plumbing help

NovaScotia

thanks for any help in advance.
I'm looking to rework my existing system and converting to zoning with pumps instead of zone valves. currently my system in the house that I bought had only a wood boiler in the basement setup with a giant loop around the basement with piping teeing off into the zones of the house. there are zone valves but they never worked. I had no way to control the heat in the house. although the house would heat very well i had no way to control it.
the boiler itself had no automatic controls so I had to adjust the heat with the amount of wood I put in.

for the next heating season I installed an outdoor wood boiler and plumbed it into the house with a heat exchanger into the current system. although this was safer and heated the house better I still had no way to control the temp of the heat being put off into the house.

so my plan is to do away with the giant loop and do a more direct loop using pumps to zone the house. i want to do 3 zones. zone 1 will control the entire downstairs floor, zone 2 and 3 will control the 2 bedrooms upstairs. keep in mind my house is only about 1,200 sq. ft

my problem is I have been unable to find a simple diagram showing how to plumb with pumps only. the pumps I'm looking at have check valves, so I'm not worried about the other pumps pulling the other zones. however I'm not sure when the loops go back into the main loop that goes back to the heat exchanger.

for example, say zone 1 (entire first floor) was calling for heat. zone 1,2 are not calling for heat. the pump for zone 1 would not pull water from the other 2 zones because of the check valves, but when the zone goes back into the main loop and into the heat exchanger would the water be able to pull from he other 2 zones on the return side?
I hope that makes sense.

any help would be much appreciated!

NovaScotia

maybe I should rephrase my question.
how do I pipe my setup with pumps instead of zone valves so my zones don't pull/push water in the other zones?

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

STEVEusaPA

If your pumps are properly sized, and you use check valves, you're probably fine.
A more important consideration is hot water storage. Wood boiler will make more hot water than you'll need.
Here's plenty of info:
https://www.caleffi.com/sites/default/files/coll_attach_file/idronics_10_0.pdf

mattmia2

Another question is, what do you mean by "loop" Is there a separate supply and return main or is it a monoflow system where each emitter connected to the same pipe for supply and return with diverter tees?

NovaScotia

this is basically how my setup is right now.

NovaScotia

this is how i want to set it up. i know its rough but i need to know if it will work. its going to be basic of the basic. until i can afford a backup heat source this will be the only thing heating my house.

my concern is, as an example say zone 3 kicks on. the check valves in the other pumps will keep the flow only going to zone 3 in the outgoing part I marked.
but when the water reaches the incoming part to go back into the heat exchanger would the flow of water pull the water from zone 1,2 and cause those to heat when they are not calling for it.

NovaScotia

mattmia2 said:

Another question is, what do you mean by "loop" Is there a separate supply and return main or is it a monoflow system where each emitter connected to the same pipe for supply and return with diverter tees?

that is exactly what it is. monoflow. i never knew it was called that