Zone Valves or Pumps What do You Guys Prefer?

Justin Gavin

Hello Fellas,

I am trying to somewhat standardize the way we make our boards. I have been trying several different methods for zone control.

I am torn between using pumps for zoning or zone valves.

I like the zone valves because it saves on space on the board, saves the customer on his electric bill, and they are pretty good at what they do.

I like pumps because because you always have flow but it just seems that the pumps are overkill sometimes especially when you are doing a small room with only 2 circuits.

I would like to get your opinions on the matter and appreciate any reponse I get.

The basic design we use is a cast iron boiler pumping into a primary loop. On my primary loop I leave the pump on continously. On the secondary loops I pipe my IDHW heater, My Hot water coil, than I feed into a 3 way valve or injection loop and feed my low-temp manifolds. I usually use a 3 way thermostatic mixing valve more so than injection loops. Its simple and it works and it costs alot more less than the mixing control.

On that mixing loop I have been playing with zoning with circulators or zoning with one pump and zone valves.

They zone valves cost as much as the pumps so cost really isn't an issue. I don't have to pay for the uni-flanges but I still use ball valves on both sides of the zone valve to isolate the valve for service. I also put a drain valve and ball valve on the return of each line and use a uni-flange with purge valve with the circulator.

I just want to know what everyone else is doing out there. We are getting plenty of jobs and they work just fine but I am always looking for the best and most efficient way to do things.

Thanks for your opinions in advance.

Justin Gavin

clammy

depends

It truely depends on the system that in the home wheather it has a mono flow tee or simple and short baseboard loops .On most homes over 2800 sq.ft. i try to use just pumps because the loops are generally long with lots of element,but i,ve done systems where i,ve installed 1 pump for the origanal heating system piping like ci rads with mono flow tee while i,ve installed another pump with zone valves fdor all the stanard basr board loops that they have added to the home additions finished basement.I always use a seperate pump for indirect water heater i never do them with zone valves .good luck peace

Big Ed

Split

One to four zone I would use pumps . 6, 7, 8,.....zones I would use a mix , two-three zone valve per pump .

hr

Depends on the load

Look at the gpm and head of the circuit. I lean towards ZV's. Like you said not much sense in a 10 gpm circ on a 1.8 gpm zone, then throttling away most of the energy!Multiple pumps make sense when total flow rates approch med or high head pump size.

Don't forget the cost and installation of flow control valves or checks, and switching relays when using multiple circs. Generally circs with flanges and misc come in a bit higher, pricewise.

hot rod

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Justin Gavin

Thanks

Thanks Alot for the input. It all makes sense to me.

I appreciate it.

Justin

heatboy

Me too.........

I choose zone valves when applicable. It doesn't seem to make much sense to use a pump for a 1 or 2 GPM circuit where a couple ZVs and one pump is the more efficient selection. Unlike HR, I like heat motor valves. I must be more patient person ;-)

hb

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Boilerpro_3

Both together

Use two low head pumps in parallel with outlet check valves feeding into your zone valves. This way you have built in back up against a failed pump and run the pumps more efficiently out on thier curves, expecially if using full outdoor reset, since the zone valves will tend to be open most of the time.

Boilerpro

hr

hb, you must

patient to screw all those adapters on the low loss header

Are you and the lovely Vegas bound?

hot rod

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Justin Gavin

Impressive Diamond Plate

That is pretty classy! Now thats the way to back the board up. Do you put your company's name on the board engraved?
Could you send me a full picture of that board?


Thanks,
Justin

Joe Mattiello

Circulators, or zone valves?

Ok, Valves, or circulators? In my opinion this is rhetorical. Circulators, are an excellent choice because the flow rate is fixed. The system curve intersects the pump curve, giving you a net flow. Taco, offers circulators with integral flow checks eliminating the need for an external check valve, and to facilitate the piping. saving you time, and money. Should one zone circulator fail, you will still have heat in other areas of the home.
Zonevalves, can be just as effective on smaller jobs, where you want to utilize the circulator supplied with the boiler. However, when using a fixed flow high head circulator, and only one zone is open you may have velocity issues, because the system curve changes. This may cause erosion corrosion in the piping, and velocity noises.

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