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[Bull]

Ridge, the next time you are in Madison let me know and I will buy the first round LOL.

[Ridgekid]

Will do!

[church]

Hello Ridgekid,
 Glad to hear all went well in your absence with your wife taking care of the home fires. She made the attempt as would mine if need be I believe so I have to give her credit for that.  I just have to get her over the idea of just tossing in the wood and shutting the door. She feels that as long as the house is warm all is well and working, I won't even attempt to retrain her, after 30 years we pretty much know what one will and will not do, but it works for us. Compromise / respect is the answer. I now have to get the domestic water on line, new washer installed late yesterday and she wants to use that option. I am leaning toward the installation of the flat pate after the HX then to the DHWX on the cold inlet. I have let the fire get low and if I installed as an on demand set up that would not be good if she had to endure a cold shower because of me. Not sure of the plate sizing as of yet, we are plumbed with 1" copper from the pex, any suggestions?
Again glad to hear all went well, I would have to beleive she would do it again if need be for you.
Church

[Ridgekid]

Church

My wife (28.5 years) knows if she wants HW she will have to keep wood in the green dragon. So that's the motivator!!!! 

For domestic hot water I used a 20 plate. I have a outline of my setup in the gallery. This setup has worked well for us delivering 140-150* water out of the taps. Our dishwasher has never been cleaner!  And our clothes are cleaner too. So you won't regret the investment. I saved half the cost by installing it myself.

Btw- not noted in my gallery. All the pex lines in the basement are insulated.

[gmviso]

Kudos for 1" copper. I used it as well, then put insulation around it. Cost more, but I felt I could run it the way I wanted without the large radius of pex. I figure that upsizing to 1" ID from the nominal ID of .83 of 1" PEX would help make up for pressure losses associated with having to use els.

However I plumbed my 20 plste xchanger agead of my furnace exchanger. I think that part of the rationale for doing it this way is that you can avoid sending hot water thru the furnace exchanger in the summer if you are still heating the DHW with your boiler in the summer by having a three way valve at the plate exchanger.

I accomplshed the same thing by having a 3-way zone valve at my furnace exchanger which is operated by my thermostat. This way I don't have boiler water circulating through my furnace exchanger 24x7 and can keep the furnace blower on if I choose.

I feel I went way overboard on the plumbing, but since I did the work myself it was more affordable.

Just another way to skin the cat.

[gmviso]

My X-300 came yesterday. I spent a couple of hours and accomplished the following:

1) Got 8 sensors programmed to work with it. That was probably the most tedious part of the install. Six are the temp only sensors, the other a the wall mounted Temp/Humidity sensor which actually has 2 sensors in it, one for temp and the other for humidity.

2) Installed and configured X-300 in basement and connected to my network.

3) Wired 2 pairs of temp sensors to two Cat-5 cables and connected to X-300.

a) One pair is  monitoring OWB temp as soon as it enters house and as it leaves house to return to boiler. This is accomplished ahead of the thermostatic control valve.

b) Second pair is monitoring at the 20 plate exchanger. First the boiler water in temp, and second, the heated domestic water into the 50 gallon water heater (storage tank).

4) Connected the wall mounted temp/humidity sensor to tell me of basement conditions.

5) Last two temp sensors will be installed to monitor the temp of the boiler water as it enters the water/air exchanger in my furnace plenum, and the boiler water as it enters the air/water exchanger in the garage.

For what it's worth, my temps are in total agreement (within the accuracy of the sensors anyway) with the OWB controller temp display.

When I installed the basement plumbing I used 1" copper throughout. I attached the temp sensors to the copper pipes using aluminum foil tape. Wrapped tape about 3 times around pipe, and then covered with foam pipe insulation.

So I got the SMTP email notifications working with GMX mail as Ridgekid suggested.

The crappy DSL modem I have from CenturyLink will not forward html requests into my network despite the fact that I configured it to do so, so I am planning on turning off its firewall and NAT router and replacing that portion with a more configurable router. Then I will be able to view the real time temps from outside, ie. on my iPhone.

I'm now looking for a small/inexpensive tablet with WiFi that I can configure not to go to sleep and mount it on the wall next to my Ecobee thermostat so I can see the temps easily. Not sure what it will be, but I really want to keep the acquisition cost at or below $100.

[RSI]

My X-300 came yesterday. I spent a couple of hours and accomplished the following:

1) Got 8 sensors programmed to work with it. That was probably the most tedious part of the install. Six are the temp only sensors, the other a the wall mounted Temp/Humidity sensor which actually has 2 sensors in it, one for temp and the other for humidity.

