The Glitch & The Fix

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A multiple boiler system using sectional cast-iron boilers has been configured to supply two loads.

An installer is asked to provide a relatively simple single-zone, slab-type floor heating system supplied by a geothermal water-to-water heat pump. He’s heard that a hydraulic separator is a good component in such systems.

An installer uses an unpressurized thermal storage tank for drainback protection of a solar thermal system, and carefully slopes all the collectors and collector array piping for 1/4 in. per ft. drop.

An engineer is planning underground insulated piping for a small district heating system, which receives heat from a central boiler plant and distributes it to three separate buildings. He is planning what he calls a “primary/secondary” piping system.

The piping strapped to the bottom of the floor joists is supposedly part of a primary loop.

An installer is asked to use a pellet-fired boiler to supply heat to two zones of low-temperature radiant floor panels. The system includes a three-way motorized mixing valve to reduce the supply water temperature to the distribution circuits.

A heating contractor who’s trying out his first wall-mounted mod/con boiler installs it as shown above. When buying the boiler, the contractor was told to use a pair of closely spaced tees to separate the boiler and distribution system.

A designer needs to tie in an indirect water heater to a multiple boiler system. He selects a hydraulic separator for the project and connects the piping of the indirect water heater on the same side as the boilers.

The designer’s intent was to supply a low-temperature floor-heating zone, as well as a higher-temperature baseboard zone and air handler, from a thermal storage tank heated by a pellet-fueled boiler.