Messing around in sketchup

[chewy]

Ok so I've been working with sketchup trying to wrap my head around how to plumb and install my gasser when I pull the trigger.

What I think I'll do is build a boiler room where my "free heat machine" sits. I hope to be able to use my existing pex lines in the new setup. I will be using water to air heat exchangers in both buildings at first, and probably do some panel rads down the road.

I'm really having a hard time figuring out where all of the pumps and valves and manifolds ect should go. I found an already designed piping diagram in 3d warehouse and even though I'd have to tweak it to fit my system, are all the parts on it there?

My house heat loss calc came to 90kbtu and the shop 50kbtu. I have 4- 1" lines to the house and 4- 1" lines to the shop. The house run is 150' and shop is 30'. I will get 2 500 gal propane tanks for storage and its my understanding that these tanks should go vertical? 1.25" pipe in and out of each tank top and bottom? Oversize or undersized the gasser?

Its like kicking a dead horse with me!
Ty in advance

Erin

 

[WmFritz]

Looks like your on your way. I know for me, I need something visual to go by.
How big is your boiler room?

 

[chewy]

Looks like your on your way. I know for me, I need something visual to go by.
How big is your boiler room?

12'x18' in the pic, but ill probably go a little bigger bc It's filling up fast.

Erin

 

[Coal Reaper]

i think yer gonna need a bigger expansion tank...
yes to vertical tanks if you can make it happen. i did 1-1/4" copper from boiler to tanks and 1-1/4" PEX from tanks to house. with storage, the size of the boiler will dictate how long it takes to charge the tanks and how many times you will need to reload.

 

[maple1]

Vertical if you have room for that. Or you can stack them horizontally if you don't have the room. Either way, get your tappings as close to the top & bottom as possible.

 

[Coal Reaper]

agreed, however i left about 4" off the bottom for crud to collect as my tanks had a decent amount of scale rust that i was certain i did not remove entirely. this should allow heavy bits of material to settle and not get sucked into the rest of the system. i also have a why strainer on the lines leaving the tanks.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/when-you-dont-notice-an-unplugged-hole-in-bottom-of-tank.106945/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/sending-500-gallon-tanks-verticle.107273/

 

[maple1]

I also used a Wye - likely should be considered essential, even though they have a fairly coarse mesh in them. For sediment collection purposes, I have one end of my horizontal tanks just a little higher than the other. Maybe a half inch? That end has the bottom outlet tapping. The other end has a small tapping for a drain valve - I don't really plan on any regular drainings though. The connection between top & bottom tanks is at the low end, so anything that comes out of the top tank & into the bottom tank should settle in the bottom tank at the low end. My tanks were fairly clean so I should be OK for dirt. All that also puts the top outlet tapping at the high point so I should always be drawing off the hottest water possible from storage too.

 

[chewy]

Can anyone create a list of items that is needed to do any gasser install?
I want to start watching Craigslist and ebay for boiler stuff.
Here's what I came up with

Water temp valve
Pump
Manifolds
Expansion tank

Erin

 

[Coal Reaper]

if you PM me your email address i can send you an excel sheet of most of the items i used