Hydronic Forced Air Unit Sizing

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Jan 17, 2011
57
NE, Ohio
Search results turned up nothing so I figured I would start a thread. I found a deal on a Hyrdonic Forced Air Unit but the problem is it is way bigger than I need.

Specs state 220,000 BTU's hr at 200° Water with other ambient environment conditions.

Clearly overkill for my shop that has a heat loss of 60,000 BTU/hr.

Can I still use it successfully to heat although I understand if I ran it full bore - it would have to make sure my mixing is set right on the return line on the boiler.

I'm hoping I can use it for the balance of the season then use it next year in my 40X60 Addition.
 
I want to heat my shop with it.. I found a great deal on a unit that has 220,000 BTU output but it is way oversize for the current size but would be good for future shop. I want to check to make sure I'm not running into other issues I'm not aware of if I use it now.
 
Hyrdonic Forced Air Unit

Do you mean a furnace style (with a cabinet mounted blower) or a unit heater (propeller fan mounted behind a coil)? Either way, it would probably work fine. Using an oversized unit would just mean that it's going to cycle on less often.
 
I have an oversized unit heater that I got for cheap, it had a large horsepower fan on it, I swapped out the fan with a smaller diameter fan and blanked off the opening to match. It puts out a lot less heat but the circulation around the basement is not as good. A variable speed drive would be the ticket but single phase VF drives are rare
 
Should be no problem. Worst thing it's going to do is short cycle.
 
You can also run lower water Temps like 140-160. What size boiler do you have? I have a 60000 or 80000 btu modine in my garage that will bring my boiler temp from 185 to 170 in a hurry. It does recover fairly quick unless there are multiple zones calling in the house.
 
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