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[justinb]

In the process of building a new house and need to get my new Heatmaster 10000MFe OWB running.  Ultimately, I'm going to run 1 loop into the house and the 2nd into a future outbuilding.  The house will have radiant floor in basement, heat domestic water , forced air furnace exchanger.  For this winter, I'll be happy to get the water heater and furnace hooked up.  This is my plan....please correct me or add anything that I missed.

Badger Grundfos GPD 25-10SFC pump with 1" 5 wrap underground pipe in OWB.  70' to basement which will immediately tie into a mixing valve.  From there it will go to a 20 plate exchanger for domestic water hx.....then into water to air exchanger in furnace and back to mixing valve before it goes to OWB.  1" pex for all inside work.

I will put a mixing valve for safety reasons on the gas hot water heater, and will put bypass valves on the inlet and outlet of every appliance.

Should I do anything else?  Do I need any drains or bleeders?  The OWB and basement floor are pretty even in terms of elevation.  Thanks for the help...this site is great!

[juddspaintballs]

Have you considered one big loop to the house with multiple inlet/outlets and separate pumps for smaller separate loops off of that?  For example, you'll need separate zones for your radiant floors and that's a very good way to make separate zones and also a good way to zone the furnace exchanger on and off when the thermostat for the furnace calls for heat.  You can even use a small circuit like that for the water heater as well and if you valve all of the inlet/outlets you can work on any zone without shutting down the whole system if any problem arises (a leak in a zone or to flush out the plate exchanger).  I'm not saying your desired setup wouldn't work, but you can get better control out of the setup I described and you can use smaller pumps with it. 

[Sprinter]

LIKE^

[harley]

Im  approximately 150 feet from my house, and have to pump up hill house is about 10 foot higher than the boiler what size of pump would I need.

[juddspaintballs]

Harley, that is not enough information to make a pump choice.  You'll have to decide on what size pipe you're using, if you're doing a big single loop or multiple small loops off of a big loop, what the heat load you need for all of your appliances, any elbows, pipe diameter changes, devices, etc. 

This takes some time to work through, but it will give you a good size for pump to go with.  Once you've selected one of the Taco pumps from the list, you can compare the specs to the specs of any other brand. 

http://www.taco-hvac.com/uploads/FileLibrary/SelectingCirculators.pdf

[Sprinter]

Harley, you are in an important phase of you new OWB experience. And right now you can choose between efficient distribution and the old school or even poor BTU control. Wood consumption will also differ.
Have you read the articles or any articles on any part of your system being above the waterline of the boiler? Any part should be in a closed loop, to prevent negative pressure on the return side. Siegenthaler and calefi are just two that have example pics and why. Read any of my threads with all the links on design, circs, how to's.
Zoning will be far more efficient than a one loop design. You will need small circs or zone valves instead of expensive ones. More components will be necessary, but this is canceled out by the wood you will save in the first season. For the price of one 26-99/96 you can buy 3 007's or 15-58/55 circs.

[harley]

Sprinter not sure how to get to tour threads. My plan is to run thermopex 145 feet to the house then 50 foot to the plate exchanger 4 foot to the furnace heat exchanger back to the boiler approx. 200 feet. This sure simple is there a better way that's  more efficient. What is negative pressure

[Pit Crew]

You guys stole Justin Bieber`s thread, how you making out  little guy?          lol 

[justinb]

Talk about a thread hijack.....I agree that a manifold system would be better, but that would also put this project out of my comfort zone.  I'm hoping that I can reconfigure and add that when I'm ready to use the radiant floor heating.  Is it really necessary to put in a mixing valve when the lines enter the house?  I can't find a 4 way valve for this application anywhere.  Also, does anyone have a link that shows how to plumb a plate exchanger?  Thanks

[ITO]

 justinb, I asume you are going to have an indoor boiler also since you are using radiant heat method, consider using a water tank for DHW, it is just a zone off the manifold with its own pump controlled by aquastat, can be heated by indoor or outdoor, no mixing valve needed. Here's mine:
 http://www.htproducts.com/superstor-ultra-waterheater.html
 Plumb the plate exchanger between the indoor loop and the outdoor boiler, use valves and hose bibs so you can backflush it, here's plumbing diagram on mine:
http://www.heatexchangers.ca/manuals/sec-catalog-section-4-brazed-plate-models.pdf
 Manifolds are pretty easy to deal with, I wouldn't put that out of your comfort zone, you don't want to go back and do it over, you just peel off the main loop and apply the correct pump to each leg of your system, one on DHW, Radiant zones and so on, the basic manifolds look like this: http://www.pexsupply.com/Copper-Manifolds-1843000
 You will need a mixing valve plumbed in your floor heat supply something like this:
http://www.altheatsupply.com/cash-acme-heatgaurd-110-hx-tempering-valve-3-4-sweat.html
 Those are just ideas, if you do your research you will find what works best for you, good luck.
 

[justinb]

 Thanks ITO...that helped a lot even thought I'm not using an indoor boiler, but rather my OWB for the radiant.  One last newbie question. 

Since this is a new house and my plumber will be installing the LP water heater before I get around to installing my OWB, will this create a problem?  I'm going to have him hook up the water lines into the plate exchanger while he's installing the LP heater.  Will this function without having the other 2 ports on the plate exchanger hooked up?  Or is it best to just have him hook up the LP heater conventionally, and I can splice into the lines when ready?

[juddspaintballs]

I would have him go ahead and install the plate exchanger if you're not very good at sweating pipes yourself.  Or, another option would be to have him install a Tee fitting on both the cold and hot side with a short piece of pipe off of that, a ball valve, and then a cap.  Also have him put a ball valve on both hot and cold between the Tee and the water heater so you can shut the lines down without disconnecting the water heater and install the plate exchanger yourself. 

When installing the plate exchanger, I would default to installing it as a parallel device to the water heater with valve in such a way you could completely isolate either the water heater or the plate exchanger and run the other one at the same time.  This way you're always with hot water if there's a problem with the other device. 

[justinb]

Thats a great idea!!!  I'll do that.  Any need for a Y strainer or some sort of air bleeder?

[juddspaintballs]

Not really.  If you have hard water, use unions to connect the plate exchanger so you can take it off to clean it out every once in a while.