that takes more time and can be costly. But once it's done, I'm not sure how adding more shutoff valves, changing out expansion tanks and doing other repairs would be more costly.

mattmia2

There is more time in folding and unfolding yourself from a space and since you have less space to put tools there is more walking back and forth between tools and the work space with the same folding and unfolding action. So it does take more time.

There is also likely to be a bit of an aggravation premium added to the subjective parts of counting your time.

Paul Pollets

You may need a neutralizer on the condensate drain. If the floor drain or piping is cast iron, the acidic condensate will make short order of the steel or iron components. Nice work on the project.

Wellness

@Paul Pollets. There is a limestone gravel neutralizer just underneath the boiler in picture one. However, the drain pipe in the floor is PVC as well. Thanks for the kudos.

Grallert

Nice room. As long as everything is accessible with out doing any advanced yoga I give it a thumbs up