How frequently do I want to use the boiler drain to get the sludge out?

Also used the drain at the bottom of the Hartford Loop.

Zone 1 - split 1.25" returns. 15GPM (7.5GPM each run). Taco 0034EPlus.

Zone 2 - 1" return. 5GPM. Taco 0015E.

When they both run, the combined flow is 18GPM.

What's the simplest way to make the combined flow 20GPM?

Monoflo rads are tricky to balance, changing flow rates don't help.

Another Burnham Independence bit the dust. Photos at the bottom, you may like to see it!

I've read through many posts and Dan's articles here. I'd like to get a sanity check on sizing a replacement WM boiler since my house has uninsulated piping, which complicates the sizing. Two contractors have suggested a larger boiler size than I have calculated.

• 1-story attached house with basement in NYC.
• 42'x22' footprint
• 1 Pipe System
• Portions of pipe are exposed & uninsulated and provides heat to the occupied basement
• I assume the rest of the piping hidden behind walls/basement ceiling is also uninsulated

First is radiator EDR counts:

..for a grand total of 160 EDR on the radiators.

Piping: I have about 40 feet of exposed 2.5" pipe (9" circumference) which is directly radiating heat into the basement rooms. This is coming directly out the top of the Burnham.

From the radiator layout, I estimate there's about 40 more feet of pipe that is hidden in the basement ceiling/top floor, and I assume uninsulated.

I have only considered the exposed portions (9 inches * 40 feet = 30 sq ft of pipe surface area) and I assume this directly translates to 30 EDR.

..so 160 EDR + 30 EDR = 190 EDR.

Allowances: Now Dan suggests we can use a 1.5 factor instead of 1.33 factor for dead-end/uninsulated piping and should be compared to the DOE rating.

…so 190 EDR * 1.5 factor * 240 BTU/hr per EDR = 68400 BTU/hr, or ~69 MBH.

Selecting the size: Here's an excerpt of WM's sizing chart:

I suspect the EG-30 would be sufficient, but I have selected the EG-35 as a very conservative measure for my anxiety. However, I had two contractors stop by to provide quotes, and their sizing has me doubting myself.

• 1st suggested the Crown equivalent of an EG-55 because I had "6 rooms"
• 2nd one suggested I size up to EG-40; he doesn't feel comfortable installing the EG-35. He cited experience, but was unable to produce numbers to justify it.

I've reached out to to a few contractors listed on this forum too, and I'm pending their response at the moment (it is the busy season), but I'd just like a better idea where I stand in terms of sizing from the good people here. Happy to provide more info or photos. Any checks on my calcs, thoughts on the uninsulated piping's contribution, and suggested boiler sizing is very much appreciated.

One note is that we're happy with the heat with the existing Burnham (rated 87 MBH) even with the massive leak. The basement is a bit chillier, but I assume this is not a boiler sizing issue but rather the lack of basement radiators.

As promised, some photos of the Burnham and why we need replacement:

And here are some photos of our radiators:

Front room; the other radiators have the same chamfered style:

Front door has a different, rounded style radiator:

I've observed an interesting water-level phenomenon for many years and would appreciate an explanation of the underlying physics.

During extended firing, the water in the sight glass oscillates approximately one inch. When the Pressuretrol cuts out at 1.7 psi, the burner stops and the water level gradually falls as pressure decays.

By the time pressure reaches 0.5 psi, the water level has fallen close to the low-water cutoff operating point.

When the burner refires and pressure begins increasing, the sight-glass water level rises promptly toward its normal operating position.

When the thermostat is satisfied and the burner shuts down for an extended period, the water level returns to its normal resting position, slightly above the midpoint of the sight glass, in approximately one minute.

This behavior is longstanding. During a comprehensive boiler overhaul this summer, I disassembled and cleaned the LWCO, gauge column, Pressuretrol pigtail, and connecting fittings. All were remarkably clean, with no apparent restrictions.

I've considered whether this is caused by delayed condensate return, but the rapid water-level recovery when firing resumes makes me question that explanation.

I've also wondered whether vigorous steam generation changes the apparent water level through internal circulation and steam-bubble formation, followed by shrinkage when firing stops.

My question: What physical mechanism would explain the water level falling as boiler pressure decays and then rising again as steam generation resumes?

