Heating Help

electric boiler manufacture recommendation

@ July 15, 2011 10:06 AM in Electric Boilers for hydronic heating

Any recommendations in the 300 - 600 MBH range?

Electric Boilers for hydronic heating

@ July 12, 2011 2:35 PM in Electric Boilers for hydronic heating

Does anyone feel comfortable using electric boilers for hydronic heating?

flooded radiators

@ March 8, 2010 8:37 AM in flooded radiators

My mom lives in a group of row houses (17 total) that use a central boiler. They have 1-pipe low pressure steam. Recently, one of her radiators on the first floor started leaking out of the air vent (water dribbling out the vent hole; not sputtering). The radiator was valved off and cool to the touch. I unscrewed the vent and water drained out, so the radiator was completely flooded. It appears the radiator valve has a slow leak, allowing steam in but not allowing condensate back out, resulting in flooded radiator. We discovered that many of the other homes were having a similar problem (either radiators just being hot even when valved off, or being flooded like my mother's). They are having a plumber come out to fix/replace the valves, but I was wondering what would cause all of these valves to fail at roughly the same time?

Another thing you should know is the boiler was replaced last fall, so the homeowners are understandably suspicious of the new installation. The new boiler and installation was much better than what was there (sizing and near boiler piping had been all wrong). The installer has been back to check on it at various times and at some point he had raised the set pressure to 10 psi (cut-in stayed at about 1/2 psi). I thought maybe the higher pressure was forcing steam through the valves when it couldn't before, so I set the pressure down to between 4 and 5 psi. This didn't really fix anything, and really those valves should be able to hold against way more than 10 psi. Like I said, the homeowners are getting the valves fixed, but still want to know why the valves have been a non-issue for years and then have become an issue at the same time? I should also note that they are calling the installer to see if he has any thoughts.

Any ideas are welcomed.

1-pipe steam air vent question

@ October 15, 2009 4:06 PM in 1-pipe steam air vent question

OK, this may be obvious but, well, here goes. I know that the pressure in a radiator has to be below the "operating" or "drop-away" rating of the air vent for it to be able to open (for a Hoffman No. 1-A it is 1-1/2 psi). Here comes the question with the obvious answer: this also means that if you are over that pressure, the vent slams shut, right? So in my example with the Hoffman 1-A if the pressure gets to say 2 psi before the radiator is completely vented, well, it won't get completely vented. So, do you really need to keep your entire operating pressure range below that rating (in this case 1-1/2 psi)?

mod con dependability

@ April 8, 2008 3:57 PM in Condensing Water Heaters

HR - You say that jury is still out on the dependability of mod con boilers. You seem comfortable installing them, so is that because most of the failures you see are due to improper installations or applications? Or are they from insufficient maintenance? Or have you found a mod con design that you prefer?

any problems?

@ November 2, 2006 10:35 AM in Condensing boilers

I know you like to keep things positive here, but from the sound if it every condensing boiler out there is great. It makes me wonder about the flip question: has anyone had issues with a particular condensing boiler? Have they been design flaws or company support type problems? I'm not trying to start some kind of flame wars, but I like hearing the positives and the negatives.

semi instantaneous steam/water heat exchanger

@ June 8, 2006 4:22 PM in semi instantaneous steam/water heat exchanger

Does anyone have any experiences good or bad with semi instantaneous water heaters that use steam to make hot water (similar to Aerco)? How do they compare to instantaneous heaters (typically a shell and tube exchanger with controls)? Some literature (propaganda) says that, compared to feed forward instantaneous heaters, some disadvantages of the semi's are: heating element/coils are susceptible to failure; although lower-cost, semi's are higher maintenance; semi's have a shorter service life. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences on the matter?

Dan's Honeywell Heat Generator story

@ June 1, 2006 10:31 AM in Honeywell Heat Generator

I just read Dan's latest newsletter which included a description of the Honeywell Heat Generatory. I know Dan told a story about an encounter with one of these things (I believe it involved mercury spillage), but I can't remember where I read it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?