In the picture blow,
the gauge on the lower left shows city water pressure (nominal is 75 PSI).
The gauge on the upper right shows hydronic system water pressure (nominal 20 PSI).
The smaller gauage on the right is a thermometer on the hot side of the boiler.
The two PVC pipes at the top bring fresh air down from the roof and take the exhaust air out. The boiler extracts so much heat from the exhaust before it exits the boiler that PVC can be used.
The horizontal green device on the left is the valve that allows city water into the system. This is only used occassionally and after maintenance. This system was installed by Kevin Smith of
Lipp Hydronics.
About half of floor area, comprising four of the house' nine zones, are heated by hot water circulating through copper pipes that are embedded in a 1.5" thick layer of Thermacrete® or Gypcrete. The rest of the house, comprising five zones, has Onix® tubing stapled up to a conventaion subfloor. Here is a picture of some of the assemblies that I used for the staple-up part of the system. The gate values are used for the return side of each loop adn the ball valves are used for the supply side. The gate valves allow the system to be balanced, however to date I have left all the gate valves (and the supply-side ball valves) full open. On the right you can see the four Honneywell zone valves. They operate from 24VAC are are controlled by Taco Zone Valve Controls. The three zones done by Lipp Hydonics are controlled by conventional Shaw thermostats. They go into a four-zone Taco® controller. The six zones that I plumbed are controlled by a pair of Proliphix N10E IP Thermostats. One thermostat controlls five of the zones, and the other controlls the master bedroom. When I plumbed the system, I anticipated more need for separate zones than I wound up actually needing. The six and four zone Taco boxes are cascaded, with the four zone controller being upstream, i.e., the six zone box sends the request for heat to the four zone box and the four zone box requests heat of the Munchkin® boiler. I used 1" L-type copper tubing for all the of the supply and return lines. Pointed down in the picture you can see the special brass barbs that attach to the Onix® tubing.
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Last updated September 22, 2008. For more information, contact robert-pool@bedichek.org