system 2000 questions.

D. Capeci

I'm thinking about installing the system 2000 EK-2 for a radient H/W system. Any experiences with this system? Good?
Bad?

Thanks,
Dan

Bill Nye_2

Well

it could work. It depends. The system 2000 only holds a couple of shot glasses full of water. It goes from 0 to 180°F faster than you can sneeze. If you have a thermostatic or motorized mixing valve it may be hunting all over the place to pick a temperature.

I would want a boiler with a little more water content or one that could tolerate lower return temps. You could use a buffer tank . You could use a condensing boiler. It all depends how you are piped and what temperatures you need. JMO

Steve Eayrs

Ek recommends using a buffering tank

and you may need to do so, for a decent burner run cycle. Did a couple a number of years ago with injection pump (tekmar) and they have been workings great so far. I did fiddle a little with the call for heat so it included the purge cycle on the boiler, and spent some time tweaking it, but look at EK's info for buffering tanks w/ reest controls.

Steve

Ron Schroeder_2

Also, their smallest unit is a few sizes larger than many other efficient oil boilers so it may be hard to not over-size in the more energy efficient houses.

Ron

D. Capeci

My home is an 1850's boarding house about 6000 sq/ft. I am in the process of a complete remodel. House is gutted, a mess and was cold untill this past week. I live in Shohola PA, It gets cold here.
Presently, I have all the heat pex run and the system is running. On a 150k btu oil hot water heater. It works, my house can maintain 70 degrees, but I have to decide on a boiler.
Various heat loss calc's I have done suggest the 135K btu range.
I was thinking about big blue, however, I like the idea of
the EK 1 or 2.
This is my first radient system, I'm a contracor and have a
basic knowledge of heat systems, but see how I could get my self in trouble by not doing the research needed.
Unfortunatly, I have no local help, trustworthy or otherwise.
So.... here I am.
Thanks for all your help.

DaveGateway

If you like the Sys2000 design

then just build your own. I assume you're using oil. Get a small low mass steel boiler like the Laars Max or Burnham LE. In cast iron, Biasi makes a great low water content boiler. Get controls like a Tekmar 260 to do post purge, outdoor reset, and then add a reverse indirect like the ErgoMax, TurboMax, or Dunkirk Artesian to make hot water and add some buffering to your system.

Constantin

Lots of options....

... I'm the owner of a 1870 Mansard with about 5000 sq ft. The whole house is running on a 116kBTU Vitola boiler from Viessmann. Good insulation, windows, etc. will hopefully achieve the low BTU/sq ft ratio we're shooting for.

The Vitola is nice in that it does not mind very low return water temps. In fact, were it not for the indirect water heater, we wouldn't even need the 4-way valve the boiler currently has on the main heating loop.

You could consider the Buderus G215 or the Burnham Opus or V8 units. All of the units I have mentioned should work well, offer high system efficiency, and good customer support.

The System 2000 gear should be fine as long as you can set up the system to interface well with a radiant system. I second the call for a large buffer tank that will allow the boiler long (and efficient) run times + the flow needed to keep the boiler happy. While I think that some of the System 2000 marketing literature is a bit on the aggressive side, they do seem to offer a fine system.

Lastly, one option to consider is the "inside out" tank concept that Siegenthaler presented at ISH this year, as well as in PM Mag. The idea being that the area that is usually used for potable water is reserved for the heating system, while the potable water runs through the HX coils. The only trick being, you want a tank where the coils are mounted high, not low as is usually the case.