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Duffy Residence
Project Description: New Construction: Plumbing, Radiant Heating, and Snow Melt at Lake Tahoe, California.
Boiler Plant: Two Weil McLain Ultra 230 boilers were installed as a heating plant in order to take advantage of load sharing and also to provide redundancy.
Radiant Heating System: The copper distribution piping was
sized to keep the fluid velocity below 5 ft/second. To provide
even heating, the tubing was laid in counter-flow spiral
patterns and the radiant pump was sized for a 10 degree
temperature drop.
Snow Melt System: The Snow Melt tubing was spaced on 9” centers and the system was designed to deliver 125 btu/sqft with a 20 degree temperature drop.
Domestic Hot Water System: The domestic hot water is heated off of the high efficient boilers through a Double-wall Flat Plate Heat Exchanger. The domestic hot water is stored in two 120 gallon storage tanks (with electric backup). The Flat Plate Heat Exchanger was sized to deliver the maximum output with both boilers firing at full fire.
Controls: The boilers are controlled and reset by a Tekmar
265 Modulating Boiler Controller. Erie VL500 zone controllers
control the zone valves. Aprilaire thermostats were installed
in the boiler room with remote in-wall sensors located in
each zone. A central setback thermostat was installed with
a home/away switch to allow the entire house to be easily
setback for extended periods of time. A Tekmar 090 snow/ice
sensor and Tekmar 665 control the snow melt system. A Tekmar
262 controller sequences and controls the boilers for domestic
hot water production. A pressure switch protects the boilers
and pumps from a low water situation, and a high limit aquastat
protects the radiant floors from a high temperature excursion.
Miscellaneous: The system was charged with 40% aluminum-safe glycol for freeze protection. An automatic glycol feeder was installed to make up water/glycol mixture to the system and thus ensure that the solution is kept at a 40% mixture.
Design Notes: The boiler piping and controls were set up
to maximize efficiency and redundancy. When there is a call
for domestic hot water, the Tekmar 262 fires the first boiler
to supply 190 degree water/glycol to the heat exchanger.
The boiler then: turns off its boiler heating pump; turns
on its domestic heating pump; and supplies 190 degree water/glycol.
If the domestic load is light, the first boiler will easily
handle the load while the other boiler continues to handle
the radiant and snow melt. If the domestic load is large,
the Tekmar 262 will call for the second boiler to deliver
heat to the domestic system. The advantages of this setup
are: 1) Either or both boilers can be used to heat domestic
hot water; 2) When only one boiler is heating domestic,
the second boiler can be operating at low temperatures and
thus be condensing and operating very efficiently.
Somers Loop
Project Description: New Construction: Plumbing, Radiant Heating, and Snow Melt at Lake Tahoe, California.
Boiler Plant: Two Weil McLain Ultra 230 boilers were installed as a heating plant in order to take advantage of load sharing and also to provide redundancy.
Radiant Heating System: The copper distribution piping was sized to keep the fluid velocity below 5 ft/second. To provide even heating, the tubing was laid in counter-flow spiral patterns and the radiant pump was sized for a 10 degree temperature drop.
Snow Melt System: The Snow Melt tubing was spaced on 9” centers and the system was designed to deliver 125 btu/sqft with a 20 degree temperature drop.
Domestic Hot Water System: The domestic hot water is heated off of the high efficient boilers through a Double-wall Flat Plate Heat Exchanger. The domestic hot water is stored in two 120 gallon storage tanks (with electric backup). The Flat Plate Heat Exchanger was sized to deliver the maximum output with both boilers firing at full fire.
Controls: The boilers are controlled and reset by a Tekmar 265 Modulating Boiler Controller. Erie VL500 zone controllers control the zone valves. Aprilaire thermostats were installed in the boiler room with remote in-wall sensors located in each zone. A central setback thermostat was installed with a home/away switch to allow the entire house to be easily setback for extended periods of time. A Tekmar 090 snow/ice sensor and Tekmar 665 control the snow melt system. A Tekmar 262 controller sequences and controls the boilers for domestic hot water production. A pressure switch protects the boilers and pumps from a low water situation, and a high limit aquastat protects the radiant floors from a high temperature excursion.
Miscellaneous: The system was charged with 40% aluminum-safe glycol for freeze protection. An automatic glycol feeder was installed to make up water/glycol mixture to the system and thus ensure that the solution is kept at a 40% mixture.
Design Notes: The boiler piping and controls were set up to maximize efficiency and redundancy. When there is a call for domestic hot water, the Tekmar 262 fires the first boiler to supply 190 degree water/glycol to the heat exchanger. The boiler then: turns off its boiler heating pump; turns on its domestic heating pump; and supplies 190 degree water/glycol. If the domestic load is light, the first boiler will easily handle the load while the other boiler continues to handle the radiant and snow melt. If the domestic load is large, the Tekmar 262 will call for the second boiler to deliver heat to the domestic system. The advantages of this setup are: 1) Either or both boilers can be used to heat domestic hot water; 2) When only one boiler is heating domestic, the second boiler can be operating at low temperatures and thus be condensing and operating very efficiently.
Lakeshore #1
Project Description: New Construction: Residential Plumbing, Radiant Heating, and Snow Melt for a home at Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Project Size: 10,500 ft2 3-Level Main House with a 3,000 ft2 Guest Wing and Garage.
Project Design Notes:
Main House Heating System: The Radiant Heating system for
the main house consisted of two Weil McLain CGa-8 Cast Iron
Boilers.
The Boilers were controlled and sequenced using a Tekmar
261 controller. In addition, Primary/Secondary Piping was
used with injection tempering the water for the radiant system.
Where possible the radiant tubing was installed in a reverse
spiral as shown in the photo at the right. The house was broken
into 20 zones using
zone valves. As a result, the secondary circulator was fairly
large, so a pressure bypass valve was installed to eliminate
noise and extend the life of the pump.
Main House Snow Melt System: A Teledyne Laars Mighty Max
625 was the boiler used for the snow melt system. A Tekmar
662 injection pump controller was used in conjunction with
a Tekmar 090 snow/ice sensor. The entire snow melt system
covered approximately 3200 ft2.
Guest Wing Heating and Snow Melt System: The heating system for the Guest Wing was also utilized for roof melting and a small area of snow melt on a deck. The heating plant consisted of a Weil McLain CGa-5 boiler equipped with Primary/Secondary Piping and injection for the Radiant and injection for the Snow Melt.