Heating Help

Concrete?

@ June 11, 2005 1:03 PM in HVAC Sizing for Concrete Homes

Are you talking about ICF construction? Typically, a concrete house has a low air infiltration rate if you pay attention to the window and door openings. This is a good thing. Remember to incorporate a number for ventilation air in your air change per hour #.

Anytime

@ June 10, 2005 12:50 AM in If you ever get the chance to talk to Bill Nye

Home phone 231-826-3737, office 231-826-3535 or if you're on a budget 800-607-6135, cell phone 231-920-4808, e-mail s_ebels@yahoo.com. We have a spare bedroom and bath for any Wallies passing through Northern lower Michigan. Seriously.

What about

@ June 10, 2005 12:45 AM in a heating puzzler (sort of)

The roof of the carport? Wet?

Solution to this one...........

@ June 8, 2005 11:32 PM in Just had a CO call

Called the guy back today and explained in detail what is going on. We're installing central A/C Friday.

We get

@ June 8, 2005 11:30 PM in Just had a CO call

12 days every summer that hit 90*. We've already had 4 and have all of June, July and August to go. I'm planning on a frost around the end of June or first of July. August will be decent and winter will set in during September. That gives the black flies and mosquitoes about 3 weeks yet and they'll be froze out. Doesn't really matter what the weather guys say. It'll happen how it happens. A person hardly has time to get the boat out and you have to start thinking about waxing up the CC skies. You're funny John.

Been trying

@ June 7, 2005 11:48 PM in PC software for service....

To construct something like that using a database. Not having much success given my limited computer skills. If you find something like that I'd like to know about it.

IMHO

@ June 7, 2005 11:27 PM in Just had a CO call

To make a WHF foolproof you would have to have an electrically interlocked inlet shutter (of adequate size) that opened whenever the fan was turned on. Most people however, don't want a 9 square ft shutter in the side of their house for some odd reason. Direct vent, sealed combustion, and I mean truly sealed, appliances are definitely the answer.

Just had a CO call

@ June 7, 2005 10:33 PM in Just had a CO call

Scenario was as follows. It was 9:45PM and still in the mid 80's when I got a call from these folks that their CO alarm was going off. When I got there it was apparent almost instantly what was going on. They have a whole house fan and the matron of the house was doing laundry. Add those two together for just a second and tell me what was happening to the flue gas from the water heater. Can we all say SPILL! The flame on the water heater was a brilliant yellow with nice smokey colored tips and all the flue gas was being vented into the house. This of course was due to the fact the the whole house fan turned the chimney into just one more avenue of incoming air. When I showed them what was happening they could understand that they had to open ALL the windows in the house in order for the chimney to stay in an updraft mode. They also decided that they would run the fan only when they were not using hot water. What else could I advise them to do? I'm not 100% comfortable with this.

Constantin

@ June 6, 2005 9:41 PM in Source for colorful pipe insulation

I've not run across colored insulation but there are several manufacturers of plastic sleeves, available in practically any color, that will snap over the standard type insulation.

If I'm not mistaken

@ June 6, 2005 9:31 PM in carrier boilers

Dunkirk makes them and badges them for Carrier.

Ideas

@ June 4, 2005 10:31 AM in New A/C Install

I don't think I'd bother with trying to fish the lineset through the "conduit". It appears that most of it would be hidden under the deck anyway. Here's one thing that we have done on long exposed runs that we wanted to dress up and/or protect. Take your 3" pvc and split it lengthwise with a table saw (or a sawzall if your good) and use it as a chase to cover the lineset. Just split it in half and clamp ir anchor it to whatever you're running across. You can paint it to match your wall.

Whoa buddy!

@ June 4, 2005 1:59 AM in Outdoor Reset Controls

Let's get the first thing first. What kind of a boiler are you putting this on? Iron? Steel? Condensing? And then three zones of what? Baseboard? Radiators? Floor? Combination of these? What method of temp protection are you going to use if your boiler requires it?

What do they want

@ June 2, 2005 10:10 PM in kitec pipe failure

PH-wise, what do they want to see as far as PH is concerned in their tube?

Now your getting it.

@ June 2, 2005 10:02 PM in what type of heat?

First the heat loss. Then consider and price out and choose your options between Radiant floors, and there are many ways to skin that cat or panel radiators, all shapes and sizes in vertical and horizontal models. A mix of the two or maybe and airhandling system with A/C blended in to boot. I agree 100% that the boiler in most cases is of secondary importance compared with the installation qulaity and the control system as far as your comfort and the economy of the system are concerned. Tell your installer/designer you want the system to operate at a water temp of no more than 160* at design temperature. This will keep your boiler running at maximum efficiency throughout the whole winter. That being said, if gas is your fuel a high efficiency type with a modulating burner is the only way to go. Fuel prices today will seem dirt cheap 10 years from now.