2) Installed and configured X-300 in basement and connected to my network.

3) Wired 2 pairs of temp sensors to two Cat-5 cables and connected to X-300.

a) One pair is  monitoring OWB temp as soon as it enters house and as it leaves house to return to boiler. This is accomplished ahead of the thermostatic control valve.

b) Second pair is monitoring at the 20 plate exchanger. First the boiler water in temp, and second, the heated domestic water into the 50 gallon water heater (storage tank).

4) Connected the wall mounted temp/humidity sensor to tell me of basement conditions.

5) Last two temp sensors will be installed to monitor the temp of the boiler water as it enters the water/air exchanger in my furnace plenum, and the boiler water as it enters the air/water exchanger in the garage.

For what it's worth, my temps are in total agreement (within the accuracy of the sensors anyway) with the OWB controller temp display.

When I installed the basement plumbing I used 1" copper throughout. I attached the temp sensors to the copper pipes using aluminum foil tape. Wrapped tape about 3 times around pipe, and then covered with foam pipe insulation.

So I got the SMTP email notifications working with GMX mail as Ridgekid suggested.

The crappy DSL modem I have from CenturyLink will not forward html requests into my network despite the fact that I configured it to do so, so I am planning on turning off its firewall and NAT router and replacing that portion with a more configurable router. Then I will be able to view the real time temps from outside, ie. on my iPhone.

I'm now looking for a small/inexpensive tablet with WiFi that I can configure not to go to sleep and mount it on the wall next to my Ecobee thermostat so I can see the temps easily. Not sure what it will be, but I really want to keep the acquisition cost at or below $100.

Take a look at Sony Dash or a Chumby. I have seen them in the $50-$80 price range and look like they would do what you want.

Do you have separate router and dsl model?

[gmviso]

RSI, thanks for the suggestions.

No, this is a combination DSL modem and NAT router, but the configuration allows for disabling the router and the firewall, assuming that the configuration actually works. I say assuming it works, since I have port 80 configured for pass through but that isn't working.

[RSI]

You will probably have to forward a different port to 80. Most ISP's block port 80.

[Ridgekid]

Wow you did you GOOD! Your more computer savvy then me!

So you did get GMX to work? That's great. I had trouble with the Port for emails and controlbyweb found the correct one for me.

Keep in mind there is going to be a calibration capability in the next firmware update. Probably sometime at the beginning of the year. (just in case you need it)

I went with a 32GB Ipad2 wireless (no 3G) for home use. Sure beats using the Iphone at home. Yeah, I know no where in your price range. Bought mine at Radio Shack and got a $50 gift card for the purchase. A week later they upped it to $100 

Do you have plans to share your setup? I for one would like to see it!

Again, Congrats on your install!

[Ridgekid]

RSI is right. Port 80 is just too crowded. And is vulnerable to "bots and spiders" (so I've been told). I changed the ports for both my webcams and X300 and so far my firewall and anti-virus has not had to work to hard. CPU is quieter too.

(CPU is only issue for webcams not for X300)

[RSI]

RSI is right. Port 80 is just too crowded. And is vulnerable to "bots and spiders" (so I've been told). I changed the ports for both my webcams and X300 and so far my firewall and anti-virus has not had to work to hard. CPU is quieter too.

(CPU is only issue for webcams not for X300)

The reason they block it is to discourage hosting websites on your DSL or cable connection. Port 80 is what websites use.

[gmviso]

Yes, I have plans to document my install complete with pics. Still have a few things to do, including getting the garage heat hooked up which I hope to get done this week. BTW, I hand built the plenum for my heat exchanger. I am pretty proud of the work!

As for port 80, my ISP is not blocking it. My stupid modem has a an http server for configuration as most do. Problem is, that even when I configure it to only respond on my LAN, it still responds from the Internet and I get the configuration logon. It's a piece of crap!

I might try changing the port, but I am probably going to get a new router.

[RSI]

You are getting the router login on port 80? (or not adding any port to your IP)
They usually use something like 8050 for remote management. Did you turn that option off?
I would not turn the firewall off. You would be better off turning on DMZ and pointing it to the x-300's IP address.

[Ridgekid]

RSI-

FYI- The unit really doesn't require remote management once it setup. Just finding a way to get remote monitoring is the key.

Like I stated earlier in this link, trying to look at the X300 through a router via DNS address was a bottleneck for my router. Once I pointed my LAN based hardware (IE computer, IPAD and Iphone) to a LAN address the problem went away. I can still use my DNS address when I'm away.