Boiler Control & Plumbing Questions

Andrew_8

I am in need of some feedback on how to control and plumb my boiler now that I have finished my modifications to the heating system in my house. I have a 15 year old cast iron Burnham boiler. The house originally had standing iron throughout, save two rooms on the third floor.

I added three steel panel radiators on the third floor, and radiant underfloor tubing with plates to two bathrooms on the second floor. The two baths on the second floor are on one loop, and uses only around 200' of 1/2" tubing. All the radiators have seperate risers out of the basement, save for two. One riser serves a radiator on the second floor, and a cast iron radiator on the third floor. So, I have 4 iron rads on the first floor, three iron rads and one underfloor loop on the second floor, and one iron rad and three steel rads on the third floor. The steel rads have thermostatic valves, the cast iron do not.

My plan was to add outdoor reset control to the boiler to modulate water temp to all of the rads, and then use an injection valve to lower the water temperature for the bathrooms, using a thermostat in one of the bathrooms to control the pump for the underfloor heat. Additionally, since almost all of the rads have their own risers out of the basement, save two, I was thinking that to gain some headroom in the basement, I could rip out all of the steel pipe, put a metering manifold on the wall, and run 3/4" PEX to the individual risers. This would gain me about 6" worth of headroom, and allow individual metering of the supply to each radiator, in case any area seems to get too warm.

Do there seem to be any problems with this plan? Would anything not be worth the effort/money? Should I consider zoning the three floors seperately, instead of doing outdoor reset?

Any feedback and guidance would be much appreciated.

Andy

Ken_8

You provide a tad too

much info on what you already did - and not enough on why you did it.

Why did you change from what was there; to pick up 6" of headroom in the basement?

Why the mix of steel, iron, radiant with plates and a 15 year old (non-condensing) boiler?

Seems you may have already done the deed and now want boiler piping and controls suggestions to make it work?

Some clarification please. We can do this, but the "why did you do all this" question is haunting me.

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Andrew_8

I have not done the piping changes in the basement, so the original piping still exists down there. I'm just thinking about changing out to generate some more headroom. The boiler is the existing boiler, is about 75% efficient, and just wouldn't make financial sense to swap out. Cast iron is original, and we don't have much desire to do anything to it. The steel rads are a) in two rooms that originally had no heat, and b) in one bath that had a poorly placed cast iron rad. The underfloor heat is in two bathrooms on the second floor, because I like the thought of warm feet in the winter.

Hope that answers the questions you posed, and clarifies any ambiguities.

Andrew_8

I have not done the piping changes in the basement, so the original piping still exists down there. I'm just thinking about changing out to generate some more headroom. The boiler is the existing boiler, is about 75% efficient, and just wouldn't make financial sense to swap out. Cast iron is original, and we don't have much desire to do anything to it. The steel rads are a) in two rooms that originally had no heat, and b) in one bath that had a poorly placed cast iron rad. The underfloor heat is in two bathrooms on the second floor, because I like the thought of warm feet in the winter.

Hope that answers the questions you posed, and clarifies any ambiguities.

Andrew_8

I have not done the piping changes in the basement, so the original piping still exists down there. I'm just thinking about changing out to generate some more headroom. The boiler is the existing boiler, is about 75% efficient, and just wouldn't make financial sense to swap out. Cast iron is original, and we don't have much desire to do anything to it. The steel rads are a) in two rooms that originally had no heat, and b) in one bath that had a poorly placed cast iron rad. The underfloor heat is in two bathrooms on the second floor, because I like the thought of warm feet in the winter.

Hope that answers the questions you posed, and clarifies any ambiguities.