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[XJCraver]

Yesterday at 3:30pm I got "finished" with my install and lit a fire in my new Empyre.  At 4:45, temp on the furnace was 170* and I flipped the switch on my thermostat.  No more propane! 

It was an interesting experience, installing this thing...  My house is old (built in 1891), and the plumbing was last worked on in the 80's.  My water heater, per the tag on the door, was installed in 1964 (!!!).  This is what I started with:



I was waiting on some other parts but had my 20-plate exchanger here, so I decided I'd start by plumbing my domestic lines to it.  As you can imagine with a mixture of galvanized, hard copper, soft copper, and plastic water lines, every time I touched a fitting something broke.  :-(  I gave up about 30 minutes in, and made a trip to town for enough parts to re-plumb the whole thing.  Ran all new CPVC (couldn't afford copper!) everywhere, and wasted an entire day.  Also replaced the water heater, because when I drained the old GE the nastiest, smelliest, rustiest gunk you can imagine came out of it, and I couldn't bring myself to plumb it back in.  Luckily I had this near-new AO Smith sitting in the shed, and was able to use it. 

I remember, now, why I didn't choose to be a plumber...  Much respect to those guys, because there's no way I could do that every day.  So anyway I got all the plumbing done, and my plate exchanger mounted, and now it looks like this:



I realized, after I turned the water back on, that I forgot to put a ball valve in the by-pass line (doh!), so I added that.  Then we start drilling a hole in the foundation wall.  Do you know how hard ~100 yr. old hand-poured concrete is?  It's friggin' Hard, is how hard it is!  I started in on it with just a hammer drill, but shortly admitted defeat and called a buddy with a rotary hammer.  That made short work of things, so now there's a hole in the wall.  On to digging some trenches:



Dug through every root on the farm, I think, plus an abandoned drain tile that gave me some concern until I figured out it was indeed dead, but I got the trenches dug, the lines laid in, the propane tank moved, and the furnace on its pad all that day.  I was happy with that.

Now back to the basement, where I cut a hole in my furnace plenum:



Installed my heat exchanger in there, taped it up, and moved on to hooking up my furnace lines.  This went exceptionally well (somehow!), and my helper and I had minimal problems getting them all where they were supposed to go.  Wired up the pump and the furnace, and the inside is finished:





By-pass for the furnace exchanger (needs one more clamp to hold it up):



Exchanger plumbed up:



And we're all done inside.  I need to foam the foundation hole and get my hydraulic cement in, and get my DHW lines insulated, but other than that it's all (I think!) good.  Moving on outside then, where we hook up the furnace:



And add 6' of chimney and a cap:




So far (~28 hrs. later), so good!  I need to do some tidy-ing up (insulation, finish the hole in the wall, a few more clamps inside, etc.), and I want to put thermometers on my pex lines inside and outside so I can watch my temps, but overall I'm pretty pleased.  This thing is working great so far, and other than sore hands from drilling through that concrete I have no complaints.  House is staying a comfy 73*, and the fan isn't running near like it did on propane.  My wife is happy, happy, happy!  :-)

I have the stove set on 180*, with a 10* differential.  Seems to be working well.  My B&G pump is a 3-speed, and right now I have it set in the middle.  This is a question I have - should I set it on high?

Anyway, that's the adventure of my installation.  I'd like to thank this site for the absolute wealth of information I've gleaned here.  Using the search, reading through threads, and talking with Scott and others, made this experience much, MUCH less painful thatn it otherwise would have been.  For that, you all can consider me permanently in your debt.  Thank You!!   


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[Scott7m]

Looks good buddy!   

Looks like you done a good job and used high quality valves and fittings, you'll love it more and more as time goes on!

[Roger2561]

Nice job with the install.  It looks like you used quality material, inside and underground.  Believe me, you will not be sorry for getting away from fossil fuels.  I used to burn oil.  Ever since I installed my OWB the oil furnace hasn't come on.  You'll get used not hearing the propane furnace running. 

Like you I live in an old farmhouse.  It's my late folks place.  It was built somewhere around the 1840's.  I have put approx. $3,000.00 of insulation in the walls and ceiling (closed off the upstairs due to not using the space) and now it's much easier to heat.  I'm comfortable at 70 degrees.  Anything warmer than that and I'm uncomfortably warm.  Roger

[ijon]

Nice install, good pictures.

[XJCraver]

Thanks guys.

Yeah, those fittings were expensive!  I don't have a lot of free time though, and try to go by the "Do it once and do it right" method.  In this case, I went with the best we could afford and the stuff that had the best reviews / warranties / etc.  I have no doubt that'll it'll pay off in the end, and hopefully maintenance will be minimal.

I got my thermometers ordered last night, so hopefully they'll be here this week and I can call this install Done.  I went with these, from a thread I saw on here somewhere:

http://www.blueridgecompany.com/radiant/hydronic/660/pasco-temperature-gauge

I bought 4, so I can measure inside and outside temps.  Anything else I need to put in the system now?  Someone suggested to me that I put drains on the lines to the furnace heat exchanger for the summertime - any opinions on pex drain valves, and which ones are best? 

And how about a timer for the pump, so I can set it to run for a couple minutes daily in the summertime?  Would just a water heater timer work, or is there something cheaper / easier?  My pump is wired to a standard plug, and plugged in to a receptacle if that matters.

[cranman]

Yes good job and nice pix. At the heat exch rad I install 90 degree unions . I had four pairs but have used them all and think the price would be outrageos now. I have valves right at the unions ,so I can take the rad out for cleaning every few years. I always put tees in before and after the valves and install a cross feed that has a full flow ball valve. When I am away in the heating season I bypass the rad by opening up the bypass and closing the rad. It takes a lot of gas or electricity when your rad is working in reverse I think. If you do this however, you have to crack the downstream valve a bit so that your regular furnace heat doesn't expand the boiler fluid enough to put pressure on the rad. Loking at your plumbing, this would be an easy addition if it makes any sense to you. Good luck.

[MattyNH]

Nice pics!  ..Your gonna love it!

[Grizzly]

As someone who is considering making the switch to an owf, I have a question.  Can someonle please explain how the plate exchanger is working for the DHW.  By the plumbing I see, it would seem that domestic water runs through the water to water heat exchanger to be heated and placed in the DHW tank.  If you were gone all day at work lets say, and not using hot water, wouldn't the water in the tank be luke warm? Do you add some sort of circulating pump?  If someone has an example I would love to see a pic.  Thank you.

[Scott7m]

Hot water tanks do not cool that fast, as long as someone takes a shower/bath one a day you'll be fine and won't notice any difference in temp.  I've not ran mine for 2 days and still had hot water. 

Also had folks isntall them as on demand systems with no tank involved in shops..  A 20 plate is by far the simplest way to do one and most importantly to me, the safest. 

As long as you have a fire, your gonna have unlimited hot water...  I don't notice any dips in temp ever. 

If you were placing this in a cabin or place where you only used hot water once every few days, it wouldn't be as good, but for 99% of folks, it's great

[XJCraver]

That's been my experience, so far (what Scott said ^^^).  There's 2 adults and 2 kids in this house, so there's laundry and showers every day - we haven't run out of hot water since I fired up the boiler. 

One thing I do think I'm going to do is insulate the water heater with one of those jackets.  I'm not going to run my OWB this summer, so I'm thinking (hoping!) the insulation will lower the elec. bill a buck or two when there's no fire outside.