Would any of you know what size the machine screw is so I can go to my local hardware store and buy several of them ? A magnetic tip Philips screwdriver is on the list too.

consequently, I went through the near piping instructions that that n

a single riser to the steam main is not acceptable for my boiler size and a dual riser should be used. The contractor used a single rider. Could this be the problem?

Last winter everything heated well and evenly and there really were no
issues. For future ease of maintenance and safety I wanted the heating
company to do a few things:
1. add a few additional ball valve shut offs (one zone didn’t have any
separate shut offs which would make future maintenance like changing a
circulator difficult)
2. add a spirovent for better air elimination (there was a tiny scoop before which was improperly placed)
3. replace the air bleeder valves on the radiators which were painted shut/broken
4. Add a low water cut off device above the boiler.

When they did this work they accidentally ordered the wrong size
spirovent air eliminator for 1.5” diameter pipe even though the piping coming out of the boiler was 1.25” in diameter. They went ahead and adapted from 1.25” to 1.5” to
add the spirovent air eliminator and then reduced back to 1.25” before
any of the flow checks or take offs to the cast iron radiators.

They had to drain the system to do this. When they connected it all back
and repressurized the system, 2 of the radiators furthest from the
boiler no longer heated well or at all. One radiator gets warm at the
handle, but even after 2-3 hours will not heat. The other radiator will
get warm (around 115°) but not hot like the other radiators that work (which all reach
about 155°).

The supply and return pipes to the boiler are all coming back hot which
means the way the cast iron radiator heating zone is piped is not a
simple circuit but I’m guessing has lines that  T off of the main line
at different points.

The tech thinks the radiator handles at the non heating radiators may
have disintegrated or have something broken to be causing a problem. The radiator that heats to115° seems to be heating backwards from the return to the supply valve
and the other non-heating radiator isn’t really heating at all - it just gets warm
at the supply valve handle. The tech is suggesting replacing the
radiator valves on the 2 problem heating radiators to fix the issue.

I’m wondering if the problem is the radiator supply valves or instead
the increased 1.5” supply pipe size out of the boiler that is causing
a flow/ short-circuiting issue (or something else I’m thinking of).

Everything was heating well before, which is why this is so frustrating.
What do you all think is going on? Could a 1/4” upsize in diameter of a couple feet of
that supply pipe cause this issue or is more likely to be the individual radiator valves for the 2 problem radiators? Please let me know what you think! Thank you in advance for your help.

I've read several articles online stating the lowest temperature water should reach in hydronic heating system is 140F to prevent flue gas condensation that can damage the boiler and reduce efficiency.

I have a hydronic oil-fired hot water radiator heat system in my house. The boiler system is for heat only. There is a separate hot water tank.

I typically let the house cool off overnight. During that time the boiler does not run. The water temp measured by the Hydrostat has gone as low as 64F.

Q1: Are these articles suggesting the boiler should run to maintain water temp of 140F even when the system is not operating/when there is no demand for heat?

Secondly, the Hydrostat recently indicated it took 1hr 42 min for the system to raise water temp from 66F to 140F. During this time the outdoor temp was 46F.

Q2: Is taking 1hr 42min for the system to raise water temp from 66F to 140F acceptable operation? Is there a limit to how long a boiler should take to heat the water up to 140F?

???

Boring

He has elected to replace his copper piping that was installed with lead bearing solder in 1980; the water test was clean at the well water tank.

Is there any reason to replace the hot water piping? Or the piping to toilets? The water PH is 6.9..…

What are the drawbacks of placing the Large Pipes somewhere other than directly onto the buffer tank ports ?

I would prefer to mount my Large Pipes vertically and closer to the wall. This would reduce stress on the buffer tank ports as well as leave the piping a bit more open to future changes of buffer tank. Planning on using 1.5" tees for the Large Pipe.

While on the subject, I had plans to flush the boiler this year as it hasn’t been flushed in quite some time. Should I add any cleaning product to the system in order to help clean out the boiler? Thanks for any assistance………

Vent damper: ARD12TZ, normally open, 24v to close, 2 contacts.

Relay: Tekmar 003.

When I connect the relay coil directly to a transformer it works fine and closes the ARD12TZ.

