Heating Help

Central heat

@ September 7, 2012 10:11 PM in When did central heat become "normal"

According to them the first central heat was in Eastern State Penitentary. They had a steam system with just pipes, no radiation and was run by Quakers.

wirng pump

@ September 7, 2012 9:59 PM in Turning on a pump when any one of three zones is calling

Can't you just wire one pump to the boiler. It will reun on any demand on the boiler and continue to run while there is a demand.

Heatloss

@ August 28, 2012 8:03 AM in NOT pumping away

Remember the flow in the zone must only match the heat loss not the connected load. If you have 39,000 btu's of radiation but the heat loss is 20k than the flow rate needs to match the needed heat requirement.
If you size the pump for the connected load than the system flow rate will exceed the flow rate required in the boiler. The flow rate in a cast iron boiler normally should be between 20f and 40f delta-T. If the boiler matches the heat loss of let's say 60k but the connected load is 90k that means the boiler which should have between 3 and 6 gpm will now have 9 gpm flow. Delta-T will be less than 20f.

PVC

@ May 11, 2012 7:22 AM in Is PVC an acceptable vent material for flue gases?

600f stack temp brings two questions to mind. One how is this appliance efficient with that kind of vent temp? If it is designed to vent with PVC there is something wrong. Dirty & requires service? Mod/cons normally shut down under 250f.
Second question is it safe? Tan pipe usually is very brittle and at 600f is it safe?

How

@ April 30, 2012 9:28 PM in Can we split tankless on-demand hot water unit for hydro air & domestic hot water?

How do you get around the need for the "H" stamp where required? 

up or down

@ April 30, 2012 9:21 PM in Cast Iron Radiators Monoflo Tee Q

If the radiators are above the main than you may be able to use 1/2" or 3/4" dependent on the heat required. Above 17K 3/4" and below 17K 1/2". If the radiation is below the main do not use less than 3/4". Also follow ME's post.

Boiler ratings

@ April 28, 2012 8:46 PM in Can we split tankless on-demand hot water unit for hydro air & domestic hot water?

Boilers are ASME certified and carry the "H" stamp. Many states require an "H" stamp to be used as heating boilers.

Vent

@ April 24, 2012 4:05 PM in Redesigned steam piping...

Maybe I missed it but the vents on steam radiators are supposed to be below the halfway mark not up at the top.
Egad....21 psi....how could you afford the fuel bill?
On a one pipe steam system the radiator valves must be 100% wide open.
What is the height of the radiators?

Radiators

@ April 24, 2012 3:49 PM in Unusual Radiator Repair By All Steamed Up, Inc.

Was this for steam or hot water? I have to assume steam.
Good work!

Expensive yes

@ April 1, 2012 9:11 PM in Happening elsewhere?

I have heard and seen many mod/con parts failure and yes they are expensive as compared to the cost of cast iron boilers parts. Most of the time it is caused by over sized boilers and improper installations.

What a cluster F............

@ February 29, 2012 6:01 PM in boiler sizing

How can we ever expect our customers to ever trust anyone in our industry when so called professionals can't agree on something like heat loss! This makes us look like jerks.
I have been doing heat losses for 20+ years always sized off DOE especially if there were multiple zones. Never tore a boiler out for being undersized but i did save people tons of money through the years. If an emergency came up and I did not do the heat loss I never size a boiler larger than the connected load. If the connected load was between two boiler sizes I usually dropped to the smaller boiler.
When there is DHW involved the tanks are oversized as much as boilers are usually. Calculate the DHW needs and apply the math.

Tube length

@ February 1, 2012 9:47 PM in Changing blast tube lenght

I would not change the length. I know some of the manufacturers have had problems with Riello and the only change Riello had to make was tube length. I do believe it may be more of an issue with positive draft boilers as opposed to negative draft boilers.

MPO-IQ

@ January 28, 2012 8:34 PM in savings from low mass conversion

I would consider the MPO-IQ by US Boiler. You can benefit from the pre-purge of the circulator and plug in ODR.
From what you have now I would assume a 30 - 50% fuel savings due to changing from 180k to 84k and ODR. I usually find a 25 - 30% fuel savings with just boiler replacement which the old boiler is much closer in size than you have and no ODR. ODR is usually goos for 10 - 20% dependent on the type of system.

