Snowmelt / Radiant Boilers - your opinions wanted

R. Rutland

I am a general contractor in Ketchum, ID. On one of the new homes we are building, i am getting various suggestions from the mechanical engineer and the hydronics Subcontractors on types of boilers to use for the snowmelt and radiant heat flooring. 6400 sq feet for snowmelt / 8500 square feet for radiant heat. Boilers recommended so far: Triangle Tube Prestige 250 and Munchkin 390. Any opinions welcome.

hr

That snowmelt load

is going to require upwards of 800,000 btu/hr. You might consider an Areco if you want that much power in one unit. I'd stick with a mod con if this system will be used alot.

I'd keep the snowmelt and radiant on at least two seperate boilers.

I like Lochinvar's Knight, the Prestige from Triangle tube, Laars, and Weil Ultras.

hot rod

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ALH_4

Boilers

I would approach the snowmelt with (4) Vitodens 15-60's with a cascade control and a Tekmar snowmelt control. For the house, (2) Vitodens 11-44's, perhaps on their own cascade control, would probably do the trick. Yep, that is six boilers, but when you are burning that much fuel a little efficiency gain goes a long way. You would also have plenty of boiler for what is probably a pretty large DHW load. Control is very important, and Viessmann coupled with Tekmar gives the homeowners a lot of control.

I would steer clear of Munchkins, particularly on a job where the owners can clearly afford the incremental cost to a better built boiler. Prestige's look nice to me, but I have yet to work with one. Any condensing boiler would work fine, but with a Viessmann system it would work as well as possible. JMHO

-Andrew