Hey Murph!!

@ June 2, 2005 9:18 PM in Hey Murph!

Who's in charge now that all the big dogs are in Minnesota and us peon's are the only ones left watching the Wall???

Couple questions

@ June 2, 2005 8:01 PM in Low Loss Header

Does your LLH have to be ASME rated? Might be something to check out.......... Do you know what flow you want on the boiler side and the system side? I would guess you're looking at a variable type flow on the boiler side and around 80-100gpm on the system so you'd probably want 2 1/2" or 3" tappings for that. Lot's of "it depends" like male threads, female threads, flanges etc. I had Earth Lee Ltd. from Rocky Point NY make one up a couple weeks ago. I'd suggest getting in touch with them as they can fabricate any configuration you can dream up. Their phone # is 631-821-1213 and fax is 631-821-0903. Great people to work with. I'll see if I can boot up a picture of one that she made. It's 2" pipe with 1" tapping on the boiler side and 1 1/4" on the system side. 1/2" out the bottom for a drain and a 3/4" tapping for the Hoffman #79 air vent on top. Not a real good shot but the manifold/LLH is boxed in to protect it in this particular app. You should be able to click on the picture and expand it.

OK

@ June 1, 2005 11:13 PM in Veissmann vs Furnace

I'll answer my own question. Maybe it should have read, How do you get a 43% improvment in efficiency with an 8% increase in burner efficiency? 1.The old furnace was operating on a single thermostat for the whole building. Pretty much anyone should realize that a great deal of efficiency can be gained by zoning any building and providing the ability to "turn down" rooms which are not in use. The same holds true for 80% of the houses I have ever been in. Think about your own home. How many rooms do you actually use and need to maintain at 70* all day, every day. Zoning should be mandatory in any house over 1,200 sq ft IMHO. When used correctly it can really make a difference. 2. Matching the firing rate to the actual requirements of the building. In this case the old furnace was firing at 850,000btu's, not horribly oversized, maybe 20% like most heating systems are. Actual calculated heating load for this building was 511,000 btus, just a tad above the rated output of the Vitola's. The main thing is that furnace had one firing rate. Full bore and off. The new system can fire at 50% and 100% and the 50% rate meets the need 95 days out of 100. When you have a piece of equpment that fires at one rate, and most people do, it hardly ever runs at peak efficiency. Multiple or better yet modulating btu inputs are another key factor. 3. Outdoor reset and constant circulation do a lot to increase efficiency and comfort levels allowing lower thermostat settings. I have living breathing proof on this job. Two of the rooms in this building are used for preschool age kids in the HeadStart program. The teachers and the kids complained about feeling cold even when the room temp was 72* with the old system. With the new system the radiators are "on" 95% of the time. Nice even heat. Constant. Comforting. This past winter the teachers said that rarely did they ever see the heat higher than 68-70* but they were comfortable while wearing regular shirts instead of sweaters. Besides that, the heat output from a radiator is much more comfortable than warm air blowing into a room. Chalk one up for appropriately sized radiators, constant circ and OD reset. 4. Underground ductwork should be banned. We calculated that about 11-12% of the output of the old furnace was lost in the ground under the building. it blew 130-140* air into ducts laying in 50* soil. The same thing happens in most homes with uninsulated duct running through an unconditioned space, like a 55-60* basement. That's about it other than the actual efficiency difference in the equipment and heat delivery system. It's not rocket science, you just have to think eachstructure through whether it's 1,500 or 15,000 sq ft. There is no one size fits all heating plan.

You're very welcome

@ June 1, 2005 10:42 PM in THANKS TO STEVE EBELS (Dan H.)

I hope it illustrates that even an old building can be made much more efficient with a correctly designed system. Not just a bunch of new equipment. Big difference.

We use

@ June 1, 2005 10:38 PM in anchoring pex to foam

The screw in clips occasionaly but prefer to use a stapler and staples made for foam. About 1/4 the labor of clips. Ours is a Stadler/Viega piece that uses 2" staples. Works slick.

Glen

@ May 31, 2005 10:07 PM in Burnham MPO

Are you contemplating any integrated or built for this boiler type controls ala Buderus or Viessmann? Something that would do reset and DHW? What is the working temp range? That HX section looks an awful lot like the Viessmann Vitorond 200 series and that is meant as a compliment.

Notice

@ May 31, 2005 8:43 PM in Chinese smoke adaptor

The (person?) terminated the vent right by that poor old furnace. I wonder what the CO is on that baby!! Why is it the dryer vents, the dog's pad, the cat litter box and all those types of things are always by the boiler/furnace/whatever? Is there some code I don't know about that says these things have to be there?