Weil McLain radiators

Matt_7

My house has Weil Mclain radiators. They say Cameo on top of the ends above Weil McLain. I am thinking about putting TRV's on them. Where could I locate TRV's to fit and who makes a good TRV? Also what is the best way to pipe them together in the basement? They currently are all paralled on a supply/return loop in the basement. Would a one pipe setup work? Thanks in advance,Matt

Steamhead

TRVs

are sized to the pipe entering the radiator. If you have say, a 1-inch pipe, get a 1-inch TRV. I prefer to put TRVs in bedrooms and kitchens since those are the areas most people like to keep cooler than the rest of the house.

I wouldn't change from a 2-pipe to a 1-pipe system. Radiators at the end of a 1-pipe system receive cooler water, and must be sized a bit bigger to compensate. Yours aren't.

If the pipes are large, your system originally circulated by gravity. I see a lot of oversized circulators on this type of system. Go to

http://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=125

to see what size you need.

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Matt_7

system

Thanks steamhead. What I have is an EFM PK-750 oil boiler with a beckett burner. The boiler label says 890 s.f. water,valve 180 pounds per hour, burner rate 1.35 gph. It looks like there was an old boiler before and they took it out and put this unit in. DHW is supplied by a coil in the boiler. The circulator (1 for the whole system) is located right where the return enters the boiler. The compression tank plumbs into the top of the boiler with a 1/2" pipe. The fill valve is located on the supply. Everything I've seen so far says to locate the circulator after the fill valve/bladder tank/air vent. We currently have poor circulation at the end of our parallel loop. By the way - at the end of each loop the supply and return are tied together with a radiator. It looks like there were probably 2 loops at one time and they put the new boiler in and Tee'd the supply and returns. I have an 1-1/4 pipe supply that comes off the boiler and Tee's to 2-1/2" mains. Same with the returnpipe. These mains then go around the basement and picking up radiators in parallel. At each end (2 ends) the supply and returns are connected with a radiator which in essence series' the mains. I would like to make the system more efficient because it sure doesn't seem to be at this point. My thought was to zone the second floor using the existing radiators and zone the first floor either with radiant heat or by using the existing radiators. I was hoping to get rid of the large, low hanging pipe, and repipe using copper. I can buy my stuff just over wholesale. I got aradiant heat material quote from the supplier today and I'm not sure I want to go that way yet. Economics tells me I could probably redo the close to boiler pipe and make some field modifications at a lower expense. I had a heat loss calc done and the boiler seems way oversized. $1700 for last winters heating cost. I'm looking to put an indirect water heater in for domestic. There you go - that's the most typing I've done since college! Not sure if I want to take the large pipe out but it sure seems like I'm heating a lot of unnecessary water. Sorry if this is too long.

Steamhead

That was definitely an old gravity system

which will work without electricity if the proper boiler is installed.

To see if the water is circulating at its most efficient rate, get a copy of Dan's "E.D.R.", available on the Books and More page of this site. Your Cameos are in there, along with information on many other radiators. Take the square-feet value you get for the whole system and the chart mentioned above will tell you what flow you need in gallons per minute (GPM).

Some typical circulator capacities at a 3-1/2-foot head (typically used on gravity conversions) are:

Bell & Gossett #100- 28 GPM

B&G LR-20- 16 GPM

B&G NRF-9- 7 GPM

B&G NRF-22- 17 GPM

Grundfos UP-15-42F- 17 GPM

Grundfos UP-26-64F- 20 GPM

Taco #110- 30 GPM

Taco #111- 45 GPM

Taco #005- 15 GPM

Taco #007- 20 GPM

Taco #0010- 30 GPM

Taco #0012- 47 GPM

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