Open Storage with external heat Exchangers - The Guru weighs in

[peakbagger]

John Siegenthaler's thoughts on storage tanks in general and open storage tanks.

Plumbing & Mechanical Engineer

Image courtesy of: Rifky Rachman Safri (iStock / Getty Images Plus) Comprehensive source for engineers and designers: Plumbing, piping, hydronic, fire protection, and solar thermal systems.

www.pmengineer.com

 

[SpaceBus]

If you keep it up I'll have to buy a subscription!

 

[peakbagger]

Last thing I knew it was free to subscribe .

 

[tom in maine]

I think on really large heating loads, over 200k btus, plate hx might make economic sense, but from a strictly cost perspective, I think CSST coils are a fair bit less expensive for loads under 150k.
Maybe I am biased, but coils eliminate some pumps and hardware, which are not necessarily a cheap date.

Having said this, we just had to raise prices on our products. Steel and everything else just continues to creep up in cost. We absorbed as much as we could before doing so.
Pricing pumps scares the hell out of me.
Last winter I changed over my system to 12VDC Gorman Rupp circulators to see how things worked (it is what I do!). They are quiet and have about the same performance as 007s. I started with some Chinese pumps with similar specs. They worked but were too noisy for me. Not crazy loud, but audible. We have been using different Chinese pumps with solar heating systems, operating off PVs. Some were great, some were awful, failing prematurely.
The Gorman pumps have been great. No issues even if i did something stupid like forgetting to open a valve and having the pump dead head against it for a couple days.
If we put the house up for sale, I am going to have some explaining to do...

 

[peakbagger]

I agree Tom. One thing John S has never been blamed for is quick and dirty installs. I expect when he is consulting on installs his competitors can always figure a way of doing it for less. My guess is he makes more money diagnosing and repairing systems that are were not built right to begin with.

I think anyone with a wood boiler system with storage has a lot of explaining to do to a future purchaser. Every system is custom and my experience is the local heating techs used to a oil boiler and a couple of zone pumps and valves do not want to mess with wood boilers as they didnt get the training and are paid on volume of work. My guess is many of the "free" wood boilers over the years are from systems that were abandoned by the installing dealer. Is your Jetstream project from an orphaned install ? My installation concept was to make the wood boiler and storage easily removable. If the control panel is not powered up the oil boiler works just like a normal boiler. My guess is a couple of hours to disconnect the piping and a handfull of wire nuts to restore the wiring. I could have the wood boiler out of the basement in about four hours and expect the AST tank would go out in another 3 or 4 hours.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@peakbagger that is the way I am setup too, only the wood boiler and storage are in the garage, the only thing inside would be disconnecting the DHW loop and the removing the WAHX

 

[tom in maine]

My Jetstream was removed from service about 25 years ago and sat in a garage in Carmel, Maine until last October when I picked it up. I am going to use it for my shop. Need to put a small boiler room up for it. It is in pretty good shape.