The Glitch & The Fix

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An installer sets up a zoned distribution system. To keep it simple, he uses the same size piping for the headers and all the distribution circuits. The heat source is a low-mass copper tube boiler with high flow resistance.

An installer who is used to boiler replacements may view the mechanical room aspects of changing from a boiler to a geothermal heat pump the same as a boiler changeout; just swapping out one “box” for another. Unfortunately, this can lead to some significant operating problems.

An installer pipes up a system using a conventional gas-fired boiler to supply heat to a low-temperature radiant panel system.

Due to the high price of fuel oil, a contractor is hired by a building owner to install a wood-gasification boiler to supplement the oil boiler. The building’s distribution system consists of a three-zoned air handler with hot water coils.

The three photos, provided by a friend of the industry, are all from the same hydronic heating installation.

An installer is asked to provide a relatively simple single-zone floor heating system supplied by a mod/con boiler. He’s heard that a hydraulic separator is a good component in such systems

The system was intended to supply one high-temperature heating zone, a couple of medium-temperature zones and two zones of floor heating for a garage and breezeway where antifreeze protection was needed.

A homeowner asks his local heating installer if a geothermal heat pump can be combined with radiant floor heating. The system he creates is meant to supply a dozen independently controlled zones of low-temperature floor heating.

A homeowner wants to use a wood-gasification boiler as his primary source of space heating. He also wants a propane-fueled boiler to automatically come on for backup should he decide not to tend the fire, or if he is away. The owner has read that a generously sized thermal storage tank is necessary to allow a gasification boiler to operate at consistent high efficiency.

A hydronic system is to supply four panel radiators, each with its own thermostatic radiator valve, and an indirect water heater from a gas-fired sectional cast-iron boiler. The system is designed using primary/secondary piping.