Heating Help

@ February 21, 2004 5:19 PM in what is safe resid. CO level?

tankless DHW

@ February 20, 2004 4:32 PM in Can I heat a small home with a water heater?

I have bosch 125 b(nat gas), only 76 % efficient. they say its 82% but don't see how? might work for your application. you still need hot water, I'd think about a high effieciency tank with Heat exchanger. I have this unit cause I had to eat it on a radiant job, expensive but well learned lesson.

please explain

@ February 19, 2004 3:44 PM in Tstat setback

I'm curious to know how you arrive at knowing you use 30% more fuel than you would have if you'd left the t stat alone? what is your control? tony, don't take this as criticism, the more I'm thinking about all this the more it makes me think!

error in measurements

@ February 19, 2004 3:09 PM in energy savings---snake oil?

first off, if you use 200cu ft a day, 5% change is of course 10 cu ft, the last meter dial is only accurrate to 100 cu ft intervals. thus you are giving best "guess" at anything between, say 100 and 200cuft on meter. mathematically you can not guess that you use 125 cu ft, you can say either 120 or 130 at best(significant figures). so if you are using less than 200 cuft you are really guessing, and guessing leads to errors. a better method would be to clock the burner and still there is error there. it may be rated at 50,000btu but is it exactly that or is it 50,000 -+ 10%. then theres the btu value of gas, what error lies in that 1,000btu /cu ft we often talk about, 5%? 8%? more? every factional change in temperature involves factional change in energy. if someone can prove different, I bet they will get $1,000,000.00 for winning the Noble Prize by proving Newton wrong! to do this right you have to take into account ALL variables, temperature, wind, sunlight, rain(evaporative cooling), energy content of fuel and of course you need an exact duplicate as a control. I think a better way to phase it, "I can't seem to measure a small difference per day".

thanks john

@ February 18, 2004 1:26 PM in Direct venting vs. power venting

above attachment?

@ February 18, 2004 11:53 AM in Direct venting vs. power venting

what manufacturer is that?

compressing water

@ February 13, 2004 5:24 PM in Water rules

hey, we used to compress water at work, 10%, though it did take 55,000 psi to do it! water cuts like a knife....

what length?

@ January 27, 2004 9:19 AM in How many BTU's

hot rod, what length of 3/4 are we talking about?

@ January 25, 2004 6:25 PM in DWH recovery rate question

if you turn the pump off, does it take about 12 minutes?

@ January 25, 2004 1:45 PM in DWH recovery rate question

tom, I looked at the same thing with my gypcrete installation with constant circ. 1/2hr to reheat water heater-30 gal, 26Kbtu. so, if i turn circ OFF, tank heats in 10-12minutes. you are heating up the tank, all water in floor, like 20 some gallons plus all the plywood. (i guessed at 20 gal.) try it. I use this to figure actual heat loss. jim

only solution?

@ January 19, 2004 6:25 PM in CO training and Manufacturers

It seems to me that theres only one solution, constant monitoring. you can service, test and adjust a system only to have something fail 2 days later, something you could not have forseen. your truck has an o2 sensor, why can't your water heater have a CO sensor ? the problem originates at the burner(at least close proximity), nowhere else, right? when I designed machine controls, if i saw a potential problem with machine/operator I'd fix it with hardware or software, I did not like the idea that someone could get hurt on a machine "I" programmed. it would take a manufacturer to produce a retrofit of course. but, I don't see it as a far stretch from the hardware store CO detector to one with a remote sensor and control value with it? am I wrong here?

sand

@ January 16, 2004 3:30 PM in Sand?

I wouldn't recommend this to a customer, but I'm thinking of roughly that for my small cabin. I would add some portland as a binder to improve heat flow and keep mice out. the cabin has 50/50 window to wall ratio so theres really no heat mass to carry heat once wood stove goes out. after all gypcrete is about 50% sand anyway. so it would be more like a poorly mixed mortar bed I guess.

CO monitoring sensors

@ January 15, 2004 2:53 PM in Sept. 11, 2001

what would it cost(mat'l) to install a relaiable CO monitor/control(alarm or shut off) into/on/nearby most gas appliances- mostly larger gas appliances I would assume? why are these appliances failing in the first place? house monitors seem fine but I would rather see monitoring closer to the source, catch the problem before it gets way out of hand. plus one in the general house.

@ January 7, 2004 5:19 PM in Does this look correct???

"Bubble wrap was stapled tight against the tubes and sides of the TGI's." If i understand this right. you do not want the bubble wrap "tight" against anything. especially if you are trying to use it as a heat reflector and not an insulator(its a poor insulator). everything I've read about bubble wrap suggests 1-2" air gap from the tubing. thats probably why your basement is so warm, heat is coming from the subfloor above.

CO emssions

@ December 24, 2003 12:36 PM in CO again

almost anything that contains carbon when combusted can produce CO. it could be "anything with carbon" but I only got a "c" in chemistry so I'm not sticking my neck out.

call fire marshall

@ December 22, 2003 3:31 PM in some landlords just don't get it

I would relay this story to the fire marshall, you could be saving someones life.

real time data

@ December 19, 2003 10:56 PM in Radiant problems, Please HELP#2

well then, what does the program say for 25F outside with 150F water temp(your current situation)? what is the expected room temp compared to the present room temp? if the contractor says the floor potential is only 13Kbtu's and you need 39kbtu's, bubble wrap is not going to get you there either will insulating the bond. you need to take a close look at what is presently happening with the system. I agree with more tubing. what is your pump flow rate? jp

@ December 16, 2003 4:34 PM in Radiant problems, Please HELP.

so, what are you driving at coreys?

7F temp differential?

@ December 16, 2003 1:44 PM in Radiant problems, Please HELP.

if I understood right, 150F out of tank, 143F returning. 7F temp differential doesn't sound like much in 200Ft of tubing? especially 16"oc. plus the floors do not feel warm seem to point to poor heat transfer. of course the idea is to heat with low temp water, so the more water you have underneath the better. the water is doing all the work. more water more work. more water, lower water temps. after all, tubing is not that expensive when looking at the entire heating project. put in more tubing! if the floor doesn't feel warm, you have poor heat transfer or heat is going in the wrong direction, remember you are standing on the radiator. even with poor insulation, drafts and cool room temps floor would still feel warm if you are putting heat into it, unless its poorly insulated below. assuming this is an unheated crawl space, between the 140F disfuser plate and the 25F outside temp, I would think R11 with a 115F temp differential is way inadequate. i would suguest r25. mark is right, keep this forum purely technical, sorry for non-tech remark earlier. I estimated 18.5 gals in the floor. 7F temp difference, approxi 1,000btu at any given moment.

@ December 15, 2003 12:41 PM in Radiant problems, Please HELP.