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[ambonci]

I hope all the professionals will chime in with some much needed advise.I have a reznor hydronic heater that is brand new and I would like to hook up in my garage.  I was thinking of teeing off the feed line coming into my heat exchanger and using a monoflo valve.  I have a separate circulator for this unit and was unsure if this idea would work.  my other option  is adding another zone off my inside furnace.  Will using the monoflo valve setup affect my house heat?  Will the monoflo valve idea work at all?  Thanks in advance.

[mlappin]

 A mono flo t would cut flow to both your heat exchangers and may not offer enough flow for either to work properly without some serious return temp drops.

if it was me, I’d either come off the return side of your present HX at the furnace then run to the one in the garage and back or to the garage first, personally I’d plumb it to make sure the house had priority.

[ambonci]

so your saying t in the return side and use the return water temp for use with the hydronic heater?  That seems like a good idea.  so I would be teeing into the return line twice correct?

[mlappin]

If it was me, I’t take the return line that comes from indoors and goes back to your OWB and run that to the unit heater in the garage then return from there to the OWB, a strap on aqua stat could be wired in to the fan on the unit heater so if the heat demand was too great the fan in the garage would not run so you don’t drop the return temp too much and shock your boiler with cold water.

We have a lot of very clever members who will chime in with a better suggestion I’m sure.

[RSI]

If you are going to add another pump and the garage won't ever freeze, run it as a secondary loop. That way you won't be adding more head pressure to the existing system.

This would just be two tees close together in the same pipe. When the pump is off to the garage heater then all the water will just flow past it. When it comes on it will get re-directed through the heater.

If it will possible freeze in the garage, you could put the pipes fairly far apart in the line. This would get you a little ghost flow to keep the lines warm.

[ambonci]

both great ideas and I'm feeling better in which direction I'm going to go.  As RSI said with adding a second loop, does that mean another circulator on the OWB? or just using a Tee in the supply line coming in from OWB and a circulator?    Because I have the ability to add another circulator outside and I have extra pipe already in the ground and ran inside.  My garage will never freeze.  Bare with me through this because I'm trying to understand it all and understand why we did it that way.  So I appreciate all the advice so far.  Thanks and have a good day.

[RSI]

I would add another pump. Otherwise you will be adding a lot of head pressure to the current system which will reduce flow while you are adding more heat load.

[ambonci]

add the other pump outside on boiler and keep in running 24/7 and controlled inside or have something control the outside pump?

Will hooking into the return side add more head pressure?

[RSI]

Keep the pump running 24/7.
Usually it works fine to just run the fan on a thermostat and let the water always circulate through the heat exchanger. If it puts off too much heat then you can add a 3 way zone valve.

[ambonci]

Ok I understand it now.  So looks like I'm adding a pump outside on the OWB this weekend.  Can I tee into the other return line or will that cause a back flow?  I'm not worried aabout it giving off too much heat as I have a drafty garage door.  Thanks a lot RSI.

[RSI]

What size is the connection on the boiler?
If 1" threaded  or larger, it would be ok. I don't think I would do it with a pex tee.

DO you have more ports available? I thought Shaver had them on each corner. If you do have the ports, it would probably be better to use them since it would probably get better circulation inside the boiler.

[ambonci]

The pex lines going inside that are unused is 3/4" but my main heat lines for the house are 1".  I have more ports available on my OWB yes but the other line that I would use for my hydronic heater return is used for my water fill.  so not a good idea to tee in the return then, or are you saying use something besides pex for the tee?  what would that cause if I did?  Thanks again

[RSI]

Will the tee be at the back of the boiler? I am assuming you have threaded connections before it goes to pex. Those would be larger inside diameter than the pex.

[ambonci]

I was thinking the tee would be in the 1" line after its returned thru the heat exchanger.  I know sounds complicated  but I'm hoping it will work.  after the house heat exchanger and on that return line I was thinking of teeing into that to get the water back to the OWB.  Hope I'm not confusing u at all.  if I am I will draw a diagram and post it but I'm sure you understand it.
Thanks.

[RSI]

A diagram would be good so we know we are talking about the same thing.