1st Post- New Construction- Outdoor Boiler

[rubicon1]

Hello All!!

I have been reading daily on your forum for a while now and was wondering if there are some of you out there that could help me. I have recently purchased some ground in Illinois with the plans of building a shed and then making a home in part of the shed till I get some things paid off. I was hoping to heat a 30'x 30' area with radiant heating in a 6" slab which would serve as my garage/workshop. Also, I was hoping to heat the house part which is going to be 30' x30' 2-story with a heat exchanger coil and forced air because I will also need air conditioning in the summer, also I would like to have the DHW provided. I have read so much information on here about different boilers and the such and after thinking about all of them I think that the Garn would be the best way to go because of the included storage and the possibility of being able to heat an additional house eventually. My question to you is what is the best way to plumb all of this? Boiler-DHW(primary) House-Garage(secondary)?

 

[heaterman]

I'd recommend that you isolate all your loads from any type of open system with a plate type HX. You'll eliminate the chances of problems caused by sludge buildup that normally occurs in an unsealed vessel and pipng. While it's true that you can chemically treat the system water to avoid this problem, you can't avoid the issues involved with air in your system piping. This would be especially true if you have a two story structure or an elevation change from the boiler to your heat emitters.

Regarding the slab, make sure you use at least 1 1/2" EPS foam (Dowboard or other equivalent) under your cement. 2" foam would be preferable if you're going 6" thick on the slab. Concrete has an R-value of about 1 per inch. EPS foam is R-5 per inch so you can easily see that in order to focus the heat upward you need a greater R-value below the tube than above it. Please do not even consider the bubble foil stuff. You may as well use nothing at all as waste your money on that product.