P/S piping

@ January 27, 2012 9:52 AM in why the plumber connected the supply and return ends together

The boiler is piped somewhat correct. The installing contractor did get it pretty close but did not adhere to the distance before and after the closely spaced tee's. The returns and supplies should be tied together with the boiler tees located as is.

Alpine pump size

@ January 19, 2012 9:11 PM in Low Delta T between boiler Supply and Return

Burnham sizes those pumps for 75 EFP.Less pipe you can reduce the pump size to equal the proper flow rate. Their newer Alpines they include pumps which are sized for 50 EFP.

Upfiring

@ January 15, 2012 7:48 PM in Can the Burnham MPO 84 be upfired

Burnham does not want the firing rate changed on any of their current oil products.

Upgrade

@ January 10, 2012 5:11 PM in Burnham alpine

What Alpine update are you talking about?

Pipe size

@ January 10, 2012 5:08 PM in Sizing Circulators

If the boiler pipe size is bigger than the building pipe size I am concerned the boiler is oversized. What size is the new boiler and what size was the old boiler?

Even another opinion

@ January 5, 2012 8:06 PM in The best Delta T for a mod-con?

I run a lower delta-T to stay in condensing mode for a longer period of time. If you know the return temperature and add the delta T, that is your supply temp. We know that the cooler the water the more efficient the boiler is. We condense when any part of the boiler is below 130f. More of the boiler operating below 130f the more we condense and take advantage of latent heat.
If we operate with 110f return and work on a 35f delta T the supply is 145f. Most of the boiler will not be condensing.
Same return temperature 110f but a 20f delta T the supply is 130f Still condensing.
If the boiler is over sized reduce the input which means we can reduce the flow through the boiler but still maintain the 20 - 25f delta T.
Flow in a heating system does affect output of the radiation. Look at the charts. At the same water temp at 1 or 4 gpm the output is different. Also the delta T is lower as water becomes cooler. If you have a 20f delta T at 180f water and drop the water to a 110f water you will have much less delta T with fixed speed pumps and increase the resistance to flow. Cooler water has a higher resistance to flow that hotter water
As we drop water temperature with ODR I am concerned with doing a higher system delta T due to less heat at the radiation at the end of the loop. It can cause very uneven heating. Variable speed pumps can help in this situation.
The primary pipe is not always the boiler piping. The tees are always mounted on the primary pipe and the secondary is off the branch of the tees. Primary or secondary has nothing to do with the boiler but how it's piped. If the boiler is piped off the branches the boiler would be secondary piping.

Piping Diagrams

@ December 30, 2011 7:30 PM in Our first Burnham ES-2 Install

Piping diagrams start on page 39 in the I & O manual

An earlier comment when comparing the TT smart tank to The Burnham Alliance was "I believe the TT has a higher first-hour rating."
I used to think that also until I compared them a couple years ago.
TT Smart 40 - First hour 180 gal, 150 gph continuous, 112k boiler required for these numbers with 200f water temp from boiler.
Burnham AllianceAL35SL - 200 gph first hour, 180 gph continuous, 99k boiler required for these numbers with 180f water temp from boiler. I have always found stone lined tanks do more hot water with lower boiler sizes

Pellergy

@ December 26, 2011 7:48 PM in wood pellet boiler's

Check pellergy. They use the Burnham MPO and use a pellet burner.
http://www.pellergy.com/

MPO-IQ

@ December 23, 2011 3:41 PM in boiler size for indirect and mixing valve

With the heat loss of 50k use the MPO-IQ which will automatically prioritize the indirect and also wire the pump right into the boiler, also offers a pump pre-purge. If you are using a multi-zone relay you don't need to include the indirect in the relay so you can get a relay panel with one less zone and no priority. The boiler already handles 2 pumps. Can also use the odr cards which will also prioritize the indirect and still wire the indirect pump to the boiler.