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[ryan nh]

Hi,

This site has great information.  I figured I would post my situation to see if anyone has recommendations for my set-up.  I recently purchased an used Central 4436.  I am looking to set-up heat and possibly hot water for our home and heat to our garage.  We have a Baxi Luna wall-hung unit in our home with baseboard heat and an old oil hot air furnace in the garage.  It sounds like a water-to-air heat exchanger should be pretty strait forward for the garage.  We will be mostly just keeping this above freezing and using to heat when doing work or kids are playing in garage during winter.

The house set-up is where I am not sure as to the best set-up.  I have read that it may or may not be worth additional set-up costs to heat hot water, with the wall hung being pretty efficient for that purpose.  Does anyone have recommendations on this?  If it is worthwhile any suggestions on the set-up would be greatly appreciated! Also, any general recommendations or suggestions would be great.  I have been reading as much as I can but would be grateful for any advice that may help with my set-up.

Thanks,
Ryan

[slimjim]

OK Ryan, first the BAXI has a really bad rep up here in Maine, when they work, they work great, the rest of the time, well I think you get the picture. Now when using a gas wall hung you will need to plumb the heat exchanger in a primary loop and the BAXI will be a secondary loop that pumps into the primary loop, all zones will also be secondary loops that pull from the primary loop, in other words you cannot plumb from the heat exchanger directly to the BAXI, do you understand it so far.

[ryan nh]

Slimjim,

Thank you for the reply!  I have attempted to attach a picture of my current set-up of the Baxi on here. 

By the sounds of the Baxi reputation maybe it is a good thing that I will be using it a secondary heat source during the winter.  Do they have a reputation of breaking down, or just not working well when operational?  We purchased the home last winter and moved in this spring.  I believe the Baxi had been installed in 07'.  It seemed to work ok last winter, but we were not living in the house and only in and out to do weekend warrior (and weeknight) projects before moving in. Since moving in this spring it has worked well for hot water and has seemed to be kind to the propane tank for that use.

I do believe I follow you so far on the install.  I have a heating guy that will be helping with the actual plumbing install.  He has worked on a few OWB, but not this particular set-up that I have.  I will be sharing any insight I can get to try to come up with the best set-up.

Thanks again for any input!
Ryan 

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[slimjim]

How come I never get installs as easy as this one? The only concern is, does the system now function well enough to satisfy your heat load, is that a 1 inch copper manifold or 1 1/4, i'm a bit concearned about flow. Bear with me as this will take a few posts but I would like to do it here as I know there are folks doing the same thing but I havent been smart enough to figure out my phone/ camera to post pictures, that part you can do Okay. To start with, the 90's that are the supply and return on the Baxi will need to be replaced with tees, a circ and isolation flanges on the supply side and ball valve purge tee and boiler drain on the return side, this all connects to the pressurized side of the heat exchanger, you can do this the cheap and easy way or do it the the nicer way that costs a bit more money and we can all be proud, your choice but please post pics so we can all see it.

[ryan nh]

Slimjim,

I would be happy to post pictures of my install as I go through it.  I appreciate your help and advice.  I looked at the manifold and it appears to be 1" on the main part with 3/4" coming off for the zones.  Will this be an issue with the flow?  Unfortunately, we have not really tested the system in mid-winter with the heat really turned up.  It did seem to warm up well when we were in the house last winter, but again we were not living in it at that time. 

I spoke with my heating guy up here today.  He said that after speaking to someone at Baxi it sounds like we will need to install a storage tank if I do want to include the domestic water with the install.  Has this been your experience with this type of system?

Thanks again,
Ryan

[hondaracer2oo4]

Ryan,

  Sorry not trying to get off topic but are you in NH? Where abouts if so? Where did you pick up the boiler used, never saw it on craigslist.

[ryan nh]

hondaracer,

I am in NH...and you?  I am on the VT boarder in the Upper Conn. Valley.  I picked this up from a guy who was upgrading to a larger boiler down in MA.  Are you looking for one?   

[hondaracer2oo4]

Ryan,

  I am over in Canterbury NH, 10 minutes north of Concord. No, not looking for one but I am always searching clist to see whats out there and what people are selling so I usually will see them.

[Roger2561]

Ryan, Do you mean the Upper Valley; Lebanon, Hanover, Enfield, Canaan, etc...?  I'm in Enfield.  Who knows, perhaps we're next door neighbors.  Roger