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RobinInCali
RobinInCali Member Posts: 56

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  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 27,313

    I take it there is a feed line and a return line from the manifold in the house to the carriage house? Yes? Then there is no good reason why the pump controlling the circulation in the carriage house can't be in the carriage house. The only thing you would have to watch out for is the pressure drop in the feed line from the house to the carriage house, and thus the inlet to that pump — most pumps should have at least 5 to 10 psig at the inlet when they are running.

    All your control wiring for the thermostat and the pump would be in the carriage house. How the boiler would be controlled is another matter — and that depends on what controls the boiler now. It could be a flow switch on the feed or return, for instance, right at the existing house connection.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    EdTheHeaterMandelcrossv
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 27,410

    is it a boiler or a tankless heater. Those 26 series pumps sound big?

    Any pics?

    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • GroundUp
    GroundUp Member Posts: 2,513

    What's serving the indirect? Sounds like maybe one 26-99 is for the boiler circ and the other is the indirect, then the Alpha does all 3 heating zones? Sure you could run the circ in the carriage house, but how would you signal the boiler to fire?

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 27,313

    Flow switch, @GroundUp . Pump in the house, flow switch near the boiler.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    delcrossv
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 27,410

    RIB has a version that works down to .25a

    That would work on most PSC circs Im not sure about an ECM on low setting?

    for 35 bucks, ill order one one give it a try

    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • RobinInCali
    RobinInCali Member Posts: 56

    I’m running off a Navien 200 Boiler. Huge pumps to the upper floors of the main building and indirect, and an alpha pump to the basement baseboards. I indend to use another alpha pump for the carriage house, and in fact, went ahead and install the alpha pump on the piping at the boiler for this carriage house. (BTW the supply/return 1” pex we buried is super super insulated, along with the 3/4” domestic water pipe. It takes about 2-3 minutes for the water to get hot in the carriage house, but it stays hot if you just use the water on and off, but I installed a circ pump for that.) Can you describe the flow switch set up where a thermostatic valve on the radiator would trigger a flow switch that in turn tiggers the Taco zone control to activate the pump? that seems like a good idea! The other three heating zones are triggered by a smart Wi-Fi enabled thermostat that I can control on an iPhone app. Sensi. Which has been terrific, but of course, requires thermostat wiring with a C wire. If there is another way to activate the system, I’d like to hear.

    Thanks for this help.

  • RobinInCali
    RobinInCali Member Posts: 56

    Please direct me to this flow switch set up. I used a flow switch once years ago on another heating system, and I can’t remember how it worked….

  • delcrossv
    delcrossv Member Posts: 2,203
    edited October 2024

    I think whats described above would be a thermostat in the coach house that would control a pump there. NoTRV. Flow switch would be wired into your Taco control like another zone (faux thermostat).

    So coach house thermostat triggers the pump in the coach house, running pump triggers the flow switch in the main building, flow switch fires the boiler.

    Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.