Ex 450 Owner... Pics of my heating...

Hey, we are probably talking about the same thing just saying it different....

Here's what I have... The boiler looks a little worse for the wear because I boiught it old and beat up and I just had it apart for cleaning... You can see it, the valves for heater supply % return, and what the radiators/thermostats look like. Also, the one pic of where I done away with a radiator that's return was feeding the floor heating and not doing the job. Floor heating is fine now when hooked up alone.

Thanks for lookin...

Dave:
I can’t really trace the piping from the pictures. If you will answer these questions it may give me enough clues to figure out the system.

Is the domestic hot water heated by an indirect coil? Where is the domestic hot water line? Is it shown in the picture?

Can you identify the supply line, the return line and the feed water lines?

Is that red thing in the picture a Grundflos circulator pump for the heating circuit?

What is the make and model on the radiator temperature valves?

(quoted from post at 10:46:12 01/12/12)
Dave:
I can’t really trace the piping from the pictures. If you will answer these questions it may give me enough clues to figure out the system.

Is the domestic hot water heated by an indirect coil? Where is the domestic hot water line? Is it shown in the picture?

Can you identify the supply line, the return line and the feed water lines?

Is that red thing in the picture a Grundflos circulator pump for the heating circuit?

What is the make and model on the radiator temperature valves?

Click to expand...

The boiler sets on top of the domestic water tank and there is a seperate coil on the tank (you just don't see the pump to circulate to it)..

If you look to the right of the grundfos pump, you'll see an insulated and an uninsulated line..... Uninsulated is the domestic cold water input and the insulated it the hot water.

the pump you see circulates the heating system..

the thermostats are Heimeier and I have a honeywell or two..

Ok it is beginning to make a little more sense now, is the line to the left of the Grundfos pump the return line from the heating loop?

yes

Dave:

Your thermostatic valves at the radiators basically control the amount of hot water flowing through the radiators, If this type system is using a single speed pump some method of pump bypass must be provide.

With the pump in the supply header the head pressure would build as one or more of the radiators throttled down thereby restricting the flow in the heating loop.

In your last picture just above the Grundfos circulator pump appears to be a bypass flow control device that has a small pipe tied back into the return line (usually these are adjustable but I can’t see an adjusting knob in the picture) so as your radiators throttle down and the head begins to rise this valve opens and bypasses some of the flow back to the return to keep the head on the pump from rising too high.

Again I can’t tell from the pictures but from your description of the piping you appear to have plumbed it in a two pipe one zone system.

Ok Dave:

Moving on and trying to find out where you are trying to go from here.

Is it your intention to leave the heating loop and controls as is and to replace the heater only?

Is the present heating loop intended for supplementary heating only?

Will the new system become you total heating system?

Is the present heating loop designed so that it can heat the whole house without other heating sources?

A word of caution here what is the temperature of your supply loop water and did you match it to your floor loop when you installed it?

Sometimes that PEX tubing and floor loop system is limited to about 150°F so some systems using radiators and floor loops will either use a mixing valve on the floor loop to lower the temperature (essentially creating a two temperature system) or will lower the boiler temperature to the rating of the floor loop.

(quoted from post at 14:45:02 01/12/12)
Ok Dave:

Moving on and trying to find out where you are trying to go from here.

Is it your intention to leave the heating loop and controls as is and to replace the heater only?

Is the present heating loop intended for supplementary heating only?

Will the new system become you total heating system?

Is the present heating loop designed so that it can heat the whole house without other heating sources?

A word of caution here what is the temperature of your supply loop water and did you match it to your floor loop when you installed it?

Sometimes that PEX tubing and floor loop system is limited to about 150°F so some systems using radiators and floor loops will either use a mixing valve on the floor loop to lower the temperature (essentially creating a two temperature system) or will lower the boiler temperature to the rating of the floor loop.

Click to expand...

For your previous???,what you see just above the pump is the bypass....

Yes this is intended to be a sole heating source. We supplement by starting the stoves, when the stoves bring the room temp above 70 degrees or so, the radiator controls close...

rather than the extra mixers and stuff for the different floor heating temp, I just lowered the temp to where the whole system gets what the floor heat tubing will handle... Rooms aren't that big so you don't notice the difference...

Plan is to pull this unit out and put a new one in it's place, probably changing the connection valve/pump assembly also rather than scab...

There will be someone installing the new one, just want to be smart when they are telling me what's needed......

Only difference in the new setup will be a bigger domestic water tank with connections for solar in case the mood strikes. And I will enclose/insulate the boiler room better and add insulation to the water tank to keep the run time to a minimum....