When i connect the relay coil in series with boiler demand which Tekmar 256 closes, the relay buzzes and chatters, the damper on the flute also makes noise.

Tried a 40va transformer instead of the 20va, it didn't fix it.

What am i doing wrong, how to wire it?

When I heard how much gas she had used, I ran some house heat loss numbers and felt certain the heat loss should not be bad enough to fully account for the high gas usage. I then did a survey of the heating system and found numerous problems: too many zones, thermostats with differentials set too low, no automatic vent damper, and boiler short-cycling, typically bouncing off the aquastat high limit of 180 F.

With help from the good HH'ers here, I did the following:

1. Changed thermostat settings to maximize differential/swing.
2. Disconnected some thermostats and jumpered several contiguous zones together on the Taco 6-zone controller so those circs ran off one thermostat.
3. Installed a new auto vent damper to replace the one that had originally come with the boiler but then was removed at some point.
4. Installed a new Tekmar 256 reset controller at the suggestion of @Steamhead . I have it set for a minimum water temp of 140 and a max of 160 at outdoor design temp. Those are "first cut" settings that can be adjusted later if needed.

Now in the first month of the heating season here in New England, I have some preliminary results.

Last year's heating season total average usage was 0.40 therms/HDD65 (after subtracting for DHW).

Last year's October billing period usage was also 0.40 therms/HDD65. So that number appears to have been stable across a range of temperatures throughout the winter.

This year's October billing period usage (for the first 3 weeks in October) was 0.27 therms/HDD.

That is a 30%+ reduction in therms/HDD65 (after correcting all usage for DHW).

With the Tekmar 256 running ODR, the boiler stops firing noticeably sooner while the circulators continue running. I'm further encouraged by the fact that I didn't install the Tekmar until 1 week into this 3-week test period. (The actual bill from the gas company will come next week, but I read the meter myself today and did the math for the 3 weeks ending today). So future billing periods in which the Tekmar is running the entire time should be slightly better.

I will continue to monitor future billing periods but am optimistic/hopeful that the 30%+ reduction in therms/HDD65 will continue through the winter.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions, especially @Steamhead for the Tekmar 256, which is working great.

Unfortunately, in the process, I couldn't break the large nuts loose without twisting the Caleffi 553 series fill valve, so I removed its tail piece. Of course, there's a paper gasket here. I called a few local supply houses to no avail, and AI says Caleffi doesn't offer one without buying a fill valve rebuild kit… anyone know?

What are my best options here (would be great to have it together tonight)?

I had one of those Amtrol Filltrol brass pressure regulators with smallish 2 gallon expansion tank, so decided to replace this with a traditional watts pressure regulator and new Amtrol no 30 tank with nearly double the capacity of the original. (pressure checked this before install and it had 13.8 psig so I reduced to 12 psig…..also tried adding a few lbs back with no change). Those white caps lie, cause the tank was totally water logged with zero pressure. I emptied it and refilled it with air and could hear the slow leak. I thought I had my smoking gun.

Started back up yesterday and still seeing high pressure after a several minutes of operation. Seems like it's circulating hot water fine. Hotter water on the supply and slightly lower on the return as expected. Even though I'm seeing pressure as high as over 40 psig, it's not tripping the relief valve.

I had a brass hose drain cap lying around and old pressure gauge, so I drilled and tapped this for 1/4" NPT and put this over the drain and opened it when had over 40 psig. It read 25 psig. The gauge old and maybe not totally trustworthy, but another data point.

I also reduced my aquastat from 190F to 180F with no improvement in overpressure readings on the tridicator gauge.

I don't quite understand how all the internal passages in the boiler work, but I can't understand how this can be possible. Tapping on the expansion new tank can hear there is empty air space at the bottom.

So my next step is to try replacing the tridicator gauge….but not holding my breath.

Is there some possibility that there is internal blockages in the boiler that are making higher pressure in some sections but still letting water pass around in others?

Thanks head for any help/suggestions.

