Everloc

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

We've started using PEX for piping radiators; my, how quickly it's installed; should have started a long time ago.

The Rehau Everloc fittings are explosion proof; expand the tubing, insert the barbed fitting and then pull the Everloc collar over the tubing with the Rehau squeeze tool. It's a bit like Wirsbo, but Rehau seems a bit heavier duty.

Here's a picture of a drop ear adaptor at one end of the radiator.

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hr

You're doing it again!

sucking us in with a fitting thread, then teasing us with those pics of bluebird days, mountains, and sailboats

hot rod

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Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

I'm trying

to appeal to a broad range of viewers, but now that you ask, that picture was taken from the top floor of a house on Union Street; one that we just finished after two years of work. It was on it's second general contractor; the first one was thrown off since (what I'm told) he couldn't get along with the homeowner and his work had problems.

Our part was very small; 4 bathrooms, playroom and office with radiant heat, one bedroom radiator and a 60 gallon indirect. The boiler is a Burnham; the smallest one they make - model 202B (35,500 BTU I believe) and the reason I was there was that they were running out of hot water in the middle of a shower. Turns out that the shower head puts out about 10 gpm..........this thing was about a foot in diameter and when it was on, the 2" shower drain was overwhelmed; you could take a bath on the floor of the shower.

So, at 10 gpm, you can figure out how long it would take to run down that 60 gal. indirect. Seems like nobody talked to each other; the engineer who designed the heating/DHW system, plumber, hydronic installer (us), homeowner, architect, fixture supplier; we were all in our own little worlds. Me? I though 60 gal. was fine. I usually size the water heater by the largest tub, but now I have new input: massive shower heads. Totally irresponsible to use these, but I can't tell that to the homeowner.

Irresponsible solution to the immediate problem? Either install a lager indirect, say 120 gallons or install a Takagi.

Responsible solution: Put flow restrictors in the shower heads and make do with the existing water heater. My family (2 adults, 2 kids) never runs out of hot water with the original State 50 gallon water heater.

Here's a shot of SF (Marina district) with Alcatraz in the distance.



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hr

Alan, consider

adding additional storage, without increasing the indirect tank. I had the exact same issue with a hugh jetted tub that would drain a 60 gallon indirect. I added a 120 gallon blank insulated tank and let the dhw recirc pump blend the two. It takes an hour to recover but this fits the homeowners lifestyle just fine, although the rarely drain the hw down to luke warm with that much storage capacity.

Priortize the dhw too, of course. You don't have a lot of boiler power to play with in that small Burnham. A classic example where the dhw load is much bigger than the heating load. Seems odd to oversize a boiler that much to handle the DHW load. An additional fired unit may be the best solution, although more costly. Good luck

hot rod

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kevin

How about...

cranking up the DHW tank to 155F or more and add a 3/4 sparco mixing valve? just my 2 cents.kpc

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

We could

even crank it up to 180* with a tempering valve, but I'm afraid of scald issues at any temperature above 125*.

And that's a great idea about adding an extra tank and pulling through it with the recirc. I did that once on a BTU limited job for this guys large tub and it worked great; thanks for the reminder, hr.

The only drawback is that the HX is double-wall and the DHW priority might shut the heating down for too long.

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

Galvanized?

for a radiator?

My old system (c. 1924) was, of course, all black iron. When the place was converted to a rooming house in the late 70s, someone relocated a couple of lines and used two pieces of galvanized.

That rad was always WAY late to fill, and slow to heat, but with the TRVs, no real problem until it stopped heating. Luckily, removing the actuator and repeatedly operating the valve cleared what I presumed was a clog.

The next summer, had to relocate the BIG mains in the garage to allow overhead garage doors. As I relocated these, I moved all the branches up into joist cavities if at all possible. It looked so nice, that I decided to do the same with the other main pair.

When I disassembled the lines leading to the rad that had the problem, I noticed the galvanized when the wrench exposed bare pipe through the paint. Those two sections of pipe were utterly clogged with rust/gunk--less than a pencil diameter left in a 1" pipe. All of the original black iron has a bit of rust and scale, but TRIVIAL by comparison.