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[up_in_smoke]

Hello and Thank you to all that have helped me so far in my install. I have received a lot of information from you along my journey and without you I would still be trying to find a way to pay the contractor $7,000+ to install my owb.

Just few more questions...

So far I have:

Purchased an Earth Mountain Man 505 with 4 ports (set to arrive next week)

The first port, I am installing now:

So far I have installed:

The cement pad extra large for the furnace and a place to stand while filling.

70' (one way) of 1" logstor underground pipe. It's 60' in length with 4' down and 4' up in the trench. I have it enclosed in a 6" corrugated pipe with an insulated 3/4" fill line and a 10/3 underground cable for power. I then sealed the corrugated pipe with a 6mil plastic sleeve and double wrapped it with more plastic. I placed an empty perforated corrugated pipe with it in the ditch too hopefully to collect any water then surrounded them with sand before topping them off with dirt.

The barn I am servicing with the first run is 40'x40'x10'h on the first level and about the same on the second level. I am not installing any heat on the second floor but the floor/ceiling divider is not insulated so the heat will automatically be rising into that area. Inside the barn there is a 10'x40' room fully insulated which I am finishing off as a living area with full bath and kitchen as a place to sleep when I am building my house. The remaining 30'x40' area will be open for parking cars, tools, etc and is also insulated on the exterior walls. All the walls are 2x6 with spray foam insulation.

Today I went online and purchased a unit heater to heat the open parking area. I tried to shop around for a unit heater with a squirrel cage but nothing pre assembled jumped out at me.I ended up on taking a suggestion from this site and went on ebay and purchased a unit from freeheat4u. I was going to purchase the middle of the 3 units but then at the last minute decided go big or go home and bought the 200,000 btu unit that I don't really need since I will probably keep this area at 50f but I guess its nice to have in the event I want to crank it up when i am working out there?

Since the logstor came with 1" fittings and the unit heater has 1" fittings I think its safe to assume I am going to run 1" pex to the unit, depending on the route I am going to take I am guessing this will be a run of about 85' one way which will be my longest run but not my only run. First I am going to go from the 1" logstor into a distributor so I can have the 1" loop to the unit heater, a ?" loop to a plate exchanger for dhw, and a ?" loop through the finished area of the barn where I plan to add radiators to keep the heat regulated at about 65/70f (this is my main concern since ALL of the plumbing is in the finished area).

With all that said. I have a 70' run of exterior logstor and a 85' run of interior pex as my longest run. Doubled for the return gives me a total run of 155x2= 310'.

I do not have a pump on my owb. Since I will have a plate exchanger for my dhw that I want to keep looped continuously for on demand hot water. What brand and size pump do you recommend? I was advised to consider a taco 2400-20wb before but a few things have changed since then and I have more accurate numbers on my pipe lengths.   The manufacture only had 2 pumps available both Honeywell's they just asked small or large lol I went with neither since I can probably install a nicer pump at a cheaper cost once I figure out what I am doing. (I have been reading just the head and pressure gets a bit confusing)

Anyway, this site hasn't steered me wrong yet so I'm throwing it out there once again and asking for suggestions on pump sizing and layout options. Yes, I do have previous suggestion which I am taking in as a factor but as you know, as things change in the install process, what was once good may not be best now...

thanks in advance


 

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[LittleJohn]

I currently like the Grundfos Alpha (stainless), typically no price difference between grundos 3 speed and Alpha - plus it gives you a little display on whats going on with your pump (GPM and power consumption)

Suggestion - place pump in the heated building not out by OWB; cause do you want to be swapping out a bad pump in the blowing frozen winter (when all pumps fail COLDEST, BITTEREST day possible).  Also, depending which way you go on the pump - get a back up, reference previous comment about swapping out pump on coldest, crappiest day - cause that day will also happen to be a HOLIDAY or weekend when the store is closed

  Also remember to keep pump operating in middle of pump curve to get the most out of it and let it be all it can be

[idahohay]

U.I.Smoke, sounds like you have really done a top job on your supply pipe.  Your loss there might be 1/2 degree. I am currently heating a similar  size building with a 19" x 20" plenum heater that I boxed in with a squirrel cage blower. Was pondering over what size pump I would put in but wasn't sure what all you were hooking up in series. Just the unit heater and back to the boiler running 24/7? Then your fphe for dhw and  radiators would be secondary loops with their own pumps?

[juddspaintballs]

+1 on Grundfos.  I have a 3 speed and it's been working flawlessly for 4 years now on it's lowest setting.  Taco also makes great pumps.  I have one of their smaller stainless pumps on my domestic hot water to circulate the tank through a sidearm exchanger.

And to reiterate what Little John said, put the pump somewhere warm or inside and buy a spare.  Mine is in my unfinished basement very close to my sump pump and I have a couple valves leading from my domestic water to fill up the system from the basement (which just happens to be the lowest point in the system to it pushes the air out really well).