Primary/secondary hydronic piping and elbow proximity

Al Letellier_9

We use 6 pipe diameters as a rule of thumb for spacing from elbows or other turns away from the tees, on either side. we've not had any problems. We just did a big TACO Load match systme with 24 zones, had to really pack in the manifolds in a tight space, and it works fine.

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Mike Ostrowski

Primary/secondary hydronic piping and elbow proximity

Hi,

I have a hydronic piping question.

My question revolves around the proximity of an elbow in the primary loop to the secondary supply piping. Is there a distance that an elbow in the primary loop should be away from transistion tee at the connection to the secondary supply piping?

I am having some flow problems and I thought that the flow may be inhibited by the closeness of the elbow to the secondary supply piping.

Please let me know what you think.

hr

It's nice to have some distance

at least a 6" distance. Although many of those prebuilt panels, and prebuild hydronic control boxes have fittings and valves jammed right against one another.

What type of problem are you having? A tight turn right after the takeoffs may induce some flow in that secondary. Same with takeoffs that are too far from one another.

Generally you want a flow check or two, possibly thermal drops on those secondary takeoffs, to prevent thermal migration (ghost flow)

hot rod

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