Heating Help

It's a straight draft

@ August 19, 2010 6:40 PM in Riello post purge

Riello 40-f3 with a chimney draft.  No direct vent.   I've installed a stainless insulated liner,  and the draft is much improved.  I'm just at the end of a long long tunnel and looking for excuses to keep disappearing for a few hours into the bowels of my house. 
 My wife asked me if I had plans to install a beer fridge in the boiler room.

Riello post purge

@ August 15, 2010 7:42 AM in Riello post purge

 I've got a Viessmann Vitola w/ Riello burner.  It has a 30 second pre-purge, but no post-purge.  Is it common for pressure-fired boilers not to have a post-purge cycle?  I'm sure the engineers at Viessmann know more about their equipment than I do but I'd think it would make sense to run the blower on the burner at least long enough to clear the flue chamber before the draft regulator.  Would there be any harm in this?

Slant-Fin is a good heat loss (from what I hear)

@ August 7, 2010 2:24 PM in Any comments about Biasi boilers

I used it before they stopped giving away the download and came up with 95k btu/hr with a design temp of -10.  For my area its -7 for Concord NH, and I'm south of that.  It may get that cold at night, but I can't ever remember a sustained temp here below 0f for more than a few days. January is usually +10F give or take.  I also used a Solar web site which has a pretty detailed working.  I wasn't able to convince my plumber-in-law that it was that low, but the fuel bill doesn't lie, if anything its lower but I know that's because the wood stove is doing its job. 
 The final straw was this and one other website. At this point I must give thanks to all here and those real-life pros from whom I've mooched what I've struggled to know.
 When I did a search here the only thing that mattered was the heat loss, not the radiation (in my case), not the square footage, and certainly not upsizing a full section for an indirect hot water heater.  I had to pull myself away from what I had been told by some old-timers, who I feel had some disdain for smaller, poor-drafting units because they had a tendency to plug up.   I'm  guessing of course, but I think the larger units was an attempt to make up for a lack of mass when it comes to baseboard heat, thereby giving the burner a longer cycle and elevating the stack temp.  Also, when doing cut-throat residential bids, you could tell the customer "this one is bigger" and they would think its a better deal.   

Just went through the same thing

@ August 7, 2010 9:30 AM in Any comments about Biasi boilers

I looked long and hard at the Biasi boilers.  Great because they are low mass, but in the end they just fit my system because of it.  My largest of 5 zones is about 30k btu with baseboard radiation, the smallest of which is 7k  I was afraid of the lack of mass, and figured I would need a buffer tank to avoid short-clycing.  I went for a well-insulated high mass boiler,simply because I got a deal.  I think the biasi coupled with a boiler buddy may have been more efficienct because I would have been able to isolate the boiler buddy during the Summer months. 
 Original boiler was Trinanco Heatmaker with tankless coil.  First Winter we burned 1600 gallons of oil.  Since then I've done some stuff and this last Winter we burned just under 1100 gallons.   I repiped all the circulators, added an indirect (WM, which is a rebranded TT) and replaced the boiler.  The original boiler was 164k btu/hr, but that was for a 2600 sqft house.  After two additions the house is 4300 sqft, the boiler was downfired to 1.0 gph. and on the coldest days of the year the old boiler ran for a maximum of 9hrs/day.  I did a heat loss calc, then another one, then another one, till finally I couldn't convince myself that I was screwing up with 75-90k btu/hr.  I'm in Southern NH.  Average house construction.  Even at a thumb rule of 30btu/sqft my original boiler was close to 3x size before the additions

My new boiler is 92k.    I've got plans for solar hot water, and have a wood stove insert that practially heats the house on the weekends.  I know I'm right on the line when it comes to sizing (because the traditional line is an error factor of close to 100%!)  but it the house dips down to 65F for a day or two in January when we don't run the insert then so what?  Better that then oversize for 353 days/yr. 

Have you got city water?

@ July 30, 2010 8:11 PM in Burnham V8 Series Boiler

Where did it come from?

Have you got city water?

@ July 30, 2010 8:11 PM in Burnham V8 Series Boiler

Where did it come from?

Depends on where the gas line is

@ July 30, 2010 8:35 AM in MPO or mod con?

If gas is at the street then it should be reasonable or possibly free.  If they have to bring it down the street it will be expensive.  A friend of mine got a quote of 3k but it would have brought gas past 10 other homes before her's.   I told her to get together with the neighbors but she didn't have that kind of time.  She was already boiling water on the stove to wash!
I'm not a pro but I've obsessed over the same question when it comes to condensing oil boilers.  The thing that convinced me not to worry about it is the simple fact that there isn't that much more heat available when it comes to oil.  There's roughly 1/2 the condensate in oil exhaust compared to gas/propane so the return on the extra equipment is hard to justify.    I'd want at least a 3 pass boiler with primary secondary piping so I could take advantage of the large mass stored in the CI radiators without fear of condensing.    I'm guessing after the fuel becomes cleaner we're going to see add-on heat exchangers you can add to either heat your combustion air or preheat your DHW.

thanks for the link

@ July 25, 2010 8:07 AM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

That's just what I want.

I've got the pressure gauge covered

@ July 24, 2010 4:29 PM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

And all I really wanted was a easy-read temp gauge to tell me how well the supply and return were balanced, and whether I could maybe cut back on the pump speed via motor control ect. 