Tony

When I first saw it, It was so big that it scared me to death. So I ran out and purchased Dan's book. I knew my house was big-but not that BIG!! After reading Dan's book and doing some research I came up with 19 radiators 741 EDR with 15 feet copper fin-tube hot water loop 37.50 which totaled 778.50 square feet of EDR. So I think I need a smaller boiler. I'm looking at the Peerless 64-07 345,000 BTU's input I think it's the closest match not only that but it's a similar set up. Since I'm old and my long term memory is better I'd hate to walk in the basement and find a complete stranger! This way I'll still be able to somewhat recognize it as time goes on. 😁 After reading Dan's book I thought nothing could scare me more than the boiler until I got a good look at the near boiler piping. I'm going to post some pictures and I would really appreciate the best way to re-pipe this monster. Also thinking of getting the near boiler piping package. That way whoever does the job can't mess it up any worse than it is. I'm in Bloomington/Normal, Illinois . I had a couple of heating contractor's come in and when they said "What's the problem?" I knew I was in trouble! I have someone else coming out tomorrow on the phone they sound a little more promising. It looks like around here there's not a lot to choose from when it comes to steam. If you have any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. I've seen the amazing help you have given others on this site. I've never been very lucky, so if you're not able to help me don't worry it's not you it's me!😥

In first picture left insulation on to see layout better. Not asbestos.

This is 6 years old Boiler. Only used for Radiant Heating. (no domestic water hookup). Used for radiant heating only . Max temp. set for water is 125 F with outdoor sensor.

Please advise.

I would like to go back and clean deeper. Has anyone here ever removed the top or front to clean one of these?

Also, I believe the debris is from the old roof jack that was replaced a last year. other than this the furnace is in really nice shape.

Thanks

Robert

many thanks for all the help.

HNY and best regards

Am I within reason to demand that they replace the cheap plates and the full loop where the leaks occurred? I put it off for a while but I'm finally getting the final inspection from the city soon. With winter coming I want to insulate the ceiling, but not if there's a risk of another leak! I know the couplings are legal, and used in plumbing all the time, but I'm still having a hard time accepting them when I wouldn't need them if they had done thing properly to begin with.

Two different types of plates

I also found this in a hidden corner of a different loop, apparently original to the install

Thanks!

We have a house primarily heated by steam heat. The problem we are having overnight is my son's small second floor bedroom has been warming to a high temperature overnight, as the thermostat is located downstairs in a spacious area. Looking to find a way to keep the heat down in his room. We have adjusted the valve in his room to the lowest setting, and even with the heat set to 69 degrees downstairs, his room has been getting to 75-77 degrees overnight. Thanks

Edited to add pictures

System ran fine at startup and for two months was quiet, It was skimmed on startup and several times over a month drawing of 2 gallons at a whack. Two months on it started to develop a popping/crackling sound, noise was resonating through domestic hot water pipes, using a sounding rod it appears the noise is loudest at the safety valve tapping, water level is at specification up 28-7/8" from bottom of jacketing, covering hot water coil. Gauge glass level occilates 1" when steaming. Noise only occurs when calling for heat and making steam, not when responding to aquastat.

I called the install plumber and he said keep skimming, talked to different plumber who does my cleanings he said drain and refill. So this fall I skimmed some more before cooling down and flushing out the boiler twice, water was black/brownish, on last drain and refill water was clearish. It continues to make noise. After a few heating cycles I opened skim port and fired it up black/brown water flowed form skim port. Maybe need more flushing or chem clean?

I called US boiler and made contact with a helpful customer service guy who said you may have to chemical clean it but they don't recommend using chemicals if skimming works. And that if I use chemicals they don't have a reccomendation, he said there are lots of of the shelf additives with who knows what in them.

I'm debating whether to continue flushing and skiming or add some chemicals, so what chemical to add? The old manual from the burham that I replaced suggested TSP .4 lbs and Caustic soda .4lbs for a boiler holding 14 gallons.

My questions for those who had the patience to read this

Am I on the right track with this being carryover caused by contaminated water, if so why did it only begin after several cycles after install?

Should I continue to skim and flush until water is clear?

Should I just chemical clean with TSP and Caustic Soda skim and then flush the crap out of it?

I've attached two floor plans showing the existing and proposed layouts, with the radiators numbered for reference.

