The heat is moving all over

John_56

Help,

Having a problem with a system in an older home. Three winters ago, we worked on a pretty extensive remodel. The system when we started was all cast iron radiators, two pipe system with an old A.O. Smith copper boiler and one circulator. As the job progressed several radiators were "re-piped" as some walls were removed and several new zones were installed. The system now consists of a Pinnicle 199, a primary/secondary setup, 5 zone circulators. The original system is one zone. I recently got a call saying the one "new" radiator we installed in the dining room has never gotten very warm and the room is always cold. I sent a man over there and he checked it over and found that radiator was basically at the end of the loop, so it was assumed that we did not have enough circulator on the loop. I don't like guessing, so we put pressure taps on the line. The results of our tests:
We have a TACO 007 on the loop
The temp. drop across the loop is approx. 27 deg. F.
The pressure drop across the circulator is 2 psi
Going by the following, it seems that the 007 should do the job. 2 psi drop = approx 5' head
Loop btus = 160,000 = 16 GPM

Yet as the guy was there checking things out, the heat seemed to move around the house. One radiator would be heating just fine, than go cold. This happened to a number of radiators, though the customers only complaint is the one room and that only starts getting warm after the system is on for quite a while.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

John

Weezbo

bleed the air out and purge the system and prove it ,first?

what maybe is happening is large air "pockets" are creating the minor technicalities....

jerry scharf_2

get some strap on temperature sensors

John,

If you don't like guessing, check the heat across that radiator. Total BTU loss is not useful in trying to work with a single rad problem.

Hot Rod recommends the azel dual temp digital themometer. Put some pipe insulation over top of the sensor, and the reading will be fairly accurate. What you see as temps across the single rad will tell you alot. Let us know what the temps on the rad are, and I think we'll be able to pinpoint the issue.

jerry

John_56

We have bled all of the radiators and the main loop piping is set up to be purged from the boiler room. Am I correct in my calculations as far as the circulator size? We get water out of all the bleeders.