I appreciate the help

@ July 24, 2010 12:22 PM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

I always lean towards operator error on a listed device.  I could accept it was once but now its twice, being even more carefull the 2nd time.  I'd think it was a bad brand if I hadn't used two different ones.  I'd think it was a bad batch if  I had a dozen of the same lot number of gauge in my truck.
What's the odds of a failed gauge?  1 in 100?  That makes it about 1 in 100,000.  Time to play the lottery. 

I guess I could pick it up with tongs

@ July 24, 2010 11:00 AM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

move the boiler to a clean room, and use special water.

Am I doing something wrong?

@ July 24, 2010 9:34 AM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

Dope on the threads. Is the guage fouling? I could see why that would mess with the pressure/head but not the temp. Also, it wouldn't explain why the gauge is fogging up.

I used a different brand

@ July 24, 2010 8:25 AM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

I bought them 4 months apart. Installed into a tee with room to spare. Used a wrench and did not over-tighten. What the heck?

Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

@ July 23, 2010 7:56 PM in Tridicator Gauge Failure-Again?

Sorry if this has been covered.  I did a search and couldn't find anything so I figured I'd ask:
When I repiped all my circulators and indirect last Spring I installed a tridicator guage on both the supply and return of my boiler.  One gauge began fogging up immediately after install, the other about 2 weeks later.  I figured oh well, bad batch/too tight/dropped or something so I pulled them and plugged the hole.  Recently I finally changed the boiler and figured now was a good time to replace them.  Different model but same result.  One of the gauges failed immediately (fogged up and didn't register a temperature change) so now it must be me.
I DID NOT over-tighten them,  1/4 turn until they stopped leaking then 1/4 turn more. 
I didn't use tape, only very little dope.
The end of the probe is EXACTLY where it should be, maybe even a little pulled back from the middle of the tee so I know its not bottoming out and damaging the probe. 
What the heck am I doing wrong?

This is not a radiant install

@ July 12, 2010 4:20 PM in Pex Tubing and Spray Foam Insulation

I'm removing some non-barrier pex and replacing with pex with an o2 barrier (hePex).  The system is baseboard and the pex is run under the floor, which is the ceiling of the garage.  My plan was to remove the entire ceiling in the garage to correct some wiring/structural/cosmetic/idiotic problems, and when I do this I was hoping to spray-foam the entire floor, and was wondering if Uponor/Wirsbo hePex was good to go with spraying right over.

Already started ripping it out

@ July 11, 2010 7:00 AM in Corrosion on heating pex fittings

And if anyone was curious that is NOT  barrier pex, but vanguard potable water pex.  4 lines run from the basement, all the same.  I'm scared but excited at the same time to see what I'm going to find.  Goes to show that even inspected work is not always perfect.

Heat

@ July 11, 2010 6:54 AM in Pex Tubing and Spray Foam Insulation

I knew about the heat.  I would imagine the skill of the installer would come into play.  If you flash it in layers like you would a cold wall and allow it to cool in between it would be ok, but who's going to check on that?  To pre-insulate the pex with a thin insulate seems very prudent.

Pex Tubing and Spray Foam Insulation

@ July 10, 2010 8:00 PM in Pex Tubing and Spray Foam Insulation

I'm going to be re-installing a heating loop.  In order to do this I'm going to be ripping out the existing ceiling of a garage.  I figure while I'm at it I'm going to hire someone to spray foam the underside to a depth of 3" so I get a nice quiet floor and a vapor barrier.
Is there a problem encapsulating pex (hepex Uponor) in closed-cell spray foam insulation.  I plan on following prudent installation techniques but my concern is a reaction between the tubing and the spray foam. I'd think if its rated for direct contact with concrete there shouldn't be a problem.
What about exansion/contraction? 

I'll try cleaning it

@ July 10, 2010 3:15 PM in Corrosion on heating pex fittings

But the corrosion isn't near the solder joint but down where the elbow crimps to the pex.

Hard to tell from the pic

@ July 10, 2010 8:05 AM in Burnham V8 Series Boiler

But it almost looks like the flue pipe dips down to enter the chimney.  That would make it pretty tough for the water to roll down the inside of the brick and then wick into the stack pipe.   Does it look like it came from the inside out, or in between the two castings?

Corrosion on heating pex fittings

@ July 9, 2010 5:41 PM in Corrosion on heating pex fittings

I've got an 800 sqft room over an insulated garage floor.  I took off a cover to the rad to check the temp on the supply connection and found this. I went around and checked the rest of the crimps and each one shows the same corrosion.  I checked it with a gauge, and it was crimped correctly. 
I've got two theories:  The pex was not installed with respect to expansion/contraction and is moving around too much and water is squeezing past.  Another theory is the cold air vs warm air is passing through the unsealed holes and its a good spot for water vapor to condense. 
The original installation was around 2001. 

Decided on the 316TI

@ July 8, 2010 8:10 PM in 316TI vs AL29-4c for chimney liner

With the money I'll save on the metal I can insulate the liner.  AL29-4C seems to be superior in salt/chlorine-rich enviroments, but 316ti is very good when it comes to oil condensate, which is mostly Sulfur-acidic.  Maybe if I was on the seacoast, or if my boiler shared combustion air with a dryer/laundry room.  I've heard the chemicals in laundry soaps/softeners can be brutal on a typical stainless liner.  Don't keep your pool supplies in your boiler room!