Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: caper on November 05, 2014, 04:38:39 PM

Title: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: caper on November 05, 2014, 04:38:39 PM
hello all,sorry but I have another question,im way too ocd about my system,always in the furnace room checking on temps or something,anyhow ive had the system for two years now,however I just finally got the mixn valves put in,before that I was running 180 degrees into my cast iron rads and my two infloor zones ( I know big mistake) fixed now,this is my issue,things now system is running different and im not sure if this is normal,before when the zones came on the returns would be quick and still hot,now that the mixn valves are in the returns are just warm and take forever to return,so is this normal,house is warm but I just find it takes longer now,is this because of the mixers warming the water,why does it take longer for the returns now,is it because the water is a whole warmer now.again sorry for so many questions,just trying to get things working good,very hard to find people to work on system that actually care...
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: slimjim on November 05, 2014, 04:44:42 PM
There are a lot of variables, how hot are you going out to supply your loops? how long are your loops? are they evenly distributed (distance of loops) ? Flowmeters on each loop ?
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: caper on November 05, 2014, 05:36:35 PM
thanks slim for the reply,well I cant really answer a whole of your questions,basically I have a simple ststem,8 runs in the basement,all in floor,i wasn't there when they installed but they knew how long of runs to run,as far as flow meters,i don't even know what they are,sorry,just a basic system,basically are the mixn valves causing the returns to be a lot slower then before when the water was 180...wish I could fly you here for an hour,lol
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: coolidge on November 05, 2014, 06:20:41 PM
Do you have temp gauges on the radiant manifold? If your running 120 degree water you might not even notice it coming back at 90 /95 by touch anyway.
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: slimjim on November 05, 2014, 08:12:02 PM
Thank you, the 180 is a definite no no,you are running radiant in slab am I right? You must purge each loop separately by closing off all loops  other than the one you are purging
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: caper on November 06, 2014, 05:12:08 AM
thanks guys,i think your on the money Coolidge,im so used to feeling the 180 coming back and now that's it just warm I thought there was an issue,hope that's the issue anyway,again,thanks guys
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: LittleJohn on November 06, 2014, 07:09:19 AM
Constable72, there are several considerations when dealing with a HI-mass (in-slab applicaiton), reaction times will be very SLOW, calls for heat can easily last 10 minutes or more.

**Quick question, when you were running 180 into floor, did any of the following occur; easily identifiable hot spots in the floor (Striping), over shooting of themostat or excessive noise

With the lower water temperatures, the floor should see a more even heat (unless heat loss or solar gain is influencing area), couple that with most people not being able to tell more than a 5f difference just with there hand or foot.  Just remember, as long as the return water temperature is above room temperature you are still adding heat to the room (slowly but surely)
Title: Re: time limit for return on in floor zone
Post by: caper on November 06, 2014, 08:33:04 AM
thanks everyone,little John,the only  thing I ever noticed was over shooting the  thermo,and it still does that by a degree or two,im glad its working good,i think I was just alittle paranoid at the slowness of the return,the basement is nice and warm ,it just takes longer now I find,same issue with the main floor cast iron rads,thermostate stays on longer now and rads take a little longer to heat up,so I guess the mixn valves are doing their job by cooling down the supply...thanks again everyone for the advice,tips etc...