Basement Follies/Kick Me

Walt

Greetings all:

I've learned so much from all of you here that I thought the least that I could do is open up my basement bomb install to your critique. A quick descritption: The boiler is a big old WM (about 2 times the size currently needed). There are currently 5 zones of cast iron radiators controlled by a Tekmar 369. Each zone has 2 to 4 radiators. The radiator closest to the RTU runs free, the others have TRVs. There are currently 3 zones of radiant, also controlled by a 369 with temp control via a Centra 4-way run by a 362. The boiler is controlled by a 262 in anticipation of putting in two new boilers (a gas and an oil...I'm still trying to decide what boilers to get and waiting for my wife to give me the budget green light). The there are two main manifolds...in ajoining rooms. The boiler is in yet a third room, but when I put the new boilers in they will be in the room with the controllers. An indirect with be put in at that time....I've already wired the priority circuit in.

This coming summer we will be adding a breakfast knook to the kitchen....that will put the kitchen load over what the radiant floor can safely heat (it is a wooden floor)....I've wired in a secondary zone for cast iron baseboard in this knook. Also, we have two big rooms that were heated by indirect radiators under the floors. One radiator is still intact. The one that still exists has been piped to and the other room will have a hot water coil under the floor. Instead of sucking cold air from outside I am putting in a return duct from the other side of the room with a small in line fan to move the air. The cast iron baseboard and the indirects will run off of the zone that has the Zone Valves and Press Diff Valve.

The blank spot on the manifold above this is for a hot water loop that will go to the air handler of a Hi-Vel air conditioning system. I'll use that to control humidity in the house. Fresh air will be fed through this via a HRV that I am putting in next weekend.

The house is 5600 sq ft. Built in 1898. We've put in Icynene insulation and put Harvey storms on all except for the curved windows (will probably use Allied for these...but am hoping to find something tighter and less expensive than Allied).

So far it works like a charm.

The only drawbacks are that the 4-way does a lot of hunting because it is too big (it was on the boiler when we bought the house and I hate to see it go to waste...anyone interested in trading for a varible speed injection pump + whatever else it is worth?). Here is the real snafu: the in line check valve just above where the 4-way comes off the loop chatters like a dump truck going over cobble stones. From what I have read on the Wall it seems I need to go a size down.....any thoughts on whether I should go two sizes down? Any other solutions to that problem.

Well let me know what you think....go easy on me...this is my first system.

Best regards,

Walt

Mark Hunt

Looks pretty darn good for a first time!!


Kitec is good stuff!

Best wishes,

Mark H

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Mark Eatherton1

Not bad...

for a lawyer!!

Good job Walt.

ME

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Walt

Kitec

Thanks. The Kitec was great. When we bought the place most of the black iron pipes leading to the radiators were cracked...the house was abandoned for 7 1/2 years....so for a lot of the radiators I used the black iron as conduit and snaked the kitec through it.

Walt

Thanks. By the way, "Not bad...for a lawyer" is probably my Dad's favorite expression at this point.

John@Reliable

great Job!

Hell, I see jobs everyday that people pay for that don't even come close to this work!

TJ

How Long?

Just out of curiosity - how long did it take you to put together the boiler board? How long to design, redesign and redesign again? - been there:)

Walt

Thanks.

Walt

I'm not sure how long in hours, because I've worked on it on weekends, evening, holidays and when I can steal a day from work. We're also restoring the house...so I've had to work on other things. This took place over two years....still plenty of work to do on it. There was a period after Sep 11 where I did almost nothing on it for quite a while because I am in the Army Reserve...busy year all around.

Approximately 500 redesigns. I seriosly lost count. I read three of Dan Holohan's books and a bunch of articles I found on the web...B&G sent me a bunch of articles.....I used the B&G pumps partly because the curves fit, but also partly out of gratitude for all of the info.

There are also mistakes and redos in there. For instance, I had just finished piping the 4-way valve area which ended up looking like something from the Thrid Riech when a buddy of mine came down for a look and asked, "can't you just turn that thing 90 degrees and pipe straight to it?" He's banned from the basement for a while.
Also, I used the old air-scoop type separator because I didn't know that B&G makes a 2" screen type....lots of little stuff like this.