Heating Help

Double your pleasure, double your fun

@ March 17, 2010 10:07 AM in Air to Water Heat Pump

OK, east coast.  Our class is west coast.  Thanks for the comment for increase output.  I'll definitely keep that in mind.  Regards.

Trying to keep up

@ March 16, 2010 10:56 PM in Air to Water Heat Pump

I'm attending the class in Irvine also, but mine is the beginning of the month.  The DHW delivery temps sound too good to be true??  And I heard 170* too.  Altherma's  hybrid approach sounds pretty reasonable.  The limited Btu heat production they offer, (55K), should work for a "high performance" home with a smallish footprint.  This seems to be a trend, building smaller homes.  Looks like a good way to focus on utilizing solar thermal, heat-pump, elec. backup as long as the hardware/control boards can hack it.  New product worries.  Involved in a project that can only use energy created at the sight.  No utility connection and building materials must pass muster.  It is called Living something.   

That helps...

@ February 11, 2010 4:49 PM in Air to Water Heat Pump

A 35K heat load would do about 1000 to 1,500 sq.ft. here.  A shop or warehouse will use less Btus/sqft..  How do you cool with this Unit?  Fan-coil?  Our cooling load is pretty much non-existant with maybe one week (or two) in the 90's+.  Coldest this winter -15 so far, although our average coldest is -5 to zero; (pretty weird year from the weather department).  Our average winter temps usually 30-40 day and 20-30 nights.   We are 3-4,000 ft elevation, east slope of the Cascade mountains in the high desert.

In your opinion, is it worth the expense to embrace heat-pump technology with the parameters I've given? or is this the nature of the beast?   Folks are screaming for greater efficiencies like GTHP.  Unfortunately, we are on rock around here and everything else is volcanic sand without much density.  Drilling wells adds up tambien.

Thanks in advance for your input.  Bobcat

Air to Water Heat Pump

@ February 11, 2010 2:28 PM in Air to Water Heat Pump

Anything good or bad to say about the Altherma by Daikin?  As a boiler guy these systems sound intriguing especially when DHW can be connected successfully.  We do multi-temperature systems, ie. radiant floors, wall panels, DHW and snowmelt.  I'm interested in listening to someone who does similar work and has experience with this (or other similar) product(s).

minitube for snowmelt

@ June 10, 2008 1:14 AM in minitube for snowmelt

I've used minitube style delivery from boiler room to separate zoned buildings successfully. Loads for this heated storage were minimal 15 to 20 Btu/ft even when delivering heat to 80,000 sq.ft. in ten different buildings. This 1.4MM Btu boiler, copper finned, atmospheric works just fine even though the owner really hugs the minimal temps to stay just above freezing. Now a different job looks good for a similar, albeit cost effective, application for minitube. This snowmelt delivery system shall handle about 150 Btu/sq.ft. (or more). 6,000 to 12,000 sq.ft. of sidewalks and loading docks will be demanding of a poorly designed minitube system. Can someone offer design help for this type of system? 500 ft. loops of one inch barrier PEX 12 inches O.C. I'm OK designing this part for gpm and load. I'm not too confident in using the minitube to get the temps to the outer manifold/pump station. Comments?

Snowmelt

@ January 3, 2008 11:43 AM in Buffer tank answer to short cycle boiler

New installation of 5-6,000 sq.ft. of entry and pool deck snowmelt at a resort. 1MMbtu copper finned tube, on-off (wish I would have ordered a two stage) that creates heat very quickly but my temar 664, two zone injection control does not delver the heat fast enough due to boiler protection and cold start up I suppose. Would a buffer tank, say a 120 gal, connected in series in the primary (boiler) loop extend firing and minimize short cycles? I've never used a buffer before. Siggy shows a seperate pump, etc, when other loads are connected. This is a stand alone system. If the buffer and connecting piping reaches adjusted limit at 160 degrees, then am I back to square one? Maybe spread the on-off differential? Any ideas out there to create a successful installation? Cold toes in Oregon.

snap switch

@ February 15, 2005 10:28 PM in Solar preheat unused

sounds reasonable and economical. Of course the masterbath is at least 60 ft away with a tough crawl. The new construction afforded for good insulation detail although my attention was on the solar lines and radiant lines only, (pass the buck here). ((By the way I hate the inefficiency of recirc systems)). M.E. mentioned the use of a differential controller but perhaps a set-point controller might be more appropriate in conjuction with your three-way idea. The DHW boiler control is set at 128, I think. Once the solar storage approaches this setpoint, or exceeds it (adj), a three-way diverts the recirc pump into the solar storage, ie. flow through both tanks. I'm beginning to see some light here. OK??

Solar preheat unused

@ February 15, 2005 8:56 PM in Solar preheat unused

The solar preheat tank sits at a temp higher than the boiler fired indirect. A recirc pump eventually (quite often) lowers the indirect tanks' temp so the boiler fires to maintain the set temp. My customer complains that the solar preheater could deliver the higher temps (when available) instead of the boiler always firing obnoxiously. When hot water is drawn from any tap all is good and the solar is serving it's purpose. But when the system sits idle and the recirc system drops the temps, I'm back in trouble. I suggested installing a timer on the recirc but my customer stays home frequently and wants it running continuously. Any suggestions would be helpful.