Heating Help

Probationary trial...

@ April 29, 2009 10:44 AM in Demoting versus promoting

If said employee has a complete understanding of your long term goals and intentions, and you are up front with them and let them know that there is the real possibility of them NOT working out in the position, that they may have to step down and back, then ther eare no suprises. There are companies out there that can perform an employee evaluation of your employees to see who best fits the position of office supervisor versus field person. I took the test one time in an effort to get work in the field for a med to large EMS company, only to be denied the postion because my Roar Shock (SP?) test results came back that I would make a better administrator than a field postion, and they had no openings in that arena... Best of luck. Hows that new knee progressing? Do you now know what a one legged man in a butt kicking contest feels like? ;-) ME

Bless his heart...

@ April 22, 2009 9:54 AM in My old mechanical engineer friend is passing.

And bless your heart for mentioning him and recognizing his contributions to man kind... An old Irish saying comes to mind... May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. And rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of His hand. May you live as long as you want, And never want as long as you live. God rest his soul. May he pass in peace. ME

Don't forget the lights...

@ April 22, 2009 9:50 AM in Load caulc variation

Internal lighting can add up to be a BIG load, and if ignored, will cause human discomfort during warmer OSA conditions. Remember, each watt is worth 3.41 btuH, so a 60 watt bulb equals 204 btuH. It adds up quick... And then theres the TV, PC, refrigerator, stove, and on and on. ME

The Cork Screw principle...

@ April 20, 2009 9:01 PM in Radiant Heat PEX Bending

Have you ever pulled tubing off of an uncoiler and TRIED to keep it from cork screwing on you? I don't think it can be done without breaking your wrists. Not to worry. In all the 30 plus years of doing this, I've NEVER had to fight the tubing (any more than usual) to get it in to a tight radius bend. Me thinks you're over thinking it. Quit reading the web and get to work installing tubing... It will go a lot smoother than is has been in your dreams (nightmares?) . ME

Diversions and bad weather...

@ April 15, 2009 7:16 PM in DHW hot recirc

Haven't done my system yet. To JP, the reason for the aquastat is so that it shuts off the pump if its not necessary. Not so much for energy conservation as it is to keep the pipes from going away. Although it DOES conserve energy. ME

Question for Mech E

@ April 14, 2009 12:49 PM in Aluminum HX, Condensate and Corrosion

You don't happen to work for Viessmann do you? No problem if you do. I just think people should let people know where they sit before they tell them where they stand. Full disclosure and all dontcha know... Just curious :-) ME

That works OK Paul...

@ April 14, 2009 12:46 PM in Aluminum HX, Condensate and Corrosion

so long as it DOES get shut off after replenishment. People (including our employees) get lazy and forgetful. If they look at a system and see a hose still on it, they know something doesn't look right, hopefully :-) On our leaky commercial jobs, we use to use what I refered to as an EFE, which stood for Excess Flow ELiminator. I'm on my way out the door for a meeting, but will try and find a picture of it. SImply stated, it is a swing check, installed upside down and backwards at a 45 degree angle. This keeps the flapper check hanging down via gravity, and allows a small (seepage) amount of water to pass freely by, but should a line freeze and break, the water tries to flow though the device, and WHAM, it slams shut and keeps the place from getting completely flooded out. It has saved some serious water damage on numerous of the jobs we had incorporated it on. I'll get back to you. ME

No...

@ April 12, 2009 7:29 PM in Using a Bullhead

That IS the reason they are abandoning it. I attempted to write an explanation of when and where it is acceptable )P/S, VSI etc) and when it's NOT acceptable, and they said "Thanks, but no thanks. We're dropping the whole thing out of the code" Funny how things like that work. If you don't understand it, and you don't think your field people can handle a simple interpretive explanation, drop the whole thing... Besides, remember what the strongest lobbying force in the building codes are, and what their ONLY objective is. (H.B.A., make it less expensive to build homes) Makes a person wonder who's really running this country eh... ME

Easy Math...

@ April 12, 2009 10:45 AM in radiant and electric water heater.

