Pipe burst and wood heat

[egclassic]

If using a closed system with anti-freeze, does anyone know (plumbers) if there very small losses of water, maybe through the pressure valves? My water feed is always on, which i assumed is the way it should be done. When i first purchased my house and the heat needed to be checked, the plumber filled the system and then left the feed water off. I did get some air in my pipes, but not much. I dont have any leaks in the system, i assumed it wasnt purged correctly.

The feed should always be on to the system, for make-up. I'm not sure about where you live, but here in Ohio, any system with antifreeze must have a backflow on the supply as well. That's assuming it has Propylene glycol, not ethylene, then it's a whole new game.

 

[cdaryl]

Actually as a licensed HVAC tech in connecticut, I leave the feeder off on all the buildings I take care of because if it continues to feed fresh water you have now diluted and raised your burst temp to closer to freezing. It is easier to monitor loop pressure and add the glycol as needed, I will add that all the equipment I take care of has low water cutoffs. If you don't have a lwco I would leave the feed on because cold water and real hot cast or steel just don't mix.

 

[remkel]

Don't run into this problem-my basement is 90 degrees and the zone over the garage cycles every so often as it is the furthest point in the house from the stove.

I stay as far away from plumbing as I can-we just do not see eye to eye, so I will leave the advice to the experts here.

 

[bridgerman]

Will the bear mountain design solution work for 5 zones?

I have 4 zones in my house in Montana and I had my pipes freeze and burst while I was away on a business trip with my mother watching the house and the kids. They had no idea what to do and the finished basement flooded until my well went dry trying to recharge the heating system. After $4000 worth of repairs, I designed the ThermGuard product. It will take all the headaches out of getting up to cycle some water through your system. You can easily set it to send 2 minutes worth of water every couple of hours for instance. It hooks right to your thermostat with just two wires. You can't hook it up wrong since the wires are interchangeable.

You don't need the cost or downside of putting antifreeze in your system. When you don't want it to run, just turn it off. ThermGuard remembers your settings so it is ready to go when you turn it on again.

As far as 5 zones goes, I just have two on my 4 zone boiler system. The two zones that run close to an outside wall and over an unheated garage. So you may not need 5 units. I have also attached a diagram that shows how to hook one ThermGuard to a multi-pole relay. The example shows connection to 4 zones with one ThermGuard.

ThermGuard also helps people who have furnaces because you can program ThermGuard to cycle the indoor fan periodically to even out the temperature inside the home. No more living rooms that are too hot and bedrooms that are too cold. In this thread a mobile home was also mentioned. The domestic water pipes usually run inside the heating ducts. You need to have a product like ThermGuard periodically turn on the furnace to put warm air through the ducts to keep the water supply from freezing up.

I will be happy to answer any questions that might arise. I appreciate all the support from this site and I hope ThermGuard can solve a very serious problem for everyone who heats with an alternative fuel and has a boiler system.

Cheers,
John