Current Steam System:

• Boiler: Utica PEG187EID gas-fired steam boiler
• Boiler rating: 488 sq. ft. steam (488 EDR)
• One-pipe steam system
• 14 radiators throughout the house
• Total connected radiation: Approximately 500 EDR

Radiators Affected by Renovation:

If we make all these changes, we would reduce the total connected radiation by approximately 75 EDR, from 500 to 425 EDR. Assuming the convector EDR's are accurate.

Renovation Details:

The kitchen will be approximately 298 sq. ft., with an adjoining mudroom area of approximately 100 sq. ft. Radiator #1 will be reduced from 60 to approximately 40 EDR and will be intended to heat the mudroom area while also contributing heat to the kitchen. The existing kitchen has zero insulation in the walls and does ok in extreme cold, but will be fully insulated and opened up.

Radiator #2 (30 EDR) will remain.

The sunken living room is approximately 175 sq. ft. and has two exterior walls with several windows and zero ceiling insulation currently. We are opening up the wall between the new kitchen and sunken room, leaving a partial 36-inch-high half wall.

Radiator #4 (32 EDR) will remain in the sunken room. We would ideally like to eliminate radiator #3 (40 EDR) to accommodate the new layout or leave/replace it. It will not be in the way with a half wall.

We are also eliminating the existing bathroom radiator (approximately 15 EDR), as the new bathroom will have electric radiant floor heating.

The renovation will take all the rooms down to the studs and properly insulate the exterior walls and ceilings, which currently have little or no insulation. All the windows have been replaced with new windows.

The ceilings are about 7'2" in the house.

My Questions:

1. Radiator #1: Would approximately 40 EDR be sufficient for the new kitchen/mudroom arrangement, considering the more open layout and nearby radiators?
2. Radiator #3: With the wall opened between the kitchen and sunken living room, would the remaining 32 EDR radiator (#4), along with heat from adjoining spaces, likely be sufficient for the sunken room? Or should we be concerned about eliminating the 40 EDR radiator? Another option would be a smaller cast iron wall hung or thin radiator in the space. Or keep the convector built into the wall.
3. Boiler Sizing: Our Utica PEG187EID is rated at 488 EDR, which is fairly close to our current connected radiation of approximately 500 EDR. If we reduce the connected radiation to approximately 425 EDR, the boiler would be about 15% oversized relative to the remaining radiation. Is that a significant concern for a one-pipe steam system? Would we be creating potential short-cycling or balancing issues?
4. Overall System: Is there anything else we should consider when removing this much radiation from an existing steam system? We plan to have the unused radiator connections properly disconnected and capped.

Our preference is to eliminate the unnecessary radiators where possible, but not at the expense of comfort or proper steam system operation.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Erin

EG50 install cust knew exactly what he wanted. Rerunning the left steam main in 2” (it’s 1-1/4”) as it was an add on at some point in the last century, uneven heating wrong pipe sizing m, poor pitching, water hammer etc. it handles 5 extra radiators. This is also getting a two stage gas valve with a vaporstat set to 8oz. We’re getting there. I’m by myself.

I am hoping to get information / opinions / reassurance from the experts here.

Problem:
There has been a continuous slow-drip leak from the underside of the return piping of my boiler for quite a few years now. Two years ago, I got a quote from an incredibly reputable plumbing contractor that included replacing the copper Hartford loop with the proper material. But because I had an emergency vet expense shortly after, I wasn't able to swing the repair at the time. Since my boiler is getting up in years (installed in December 1992 by a previous homeowner), I was hoping maybe a replacement could be in the cards in the not-too-distant future. But money has continued to be very tight, so nothing has been done yet. During the off-season this year, the return has gotten increasingly corroded around the whole thing.

This week, I had the gas and electric company come to check the system before the heating season gets going (I have a service contract with them). Once the boiler got going, a bit of steam began to waft from the return pipe, so I can't wait any longer to fix it.

Dilemma:
The tech said I can get the return piping replaced for the cost of 1–2 hours of labor; the current Hartford loop will be left. He did acknowledge that it shouldn't be copper, but said it was in good shape. (It was installed November 2006.) I booked it for next week, but am starting to stress about it.