13,000 divded by 3413 (btu/s per kilowatt) = 3.81 3.81 kilowatts per hour times .085 = $0.32 cents per hour. Time 24 hours = 7.72/day, and so on and so forth... ME

According to Siggys Software

@ April 11, 2009 1:27 PM in Hydronic help please

See attachement. You still need to reduce the pressure in the diaphragm. By airing UP the diaphargm, you excluded the tank from accepting any fluid, and when the fluid got cold and contracted, there was no compensation for this shrinkage. Also, I may have overkilled on the amount of glycnoids in the system (3/5's of 50/50 = 30%, but in one spot you said 50/50, so I assumed the higher value), but if it is truly less glycol, then you are OK. Better safe than sorry. ME

Oxygen and water...

@ April 9, 2009 7:18 PM in stone rule - no auto vents in an ac exp tank?

As, again Doc Radiant pointed out so eloquently, oxygen comes out of suspension in hotter water, under the lowest pressure. If the water is cool, and under pressure, it (oxygen) won't go in to nor out of the solution as easily. It can be entrained (i.e. glycol charging pump coming back through screen causes oxygen to go into solution and act like sodium bicarb in suspension. Billions of microbubbles.), but for the most part, it doesn't want to go into or out of suspension under the conditions in which you are running. In EVERY case, where I have seen HOT water (greater than 90 degrees F) in use with a conventional compression tank, AND there were auto vents in place, the expansion tank became water logged (even on systems with an airtrol fitting on the tank), and then caused the relief valve to do its thing, which then caused the make up valve to do its thing, and it just gets uglier from there. Without fail. ME

And...

@ April 9, 2009 7:02 PM in Brass, or Di-electric union

from the outside as well. I don't think internal corrosion is as much an issue with closed loop systems as it is potable systems, but I actually got a city council to quit requiring the use of dielctric unions on water heaters at one point in my life (a LONG time ago). THe biggest problem they pose in closed loop systems is leakage. That, and due to the lack of oxygen, they really aren't necessary. I have some pictures of the insides of some around here somewhere... ME

Leaks happen.....

@ April 9, 2009 10:04 AM in Brass, or Di-electric union

As my dad use to say, there are two people in this world that don't have leaks. People that don't work with water, and plumbers that lie :-) In the International residential code book, section P2904.17.1 Joints between disimilar metal pipes shall be made with brass fittings or di-electric unions. Section M2002.4 states, Discharge pipe shall be piped to WITHIN 18" of the floor. Lastly, every di-electric union I have seen was SO corroded internally, that I was amazed there was ANY flow through the union at all. ALso, as others have pointed out, I have yet to see a di-electric union that DIDN'T leak. And NO leak is a good leak. I think I'd tell the homeowner that your system is in full compliance with the code, and that the other contractor ought not attempt to criticize other peoples work in an effort to gain their confidence. The installation looks fantastic to me. People who live in glass houses shouldn't cast stones... ME

Sure...

@ April 8, 2009 2:03 PM in Rudd Furnace Jet Engine

Air is just another fluid. I see no reason why a bypass around the blower wouldn't work. You may have to put an additional bypass in but is should make a difference. Maybe one for the humidifier, and one for an air cleaner/UV air treatment system. UPSELL! I've always had a healthy respect for a good force air guy. I LOOK at sheet metal and my hands automatically start bleeding. I go through a case of band aids just changing the filter on one...:-) ME

Classes...

@ April 7, 2009 1:11 PM in WHAT IS THE BEST MOD CON ON THE MARKET AS OF TODAY ??????

THanks for asking Justin. I will be doing a 4 night Night School Class for the Charles D, Jones Co. at their Bryant Street facility in Denver the week of April 20th. You can register at http://www.cdjones.com/Training_Programs.html The class for the KCMV folks will be two one hour freebie's to be presented at their 2nd annual Home and Recreation show, at the Eagle County Fair Grounds building, in Eagle Colorado, the weekend of April 25th and 26th. I will be speaking at 11:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday. I will be telling homeowners how to do solar without getting burnt, how to do GSHP wihtout getting buried, and how to do wood gasifying appliances without getting splinters, followed by 15 minutes of open Q&A. We will have the radiant windows on display at that function. I will be manning the booth with the rest of the RGI folks for the balance of the time. I look forward to meeting fellow Wallies at these and other (TBA) up coming functions. Thanks for asking, and thanks to Dan and TLM for allowing me the opportunity to tell you about it on this site. ME

As Doc Radiant has pointed out...

@ April 7, 2009 12:33 PM in stone rule - no auto vents in an ac exp tank?

