Another Dump Zone design

[dogwood]

Recently someone posted a question abut their overheat dump zone design, which looked somewhat similar to what I plumbed in recently. Some thought that design would not work well, which got me concerned about mine.

Attached is my design? The six full length horizontal lines represent 6 foot sections of 3/4 inch Slantfin baseboard. The vertical and other shorter black lines are 1 inch copper pipe. The verticals are teed off to the baseboard sections. There is an Automag (not shown) on the right leg, just above the Solo Innova. The whole thing is on a ten foot high wall directly behind the boiler.

Do you think it will work?

Mike

(Both pdf attachments are identical. Can't seem to delete one of them.)

 

[maple1]

I'd say it won't work as well as if all your slant fin were all overhead at the same elevation - most of the flow will tend to direct itself to the upper run.

But if you've already got it plumbed in like this, there's one sure way to see how good or bad it will perform.

 

[dogwood]

Maple1, I am just finishing up the last few plumbing details this weekend and am getting on to all the electrical and wiring next over the holidays. Soon as thats done I'll give it a test run. I think you might be right about most of the flow going to the top. If it doesn't function correctly as it is, my next move will be to pull off all the tees, and re-plumb the baseboards, where they are, into one continuous run, looping back and forth from top to bottom. A lot of work. It really doesn't pay to be ignorant about plumbing boilers. Thanks for you thoughts.

Mike

 

[Morgan]

It won't work as intended if they are stacked one on top of another vertically, the nature of gravity heat is it will want to rocket up to the top one or two elements (based on 1" main supply 3/4" rad), now if you were supply it vertically with say 1 1/2" or 2" pipe with 3/4 baseboard then your design has a chance of working. If it were me and I obviously have no clue what type of space your trying to fit this in, I would be trying to supply with a minimum of 1 1/4" preferably 1 1/2" copper pipe and would be trying to keep all elements at the same elevation, and using a reverse-return piping arrangement. This would be your most effective attempt and dumping BTUs out of your boiler in a no power/overheat situation. Remember 1" copper pipe can only carry about 75k BTU, 1 1/4" can 160K BTU and these numbers are used when pumping, not gravity feeding........

 

[dogwood]

Thanks for the advice Morgan. I've got roughly a 6 foot by 6 foot space I'm using for the dump zone.

Mike

 

[dogwood]

Does anyone think this design would work any better or at all?

 

[timberr]

Dogwood,

I just finished putting my dump zone together. I tested it and I would say it was a failure, I had 32 ft of 3/4" slant fin in a loop above my boiler after 45 min the temp hit 240* and I put an end to the test. Thermal siphon worked great but not enough slant fin, your plan calls for 36 ft I don't think 4 ft will make a difference.

Good Luck