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Author Topic: pluming for hot water & furnace  (Read 8740 times)

Scratch

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pluming for hot water & furnace
« on: December 29, 2008, 04:24:11 PM »

So I've had my furnace up and running for a week or two and love it!  When we built the house, we ran lines in the basement floor and garage floor.  It's taken us 8 years or so to wise up and figure out what we were gonna do, but we finally did it and are so glad we did.
Right now, the OWB is heating just the lines in the floor.  The basement used to be so cold in the winter, we would have our kids sleep upstairs but now the wife is actually complaining about it being too hot down there.
So now I want to hook up to the furnace and hot water heater also.  My brother did most of the design of the system since he has the same setup at his place, but now I'm thinking that it should be redone.

We have the 1" PEX coming in from the wall in the basement going straight into the pump.  Also I've heard that the pump should have a horizontally mounted motor instead of vertical, is that true...?

Anyways... then it goes into the mixing valve, then into a manifold with eight, 1/2" PEX zones, loops around, then it "T's" off to the mixing valve and back out to the stove.  There are valves to shut off before and after the pump also.   We are also using 3 of those zones for different parts of the house controlled by electronic zone valves.

My brother was planning on running a 1/2" PEX out of one of those 8 zones to the hot water heater, and another one to each of my two furnaces.  This is after the mixing valve. 

Am I right in thinking that what we should have done is run inside with the 1" PEX, to the pump, then to the hot water heater, then to the furnaces, "THEN" to the mixing valve and basement and garage floor radiant heat lines?

He doesn't think it should be a problem and thinks I should run the furnaces and water heater off of the 1/2" PEX from the manifolds.  Is anyone else doing that and is it working out ok for them.  I'm not too thrilled about redoing all my copper and manifold stuff.

What's your thoughts...?
« Last Edit: December 29, 2008, 04:26:07 PM by Scratch »
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Hudson, WI

willieG

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2008, 11:17:58 PM »

my thoughts...seperate lines to your hot water tank and furnace from a header...1inch header after the pump (and also a return header) (valves to shut off each line from your header so you can work on any component without having to shut another off)

3/4 inch lines with no mixing valve (as hot as the OWB can supply) to your furnace and your hot water exchanger (a mixing valve if you have small children on your domestic hot water line leaving the tank to prevent scalding)

1/2 inch lines should be fine for your  radiant heat but i would plumb them so you can isolate each zone if you need to shut one off for any reason without shutting them all down

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Ontario Canada

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2009, 11:22:31 PM »

So I got my furnace hooked up to the OWB today.  I went with 1" off from the stove to the pump.  From there it goes straight to the "future" water water heater echanger.  Then it drops to 3/4" and splits into two lines.  One goes to each of my two furnaces.  then they both come back together and go straight into my 1" manifold.  Which then splits off into a bunch of 1/2" zone loops for my garage floor and basement floor.  Plenty of valves (bleeders, electronic and standard) and temp guages all around.

So far everything's working great.  Gotta get some more thermostats now.  The basements at 80, the garage is at 70 and the main floor and upstairs is at 77.  Feels like summer!

Anyways, thought I'd post pics of my furnace coil installation for anybody who's interested.


Here's one of the coils with some fittings installed.

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2009, 11:24:17 PM »

I decided to mount some "flaps" to the sides of the coils to lay on my mounting brackets.  That way, I don't have to be so exact and they will still seal up great.  Here's a close up shot.

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Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2009, 11:26:00 PM »

Here's my furnace after I cut the hole for the coil.  I cut it bigger so I'd have plenty of room to install my mounts.  That PVC exhaust pipe has to go though...

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2009, 11:27:39 PM »

Here's with that pesky PVC pipe gone.   Also that 1/2" blue PEX was a mistake and will be pulled.

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2009, 11:29:30 PM »

Here's the big hole I cut for the coil.  I used 1/2" C shaped aluminum all the way around for the mounts.  I have lots of it.

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2009, 11:31:21 PM »

Close up of the mounts.  You can see the AC coil that sits 10" below these mounts.  I was told to keep at least 5" away.
Also a dang old dead boxelder bug.  Those things get everywhwere!

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2009, 11:32:49 PM »

Here I slid the coil into place.  The flaps woked out great! O0

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2009, 11:33:43 PM »

This is the same shot, just backed up.

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2009, 11:35:11 PM »

Made a bling bling plate to cover the big gap and used some aluminum tape to seal the deal!

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2009, 11:37:39 PM »

All plumbed in, with bleeder valves to drain it in the summer.  Put that darn PVC back too so I wont die of carbon monoxide poisoning. >:D
Still gotta get some insulation on all that plumbing but that'll be tomorrows job.

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Hudson, WI

Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2009, 11:41:19 PM »

And here's the other side of the room with my goofy setup.  Still waiting to see if I wanna change anything before I clean it up and mount everything permanently.  Yes those are CPVC pipes I'm using for the floor lines.   :o  Wirsbo and PEX was brand new and expensive 10 years ago when I built this house.  My brother's been using his very successfully for over 15 years.

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Hudson, WI

MyLeakyWoodDoctor

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2009, 11:00:14 AM »

What are you using for a heat syphon on your domestic hot water?

I have a post in for a home-made tube syphon!
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Scratch

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Re: pluming for hot water & furnace
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2009, 01:26:45 PM »

Haven't hooked up to the water heater yet... but will probably be making something similar to your design.
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Hudson, WI