Exercise Your Dump Zones

In the spirit of learning from others mistakes, maybe this will help someone out.

Right in the middle of supper here tonight, the wind knocked the power out. This was about a half hour after I started my daily burn with the usual 1/3 or so starter load. Didn't pay any attention to the boiler since it handled this without a blip last year, and we were in the middle of a meal in the dark. So about another half hour later after I dug out the backup lights & while we were cleaning the kitchen up, I realized I was hearing some noises I shouldn't be hearing. So I tore downstairs to find things kind of warm - right about the boiling point at the top of the boiler. Long story short, and as far as I know, sometime between last year & tonight I had some air accumulate in the section of piping right at the top of the boiler that connects that to my upstairs zones with a NO zone valve in between. When the power dropped out & the valve opened, that released the air into my upstairs zones & airlocked them. Eventually and after a short period of 'oh crap', one finally started circulating with a bunch of gurgling. That kept the heat at bay, together with what was making it through my loading unit. I didn't really want to try to bleed anything then since our well tank only holds 5 gallons & we might have needed the water for something else & I didn't want to lose pressure on my system. The power finally came back on an hour ago, after which I spent a half hour getting the airlock out of my zones. That went in circles because on the first try, I pushed the air from one into the other.

Anyway, all is well again - except our 'hi-speed' internet is still out & I'm on dial up right now. The price for living in the woods, I guess. Time to go to bed anyway.

So - regular exercise from here on out.

This little episode has gotten me thinking to add a UPS for my loading unit. I've got a couple around here not being used but with dead batteries, think I'll dig them out & get them re-celled. One thing I do like is redundancy - thought I had lots but I guess you can't have too much.

BoilerMan said:

My thoughts exactly, I've had good luck with the Watts brass vents Made in Italy, just sweat in a baseboard T and screw in the vent in a high spot.

TS

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Another good idea on the vent there guys. I thought I had all my high spots covered with vents, but this little spot snuck up on me & it's not exactly a system high spot. But the location right at the top of the boiler I guess makes it a good air trap with it hardly ever seeing flow through.

Not too crazy about taking that particular piping section apart though - I'll likely get a vent & wait until the off-season.

I've been googling UPS stuff & batteries for a day or two. Not as simple as I was first thinking, if you don't want to just replace the batteries with what it came with. Issues with overheating on extended run times and extended charge times, off-gassing from non-SLA batteries, likely other things. Might just look for a deal on a new UPS. I did find some used 3000 units here (more than needed) that need new batteries, but new OEM-type batteries for it would be around $300. Yikes. Think I've ruled out what I was first thinking - wire one of my old UPSs up to a car battery.

I have a small APC Back-UPS 200, and have a line on a SU-3000. All with dead batteries. The 3000 is more than I need I think and new batteries here are close to $300 - but the 200 is pretty small. I can get the 3000 unit itself for next to nothing. Don't think I'm interested in ordering batteries on-line, in case there is an issue with them, and shipping/customs is usually a killer to get them north of the border. The only thing it would be running is the 15-58 on low, which is supposed to be 60w. Also have a CyberPower 450va that is getting long in the tooth, last time it was used it was OK but would likely need a re-cell as well. If I could run a 60w load for a couple hours that would likely cover me pretty good - 4 would be worst case (a full re-load on a hot boiler just before the power goes out). That's all with nobody home, which is rare in outage type weather. I've got a genny I could pull out if I had to, and a booster box that I keep charged. But that booster box has a light & radio so it gets setup front & centre in the livingroom when things go dark. Was thinking about just running the circ through another one of those, but I don't think it will charge while something is drawing power from it. (Can't find the darned manual).

Think first I'll just change my loading circuit wiring so it plugs into a receptacle, then maybe just try the CyperPower on it & see what happens.