Recent NTI Install

S Ebels

Or did B&G switch colors on their iron line? If they are bronze...........why did you choose them?

KindyMan

NTI

Recent NTI Boiler install. Baseboard,Infloor, Staple up infloor, Heat exchanger, Indirect water heater. This thing does it all.

Brad White_95

Momma!

A first time for everything- I like the under-knuckle connections from the bottom of the supply header- a modest heat trap perhaps? How well does that work may I ask?

A lot of work and fittings -looks great! I admire your craftsmanship, care and attention to the details.

Constantin

Wow...

... now there is some serious attention to detail!

Whoever owns this place or installed the equipment must have stock in Bell & Gossett... never seen so many of their pumps in one place. The flanges with shut-offs around them are a great touch, as are the many impressive-looking solder joints. The full-flow ball-valves and T-stats are a nice touch also.

However, the neat pipe layout is what really catches the eye. You obviously did a fantastic job of measuring, cutting, and assembling a very tight and orderly series of pipes, one that resembles a radiator... a work of art. The angled PEX connections at the top are a very nice touch, minimizing PEX pipe stress, making for a neat, non-slinky connection, etc. Bravo!

I do have three minor observations though.

1. The Extrol tank seems somewhat unsupported and cantilevering on a thin piece of pipe. It may be a good idea to support it better.
   
2. Some of the copper piping is so tight (and as a result beautiful) that you cannot retrofit insulation easily. Considering how much pipe you have exposed there, that is going to be one hot space.
   
3. Mounting this beauty on a unfinished wall may seem like a great way to highlight the install and to hide the wiring in the wall insulation. However, the first time a pump fails and even minute amounts of gunk squirt past the seal, the wall insulation is going to take on "patina", whereas painted plywood just shrugs it off.

So are all the grey buckets in the crawlspace a form of thermal mass?

Once again, great job and something to be proud of!

Greg_39

Nice craftsmanship

Nicely laid out! Condensate drain trap (loop, etc. in initial part of this drain)- did I miss it? I preferred it when NTI had both combustion air & exhaust piping ports at the top. It made the PVC piping work a little easier. But I do like how they've turned the components 90* for easier service access, so something had to give in that process.

KindyMan

First off,Thanks to everyone who enjoy looking at this as much as i do. Took me a bit to pipe it all up. to answer some of the questions:

Brad White: as for the "under-knuckle connections" I have found that it helps considerably in the air "purge" process and helping to eliminate the air going through to the different zones. When I purge the air, it is pushed through the tubing, back into the return manifold and as air naturally goes up, it finds it way to the auto-air-vents located on the top of the boiler or out the discharge of my hose. Thus stoping the recycling effect of air. As for the heat trap aspect i use the B&G Check-Trol Isolation Flow Control Flanges or the B&G Hydrotrol Flow Control Valves. Both work great. I like the check-trols better as they are an all in one unit with valve, flange, and check valve in one.

Constantin:
1: I am in the process of getting a "L" type bracket to anchor to the wall underneith the expansion tank to suppport it.
2: The copper is tight in some places. I will have to figure something out if the need for insulation does ever arise.
3: I agree, the back wall should have been covered with some sort of sheating.

Greg: If you look closely at picture 007 you can see the little grey "bottle" looking thiing right below the boiler. That is the factory supplied trap. Just hook up and go. As for the venting goes, Both intake and exhaust would be much sweeter coming off the top.

Again thanks for all the compliments. and thanks for making "The Wall" such a great place!!

Cosmo_3

Copper

Let's hope that this mechanical room is padlocked.... there's a whole lot o' copper in there boys!!

I too have been guilty of doing the knuckle to help with air removal on a couple jobs. The only problem is that thee is no way to drain the water in the knuckles, or in other places on this layout. I now just tap off the header horizontally, any air that moves into the header from the smaller sized branches can bubble up to the top of the header, if it is not moving at 100 MPH. Just something to consider.

The other thing I have started doing is extending the pex further, we can save a lot of money on these jobs by limiting the amount of copper now that it is crazy money. Of course these are just my opinions. Also Constantin has a point for us circaholics, ooh it is hard to change isn't it?

As far as the radiator effect...yeah, but who could cover all that beautiful copper? Maybe it would be easier, if the mechanical room is too warm, to maybe just cover the most of the piping with fiberglass batts and a removable painted plywood cover? I have had less problems with excess heat in the mechanical room when using a mod con, and reset on all zones, compared to a cast iron boiler with bang on/off controls and hi temp emitters.

Your piping layout and soldering looks excellent, everything is level and plumb. I can see at least a weeks worth of piping here, breathin' flux and solder fumes all the way cough cough!

Nice job!


Cosmo

KindyMan

Cosmo I too have started to increase the amount of pex used in the mechanical room. I used to try to use as much copper as possible because it looked the best but with prices these days I had to give a little and use more pex.

Wayco Wayne_2

Kindyman

Let me also congradulate you on a beautiful job. When I look at it I can't help but hear cash register sounds at all the materials on that wall. It's astounding how quickly it all adds up. (Let's face it. My ancestors are Scottish and I'm quite naturally thrifty to be PC about it) I'm with Cosmo. I love the look of all those circulators. I'm a circaholic from way back. I hope the Home owner is charged up about the piece of art he has hanging on his mechanical room wall. They should be. WW

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Mark_46

Call it art

...man, makes the mouth water. Isn't this eligable for some sort of award? ).

How long did this take to assemble/fabricate?