Lawn Mowers, et. al. (cont)

Mike T., Swampeast MO

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

Office/Study Radiator

LOTS of experimental data on this rad as it's so convenient. My desk and windows are on South and West walls at a diagonal from the rad.

Curiously the "copper" mica used on this one took made a MUCH thicker mix with significantly less powder. Not really certain why. Maybe it has actual copper, but if so it hasn't tarnished as I would expect copper to do after five years.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Girls' Bath

Amazing amount of storage in a 6' x 8' (approx) bath. Built in above toilet as well. Remembered everything when planning save a good place for bath towels so had to hang a rack on the shower door.

Floor shares the same radiant "manifold" as the original bath. Tubing runs nearly identical in length and with exact same number of bends. This bath has no outside exposure and other has significant exposure. Heat transfer via copper tube in Thermofin--constantly circulating with no t-stat or other means of control. Floor surface temp in both of these baths is remarkably similar and both stay 5° above the temp of the rooms surrounding regardless of inside/outside conditions. Delta-t on this bath floor is significantly lower than that in the exposed original bath--only difference in the two is Styrafoam insulation placed between and over plates on exposed bath.

This was experimental to say the least but both of these were made as identical as possible save the exposure/insulation for a reason... I wanted to see what would happen. It's my most sincere belief that the colder wall in the exposed bath is "sucking" BTUs out of the floor--BTUs that are only AVAILABLE if needed. If not needed they essentially return to the system.

The thing you see pulled out is for curling irons and blow drier. Pilot light indicates power. It powers up when extended and stays powered for fifteen minutes unless closed or button is pressed to extend the time.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Motive Force

1970s Weil-McLain CGM-6. Original to me. Dreadfully oversized (>2x) and has been running below condensing temps since installation.

There was no bypass of any sort when I bought the house. Typical burn time was about 8 SECONDS.

Pumped away, added differential pressure bypass, mechanical reset (base and slope adjustable), air-trol and WWSD.

Old photo but unfortunately it still looks about the same...

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Motive Force

1970s Weil-McLain CGM-6. Original to my purchase. Dreadfully (>2x) oversized. It's been running below condensing temperatures since installed.

In original state there was no form of bypass and typical burn time was about 8 seconds! Pumped away, added mechanical (base and slope) reset, differential pressure bypass, air-trol and WWSD.

Managed to get burn time up to about 1 minute, 20 seconds. I clocked it a couple years ago and actual gas input is very close to rated. Don't have a combustion analyzer, but at my best estimate its putting about 70%-85% of the BTU input into the system--lowest near WWSD point and best at/around outside design temp.

I presume the boiler is nearing the end of its expected service life, but it just keeps chugging along. Original draft hood with no signs of corrosion--just dirt. HX doesn't seem to be showing signs of corrosion, but it's hard to get a good look inside... Original, unlined, internal brick flue shows what I believe to be some condensation-induced mortar retreat but it's a big multi-chamber affair and seems sound. When I removed another chimney in the house (it had never been attached to a natural gas appliance of any sort--only coal) I was able to take it apart with only my hands. I rather imagine this one is in the same condition. Fortunately the chimney area above the roof is well parged and in very sound condition.

While the rather poor efficiency of the boiler does bother me, I hope it manages to survive for a few more years until condensing, modulating models have a longer service history.

I've heard numerous suggestions to downrate the boiler (NONE approved by W/M of course) but am a bit reluctant as it seems caught in some kind of "balance" where nothing suffers much in the way of condensation damage.