If there is an Airtrol fitting on the compression tank, it is doing its job and not allowing the air to migrate out of the compression tank. If it stops doing its job, and the auto vents see the free air, they will expel it and you will eventually end up with water logged tanks, and leaking relief valves. Generally speaking, if there is a perceived "air problem", auto vents are sprinkled thoughout the system, when in reality, its really not an air problem, but more of one of the location of the main circulators in relationship to the expansion tanks connection to the system. Once that is addressed, the alleged "air problem" disappears magically... But as Jim has pointed out, if it is a system using compression tanks, it shouldn't have automatic air eliminators, and if it is a diaphragm expansion tank it SHOULD have air eliminators. Not to say that it can't be done as you are seeing, but if something decides to head south, the whole system may follow... Best keep a close eye on it, or valve off the Spiro outlets and only open them on occasion to let out any air they've inadvertently accumulated. ME

Bag filter drawing AND PICTURES

@ April 6, 2009 9:29 AM in Mod-cons and volcanoes

I have some actual pictures around here somehwere. If I come across them today, I will ad them later. Best of luck, and don't forget your NIOSH respirator... ME EDIT: Credit given where credit due. Tim Reini, of my former employer, came up with this idea. THe guy is freakin' amazing, I'm tellin' ya... ME

Billy...

@ April 3, 2009 8:35 AM in check out these pics

Please take this as educational criticism. I hope you don't plan on leaving the dielectric union in there, especially if it is underground. I'm pretty sure you are not allowed to have a union in an inaccessible place, i.e. in or under a slab. My experience with them has been that they create more problems (internal close off due to corrosion) then they avoid. If the joint is underground, I would recommend the use of a yellow brass coupling to make the transition between the black and the copper. The yellow brass is neutral to both copper and steel. You don't want to make more problems for the next poor soul in there doing jack hammer surgery... Keep up the good work. Looks like you may be at it for a while on that project... ME

Agreed...

@ March 19, 2009 10:19 AM in Radiant loop flow

I see 7 to 10's ALL the time, even at design condition. The "real time" load is NO WHERE near as bad as we design for, hence short cycling BANG BANG boilers... Thank goodness for modcons :-) ME

Parallel curves

@ March 19, 2009 9:56 AM in Keeping your buffer tank tempetature down

If you set both curves up identical to each other, if the GSHP is capable of carrying the load, the aux boiler will not come one. If the system gets slammed by a cold slab load and is uncapable of maintaining required temperature, boiler will blend in and help push the load over the hill. However, I would recommend that you consider using a modulating/condensing boiler, otherwise you will significantly overshoot your target and cause the heat pump to stay off line longer than it should. Plus, it allows the modcon to do only what is necessary in a proportional mode, not a BANG BANG mode. Instead of running two separate ODR's, just run one 2 stage ODR and lock the aux boiler in as the second load. THe only disadvantage to this is that it will have the chance to "mask" a problem with the GSHP, and the problem will not manifest itself until it gets REAL cold outside, and the only thing running is the aux. boiler, but I guess that could happen with the parallel curve idea as well. Your required operating temperatures at design condition are well within the capabilities of the GSHP (max 115 recommended). Don't be afraid. Jump in with both feet. If you start getting in over your head, we're here to throw you a life line. Just make darned sure that whatever goes into the Earth has adequate capacity. That is the one thing that CAN'T be easily fixed... ME

What are your fuels costs?

@ March 18, 2009 8:45 AM in Small radiant zone from existing Base baord zone

Electricity @ XX cents per KWH Oil @ XXX $ per gallon Nat Gas @ XXX$ per CCF or Therm? ME

Most common misdiagnosed disease in the WORLD!!!

@ March 16, 2009 3:32 PM in Legionnaires' bug at hospital

Typically found to be "bacterial pneumonia". 10% kill rate. People are typically given broad spectrum antibiotics to cure them without finding out what it was that was bugging them... A random sample blood test found that 99% of the people tested had been exposed to the bacteria responsible for LD. Probably ingested it while drinking the water... And our code officials are living in denial, and I'm not talking about the big river, although I am certain the bacteria survives there too... It's a matter of bacteria elevation, and immune system depression, and when the conditions get just right, WHAM, it's got you. And it can kill you if you go undiagnosed. Just like carbon monoxide poisonings, I think this disease is totally preventable. It's all about education. And it starts with maintaining storage tank temps between 130 and 140, AND making sure that there is anti scald mixing devices on line. Is this going to completely cure all possible contractions? No, but it's certainly going to put a major dent in the devastation it can wreak. ME