Multiple Issues - please help

Constantin

Yesterday, I got to harrass a cousin and his family on the North Shore. It was great fun, but he would like the Wall to help him with a number of issues in his heating system that are bothering him. The present home heating system was apparently installed in the early 1980's and it appears to need help in several departments.

Let me start with the water system. The well water is high in sodium and appears to be pressurized with a Well-X-Trol tank. This part of the system seems to be working fine.

The hot water system seems to consist of an ancient "WH-7-like" Amtrol Boilermate hooked up as a zone to a oil-fired Burnham V-15A running at 1.35GPH with a Carlin burner. The DOE rating on this boiler is 150kBTU, with a IBR of 138kBTU. Wouldn't this be enough to produce a lot of hot water? With that kind of input, I was surprised to hear that they run out of hot water after ½ hour of showering.

According to my cousin, they don't appear to have scaling issues due to the high sodium content, but I wonder considering the scale that the expansion tank features (see further down). Furthermore, from reading previous posts here, I doubt that older Boilermates have anything near the capacity of a high-efficiency indirect. Thus, I suppose the best thing for my cousin is to replace the Boilermate?

While I was puttering around the heating system, I also noticed that the vent above the expansion tank was very unhappy. As you can see from the picture, it appears to be spewing water on a fairly regular basis. The Amtrol expansion tank was recently replaced and it already is covered with streaks of sediment. The two adjacent vents are also covered in crud. What could be causing this amount of water venting?

Next, I wondered about the pumping arrangement. There does not seem to be a primary-secondary loop and the "secondary circulators" are all on the return side. Presumably, they ought to be moved and a pri-sec arrangement installed when the boiler is changed, no?

Which brings me to the boiler. It's a V15 from Burnham and overall, my cousin has been very happy with it. However, I cannot find any data on it. What is it's rated efficiency?

Here is what I would like to recommend... However, I am a mere homeowner... whose primary qualification may be spending way to much time on the wall... So here goes:

1) Figure out what the problem is with the vents.

2) Go with a 60 Gallon Triangle-Tube Phase III or 80 gallon superstor. Have it set at 140°F by the contractor with a tempering valve bringing it down to 120°F. Should provide plenty of hot water considering they do not own any jacuzzis (2 bathrooms, 2 kids).

3) Button-up the house as much as possible and then monitor the heating needs to determine the actual heatloss on a design day. Presently, the boiler seems to be doing OK as long as it's not too windy outside (which perhaps points to a insulation problem).

4) Rejigger the piping to accomodate pumping-away, pri-sec, and outdoor reset even if the boiler is not replaced right away.

ScottMP

Constantine

Tell them to call Me !!

That is typical Lack O' Maintenance. Looks like the packing on those flowchecks were never tightened and the air vent should have been replaced years ago. Now they need a new air vent also.

If this is in my neck of the woods, I owuld be more than happy to send some one over.

Scott

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Unknown

Where is the pump

for the BoilerMate? Is it on the supply or the return? Most indirects and especially the BoilerMate require the pump to be on the boiler supply connection to the tank to achieve proper flow characteristics through the inverted coil and to keep air from accumulating in the top of the inverted coil. I would put my money on a coil that could be airbound, outside coil surfaces that have deposits or the Amtrol Aquastat not properly responding due to deposit buildup. The older models (which this appears to be) had an open well where the bulb of the aquastat was in contact with the potable water. Subsequent models have a closed well.

The V-15A boiler had an efficiency rating of around 80%. It should easily be able to provide ample btu's for the BoilerMate to use. One other thing that the BoilerMate has is the ability to change the response time of the aquastat by raising or lowering it in its well. Another thing to check for is the cold water dispursing tube on the bottom plate where the cold water enters the tank. It used to consist of a copper tube that was spun closed on the end with a hole drilled in the end. On the end of the tube was a larger diameter copper cap screwed onto the dispursement tube with a screw. If the screw corroded through, the cap blew off allowing cold water to go right to the top of the tank and cooling it off. Newer models used a nonmetallic Dzu fastener to hold the cap on. It will require coil removal to identify this. Here is a rough drawing showing the inlet tube and deflector cap.Hope this helps.

Glenn Stanton

Burnham Hydronics

Ted_9

Primary/ secondary not nessisary for this installation but pumping away would be great, especially since there are 5 circs on the returns. Could be an issue there.

PATRIOT HEATING & COOLING, INC.

Weezbo

Constantine...*~/ i like the idea of \"call me\"proffered by

Scott Milne...