An installer was asked to include an air-to-water heat pump into a low-temperature radiant panel heating system supplied by a mod/con boiler.

As a contractor, it’s important to stay ahead of what your customers want and need. Today’s boiler market continues to produce increasingly automatic, efficient and smart solutions that can benefit most, if not all, of your hydronics clientele.

One of the “delights” of designing hydronic systems is looking for synergistic opportunities, where one device provides multiple functions or benefits that would otherwise require two or more separate devices.

When most people think about solar, they think about photovoltaic panels that generate electricity, but they don’t often think about solar thermal. When considering heating water, solar thermal is incredibly efficient by comparison.

The lower pressure drop on the water side contributes to the compact size and the lower pressure on the flue gas side contributes to the longer approved vent lengths (up to 481’).

An installer sets up a zoned distribution system as shown below. 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.

The schematic in Figure 1 represents a drawing I recently reviewed for a proposed system that was to supply three zones of finned-tube based, two zones of low-temperature radiant panel heating, and an indirect domestic water heater.

Water quality. If you haven’t spent a good deal of time thinking about it and the impact it has on your hydronic heating system, think again.

What is the proper pressure setting for a comfort-heating steam boiler?