If I were in a less strapped situation, I wouldn't hesitate to do the complete repair, but that's not my reality. I have a couple of other home issues yelling for attention, although heat is obviously incredibly important. Is there any risk or downside to leaving the Hartford loop at this time? I could always replace it later if it becomes a problem. The return pipe seems pretty straightforward to me (though I'm just a hopeful-thinking layperson!), but is there any risk it could be installed incorrectly? I'd hate to have the Harford loop act up in a few months and then learn the return is wrong and end up spending more over the long run.

Not sure if it's needed, but I am including a pic.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

I’m working on a Richardson vapor steam system. Some radiators still have their original union return elbows with the dip tubes, the customer previously had plumbers replace several of the others with thermostatic steam traps. The system currently has a mix of both.

Should I Replace the remaining original return elbows with properly sized thermostatic steam traps? Or Replace the radiator supply valves with new valves and properly sized orifice plates, then use regular union return elbows with no traps.

Also some radiators have new radiator valves with the original Richardson return elbows.

Would you recommend preserving the original Richardson fittings instead? Are there any concerns with the current mixture of original return elbows and steam traps?

Also We will be quoting to install a vaporstat. Currently there using an standard pressure trol.

There having issues with water shooting out of return line Air vents. Which is probably caused by higher pressure and improper near boiler piping/system piping causing water to collect at some back pitched points

Hi all. Homeowner here of a small 100 year old house. Cast iron radiators in most rooms, heavy transfer plate staple up in the kitchen floor, one small stelrad radiator in the basement.

My housemate and I have different comfort needs in the bedrooms and we have a kitchen underfloor that currently runs with the rest of the heating meaning we only have a warm kitchen floor some of the time since the radiators don't run continuously. The design objective of this system was always to zone it off, so the system has a primary loop with an aquastat leading into a buffer tank and then a manifold that can take zone valves with a single grunfos circulator for the secondary distribution loop.

I'm having trouble getting a local contractor (Toronto, Ontario) to quote me either at all on the final zoning step of this work, or they quote an absurd amount. I was just quoted — (price removed due to rules) to supply and install 7 zone valves, one zone controller and one floor thermostat, do all required wiring and reconfiguring. They estimated — (price removed due to rules) in materials - when I know its only about $1500 Canadian for the 7 four wire actuators, one T6 Pro and a Taco Zone Controller. So unless i can find someone i'm likely going to need to do this work myself.

Before i do that I want to sanity check the whole end state design which is what this diagram shows. The primary and secondary loops have no control connection whatsoever - the aquastat just keeps the buffer tank at temperature (for winter I set it to 130 to take advantage of the modcon efficiencies) and the five thermostats just trigger the zone controller and run the grundfos system pump when at least one end switch activates. The new kitchen stat would be a floor model which i am planning to either try to grind out a little grout under a cabinet and then stuff the slab sensor in there.

So

1. Anything insane about this design overall? One item i considered is whether the taco controller should also trigger the primary loop reheat call just to increase the responsiveness of dumping heat back into the buffer tank - but on slow heating like this I also am not sure if that would matter.
2. Am I crazy to try to do this myself? (removing existing single t-stat from navien internal control, rewire pump, install and wire taco controller and zone valves, re-add tstats to zone controller). Is there a lot of configuration of the zone controller for a setup like this?
3. Am I wrong to think that — (price removed due to rules) (Canadian) is overcharging for this work? Anyone know anyone in Toronto that might do this last bit of zoning?

Its a little house - and I know zoning is unusual - but I don't see how else i fix the floor problem - and at night when bedroom comfort is more important the two upstairs bedrooms are isolated from each other, and my housemate and I have temperature preferences about 4-5 degrees from one another. The basement is unfinished and also closed off all the time and the single small rad is just to keep it from freezing.

As always help from the experts - or referral to an expert I can pay! is always appreciated.

Another question I had that I was also going to ask the guys at the supply house is what pump would be best to use in the injection loop. My thought was something like the Grundfos alpha because its pressure differential setting. If I’m understanding everything correctly I would need 4 circ pumps, one for the primary loop, one for the secondary, one in between the injection tees and one for the high temp loop.

I’ve also never seen in any diagram air elimination outside out the primary loop. What’s the best way to add air elimination closer to the radiant loop.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, also any sources you recommend reading on it that also have visuals would be fantastic. Thank you!

