One pipe, 3 rooms, in series. how to "tune" heat in each room?

joea99 · 1:52PM

4 zone hydronic, 1 circulator per zone.

All the piping is "serial, in line" with 3/4 copper in each zone. There are 3 bedrooms on 1 circuit, with the thermostat on the "first served" room, leaving each other room, in sequence, some what below thermostat setting.

Looking for a way to more equitably distribute heat. I have seen setups where the single line had "branch circuits", each having a "Special Tee" fitting (with cast in flow direction arrow) usually with smaller pipe to the radiators, returning to the main 3/4 pipe from the other side of the radiator. Don't recall if there was another "Special Tee" at that point. Believe so.

I imagine those "special Tee's" were to produce a restriction and forcing some flow diversion to the radiators.

Don't know what they are called or how to size things. Or if any size will do and needing a suitable manually adjustable valve to fine tune things.

Direction?

hot_rod · 2:34PM

A balance valve, even a basic shut off type valve, at each radiator is the best way to fine tune. Or partially cover some radiators in the too hot spaces.

pecmsg · 2:50PM

"Special Tee" fitting (with cast in flow direction arrow)

Mono Flow?

Jamie Hall · 2:50PM

If that system really is piped in serial — water into one unit, then out and into the next one, and so on, there is no good way to balance it.

The Ts to which you refer are called "monoflo" Ts, and I think they are still available. They are tricky to get right, as the pipe sizeing and length has a big influence on how much — if any — heat a particular radiator will get.

It would be better to see if you could figure out a reverse return loop system…

joea99 · 3:13PM

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1899337#Comment_1899337

Yes, hot into and out of one radiator, into and out the next, into and out of the next, total of 3 radiators. The last one getting the coolest water.

Looks like making the single loop into three may be simplest. Piping, 3 check valves Would a reverse return be needed? I guess it does more readily provide more balanced flow?

GGross · 4:33PM

if its baseboard you could wrap a portion of the fin tube in the area that gets up to temp with aluminum foil, its lazy but may be an easy if somewhat trial and error DIY fix that doesn't include re-piping. Or you could move the thermostat to a different location that better represents the 3 rooms average temp.

mattmia2 · 5:33PM

The dampers that are built in to the baseboard covers can be used to balance the different rooms, open up the coldest room fully, close off most of the warmest room.

This type of system is supposed to be designed with a room by room heat loss calculation then the baseboard in the first room is sized to the get the needed heat output using the water temp from the boiler, the next room is sized to get the needed heat output using the water temp coming out of the emitter in the first room, the emitter in the 3rd room is sized using the water temp coming out of the second room. The sizing is done by putting part fin tube and part plain pipe inside the baseboard radiator covers.

EBEBRATT-Ed · 6:53PM

As others have mentioned it looks like you have a "series loop". You can't balance the flow to each radiator with that.

Your options are to add more radiation into the colder room or reduce the radiation in the warmer rooms by changing the radiation or if fin tube covering some fins with aluminum foil as mentioned above.

All of this is trial and error.

You could do a room x room heat loss which may point to the issue.

Messing with monoflow tees is another issue.

Here is my quick practical fix:

For each radiator or baseboard, tee the supply and return together in the basement and install a balance valve or ball valve between the two tees. Do this for all three radiators. You will then be able to by adjusting each valve allow full flow through each radiator or to bypass the radiator with some flow.

You start by having all the valves closed and the room that is too warm you open its bypass a little bit. give it some time to settle out and adjust the other valves as needed.

mattmia2 · 6:59PM

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1899351#Comment_1899351

you could potentially cram that in to the baseboard cover if you don't have access from a basement and the piping space in the cover isn't already being used for the return.

One pipe, 3 rooms, in series. how to "tune" heat in each room?

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