New Boiler Room
I started with a schematic diagram
The image did not transfer that well.
It is basically a 3 temperature system. Each loop gets its heat from the next hottest loop. The high temperature loop is heated by the gas (or future wood) boiler. The medium temperature loop is for the air handlers in the house and will be chilled water in the summer time. The low temperature loop is for the radiant heat slabs.
Pipes were sized for water flow, velocity, and pressure drop. Pumps were sized for flow and pressure drop. Many hours of thought were put into this. I even sought out help from a previous work colleague, and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brother, Joe Zengota, also a Professional Engineer.
I designed many features into the system to be added later such as- a wood fired boiler, ground source heat rejection, and solid thermal storage.
Then I designed the layout, I am working on a better image.
The plan has many pumps. In the minimum startup system, I have at least 7. Since my previous experience is industrial, I wanted a raised pump pad with a drain for the pumps. Its not that they would be leaking, just that during maintance water will spill.
To start with, Gary helped me build a wall between the workshop and the boiler room. This wall would serve not only as a partition, but as a mount for the piping and electric work.
I built forms 6" deep for a solid cement base. Two yards were ordered from Weldon. This would be enough for the pump pad, the extension of the boiler pad, the 2 last column footings, and another small floor next to the chimney.
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It was another cold day and Weldon was late. They (Weldon) put extra cement in another load and came to me last. It had already been watered it down. Al Romano came over the next day and helped me finish it off. Nobody that helped me with the pad had any idea why I needed it.... until they saw.
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These are the B&G pumps as I unpacked them from the boxes. I decided to stick with B&G except for the one bronze Taco pump that I had already.
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I started piping the high temperature loop first. With that operational, I could provide heat to the 1st floor bath and temporary heat to the family room crawl space slab. Then I completed the medium and the low temperature loops.
I added a water thermal storage tank to prevent the boiler from short cycling.
The cheapest way to do it was to buy an electric water heater and use that. The problem was that the taps on top were only 3/4 inch and my circulating loop was 1". What I did was to remove the heater elements and tie the pipes into there. A friend of mine, Bruce, at Philip Creter Inc, in Union, NJ, made me brass adaptors that had the thread of the heating element on one side and a 1" solder connection on the other side. I think that saved a few hundred bucks- maybe I can sell them ?
Notice the wire on the upper thermostat?
I am using the standard water heater thermostat to control the boiler. The temperature range was a little higher than I like, so I put some cardboard shims between the stat and the tank. This is just temporary. When the panel is wired up, the boiler will be controlled by a fancy Tekmar reset control.