• I've been talking with many contractors to try to get my steam boiler replaced for my giant 7000 sq.ft. house with 30 rads, and hopefully made it more efficient and less likely to fail in only 20 years.
• My 1998 condensate pump has had an issue of running continuously, thereby flooding the boiler to the top, thereby accelerating rusting and cracking. We opened up the wiring boxes to find that the condensate pump is NOT connected to the boiler's sensors in any way, despite clear correlation with blowing down the boiler on the one sensor's side (first image) remedying the condensate pump.(And according to several contractors so far, the main pipe size is too big compared to the return pipe size to consider hydronic without a massive overhaul.)

Question:

A few contractors I'm talking to are recommending omitting the condensate pump and just using gravity to return the condensate to the boiler. Others suspect that would not be a good idea, thinking the pressure would not be enough or there would be too much condensate buildup in the wet returns that might make them burst or leak perhaps.

Edit: I guess a better question to answer is: "what are the pros and cons of using a pumped resevoir vs a gravity return?"

What do you all think?

(Any other advice for this project would be massively helpful. I am very new to this, but learning fast. I got some of the holy books, have not read them yet.)

Equipment:

• Weil-McLain LGB 5 Low-pressure Steam Boiler: installed 2001

• [DISCONNECTED ] Sterlco - Sterling inc - 1/3 HP Pump??: Installed 2001, same day as boiler. Looks completely defunct and gutless

• Smaller condensate pump: installed 1998 - but still connected (didn't get the make/model)

• Wet return, running below the boiler, feeding into the boiler, running through about half of the basement
• Dry returns running parallel to the main pipe throughout the whole basement, feeding into the wet return

The second-most prevalent machine in the world is the pump. But this wasn’t always the case. In this episode, Dan Holohan shares how the arrival of pumps shaped the heating industry.

Read the full story here

A 20-watt, 12-volt panel powers a Laing Thermotech D5 solar pump, chosen for its high efficiency and direct operation from solar energy without the need for additional 120 volt components. The two-tank system uses an 80-gallon Buderus SST stainless steel tank for solar storage that pre-feeds a 34-gallon Polaris high efficiency gas water heater.

I installed a diverting valve that automatically bypasses the gas water heater when the solar-preheated water exceeds 140 degrees. In operation, the temperature of the solar heated water leaving the storage tank is checked before it enters the diverting valve. If the water temperature is below 140 degrees, it proceeds to the gas water heater for supplemental heating. If the temperature exceeds 140 degrees, the diverting valve routes the hot solar heated water past the gas water heater directly to a Caleffi solar tempering valve set to 120 degrees. The Polaris gas water heater also supplies hot water through a flat-plate heat exchanger for radiant floor heating in part of the home.

At the time of the system's initial installation, five people resided in the home; currently, only two remain. During summer months, overheating became a significant issue, with solar storage tank temperatures often exceeding 180 degrees. To address this, I would cover part or all of the solar panels.  Over the years, I’ve seen various types of solar heat-dump loops using exterior piping or electric-powered exchangers to dissipate excess heat. However, none would work with my system, so I stuck with the panel-coverage option as a reliable short-term solution while developing a more automated method that would not require electric power to operate.

Drawing on my experience installing cast iron gas, oil, and wood fuel boilers equipped with Caleffi boiler protection valves, I repurposed one as a diverting valve to cool the solar loop hot water before it enters the panels. When the supply water reaches 140 degrees, the valve begins diverting flow through 24 feet of slant-fin baseboards, achieving full bypass at approximately 160 degrees. Over this summer, with 160-degree water entering the valve at full bypass, I observe an 8 to 10-degree temperature drop across the baseboards, followed by an equivalent temperature increase across the solar panels and a similar drop through the solar storage tank heat exchanger. As a result, the system has developed a nice balance, and the solar storage tank temperature has not exceeded 165 degrees.

The next step is to cover the piping and baseboards with white-painted perforated metal to improve aesthetics. I intend to use perforated covers to facilitate airflow, thereby preventing heat accumulation and moisture retention around system components. I will design the covers for easy removal for service or inspection. I figure the metal adds durability and protects the piping and baseboards, while the white paint reflects sunlight and keeps the system looking clean. Overall, these covers will not restrict access or reduce the longevity of system components, and they should protect against accidental impacts or damage.