I have a home on Long Island NY and am considering buying a pellet stove to supplement my oil bill. My home doesn't have a basement so my heating pipes are in the slab. How can I prevent my pipes from freezing since the circulator will hot be running as long?
I am concerned about my pipes freezing in a slab home if I burn a pellet stove, how can I prevent th
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There are a lot of variables to consider in order to gauge the risk of freezing. So far this winter on LI, I think the mercury dipped to 10 degrees just twice or 3 times. Sounds like you live in/near the Levittown area where houses built in the late 40's/early 50's were built on a slab with radiant floor pipes embedded in the concrete an inch or so below the surface. If the pellet stove location and BTU output is sufficient to keep the farthest room at least 55 degrees, then I gotta think that it would be hard for those pipes to freeze.
On the other hand, $70 for the Thermguard would give you peace of mind. That would do the trick by turning on your circulator periodically (every hour or so) for a few minutes to heat up the water in the pipes. Not sure if it's compilable with the 120V thermostat that your house would have come with, but most homes probably have upgraded to 24VAC or Milivolt thermostats as part of boiler upgrades.
Does your boiler have a tankless coil for domestic hot water? If it does then the Thermguard will add negligible running time to your boiler since it's always up to heat to provide hot water.
Good luck.
On the other hand, $70 for the Thermguard would give you peace of mind. That would do the trick by turning on your circulator periodically (every hour or so) for a few minutes to heat up the water in the pipes. Not sure if it's compilable with the 120V thermostat that your house would have come with, but most homes probably have upgraded to 24VAC or Milivolt thermostats as part of boiler upgrades.
Does your boiler have a tankless coil for domestic hot water? If it does then the Thermguard will add negligible running time to your boiler since it's always up to heat to provide hot water.
Good luck.
I'd say no to this idea. While it does work, the cost to have it put into the system, plus the problem of clean-up if it ever does leak, makes me against it.Pat10 said:
Much simpler idea is the ThermGuard. I have one, and love it.....5 minutes to install.
Does anyone know if the Thermogaurd will work in conjunction with a zone valve controller?
My heating system is forced hot water consisting of 4 zones with one circulator.
I have an Argo AZ4CP Zone Valve Controller (4 heat zones & one Priority zone) and I'm wonder whether the Thermogaurd will work with a zone valve controller? Does anyone have any experience with this scenerio?
Here's a link to the Zone Valve Controller.
http://www.argoindustries.com/product_detail.asp?key=67
My heating system is forced hot water consisting of 4 zones with one circulator.
I have an Argo AZ4CP Zone Valve Controller (4 heat zones & one Priority zone) and I'm wonder whether the Thermogaurd will work with a zone valve controller? Does anyone have any experience with this scenerio?
Here's a link to the Zone Valve Controller.
http://www.argoindustries.com/product_detail.asp?key=67
Glosta said:
Glosta, I think it will, but just to make sure, send a PM about it to the inventor/owner of the company....forum name "bridgerman".
His name is John Bridgerman.
Pat10 said:
That's what generators are for. The OP was asking about freezing pipes even when the power is on.
Glosta said:
ThermGuard will work with a multi-zone controller. It is designed to control both relays such as those in zone controllers, and it can directly drive the motors contained in zone valves such as those made by Honeywell. Recently, I tested a ThermGuard driving some kind of new zone valves that open very slowly...kind of driven by heating a small actuator and ThermGuard passed that test as well.
Please ask if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
John
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