Ok, now that the boiler is up and running, I notice too fast a drop off in water temps. I see that I need ??? to install a bypass so I can feed some of the hot boiler water back into the water returning from the xchanger or reduce the 1 1/4" down to 1" for secondary loop or possibly add a valve to choke the water returning from secondary to primary loop. I was going to get a three speed pump from Taco, but they didn't have any in stock at the time. This too may be an option. With 1 1/2 primary and 1 1/4 secondary, it seems to suck way too much water. To get the most heat out of the exchanger, when boiler is idle, it is resting at 195-200. I have the differential set to 10 so when it reaches 185, the boiler goes into high fire. It only take about 45 seconds to a minute for it to drop from around 200 to 170. The snap disk on the exchanger is set to close at 140 and open at 120, but when it goes below 165, it opens and waits till it gets over 170 to close again.

Second observation - dump zone - do I have to have another aquastat added to the boiler or maybe a strap on close to where the primary loop starts? Can this be done elsewhere with what is already on the LDJ Boiler? would like to just start the seconday pump to reduce temps if it gets too hot.

Your anguishing about getting this all under your belt.

"Worry is like a rocking chair

It gives you something to do

but gets you nowhere!" National Lampoon's Van Wilder

Yea, but it gives me something to do. I think I am leaning more towards the 3 speed Taco, so I can control the amount of flow.

What about the dump zone??

3 speed pump = extra control or an extra thing to control - its a point of view of some but for me - its another way to adjust to an undisclosed target.

In the past I would have always said - a dump zone control is necessary.

and I may still in a retail installation as the unknown is the operators capability and diligence to tent the machinery.

That isn't your case - so "it depends"

watch it - if you think your getting wide swings you can always do it because its just an added control to launch zones you already have under control.

-- copies off a wood burners site - not mine and not a dispersion to your installation - but a good synopsis of the issues you may face.

Visualize your boiler standing there with a load of wood in it, up to temp but idling. Now introduce a load that can use up about half the boilers output at full throttle. An “instant” load that comes on full draw all at once like an air handler. In your case the boiler will pump out 180-200Kbtu and the airhandler may draw 100K. Here’s the sequence that I see time and again and it leads to poor performance and other problems.

1. The air handler/furnace with a coil, kicks on and introduces a substantial load.
2. Assume that the boiler is in an idling state of operation.
3. Heat is drawn off and water temp drops after a couple minutes.
4. The aquastat on the boiler starts the combustion process after the load is present.
5. Being that it takes a few minutes to get a solid fuel fire going, much less up to full output levels, the boiler water temp drops to unsatisfactory levels. (if a mixing device or pumped bypass is present you now have greatly reduced heat or even no heat going to the air handler)
6. The boiler catches up after maybe 10-15 minutes of getting itself up to full burn and satisfying the heat demand.
7. The boiler cycles down wasting a fair amount of heat and inertia because the load is gone as with the same “speed” as it was introduced.

Now let’s look at a Radiator/TRV system

1. Assume you have iron column type or steel panel rads
2. The TRV’s are constantly providing heat proportional to the loss of the space being heated. They are never “off”.
3. Heating load on the boiler is constant, allowing the fire to cycle at a very even rate, maintain temperature and never get behind the curve.
4. Water temps and combustion temps remain in a much narrower range greatly enhancing efficiency.

Proportional heating beats forced air any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

try to slow down your fan speed, most you can change. then try to cover part of the fan inlet, on the swirl cage. nice slow heating of your house, the new furnaces use this tech. with dc fan motors. it really helps scourched air a little more comfortable. you fan motor we pull less amps when covered, i know sounds crazy but true. and not the motor side. just some things to play with on these cold days, i'm drifted in so i can't go anywhere for a little while. any questions just ask, jeff

good point

or add storage to even out the load

but NOGAS hasn't even begun to do any circulation balance on loops yet

I might add that storage or air flow modulation are not at the top of my list of favorite things.

First off - I believe that energy storage - unless its related to chunk wood burning is best left in the fuel - to be burnt as needed - thats why we have feed systems

and two - I hate air handlers. all air handlers I would have radiant a/c if the ice cube under my ass wouldn't make it damp.

Sting wrote:


geez sting I love my air handlers.

Lets see if I was building a house today or retro-fitting one.

I could use forced air and I could have heat, air movement, humidity and AC and all at a reasonable cost.

Or I could have Hot Water heat that provides no air movement, no humidty and no AC and i could also pay 4 times as much.

you say potato -- I say potato

lets see you like air movement - I don't like drafts and cold spots - I like warm feet and a cool head - I like economical comfort - you don't get that from the lowest bidder. (an air scorcher)

You don't like lack of humidity - a wet system doesn't dry the air like burning it will.

AC -- now that's a cross we will always will have to drag up the hill

The most comfortable house I had was a little place fitted with a correctly sized Central Air system with an undersized resistance heater. It kept the place cool and dry in the summer and the damp off in the fall. It also sported a full radiant heating plan including floor and ceiling heat in the bath.

You get what you pay for

There is a difference in a Cadillac over an Aveo

well I don't know about a Aveo but maybe a Cadillac and a chevrolet

don't get me wrong I believe hot water heat is the most even heat.

the best systems we installed were hot water heat with a airhandler for cooling and humidity (which never worked very well, humidifiers don't work very well without heating the air) but that was expensive its like buying two systems a complete duct system and all that piping and fin tube..............needless to say we didn't do many.