Poor Mans Balancing Valve????

[ejhills]

I've been starring at this plumbing for months and think that I've finally discovered the purpose.

I appear to have an extra pump / aqua stat on my wood boiler. Tonight I think it is plumbed to be a mixing valve of sorts.

Any suggestions or interpretations of the attached drawing would be appreciated.

Ed

Oops... I inverted some pumps...

Here is more detail.

 

[Nofossil]

I've been starring at this plumbing for months and think that I've finally discovered the purpose.

I appear to have an extra pump / aqua stat on my wood boiler. Tonight I think it is plumbed to be a mixing valve of sorts.

Any suggestions or interpretations of the attached drawing would be appreciated.

Ed

Oops... I inverted some pumps...

Here is more detail.

Could you provide a bit more to help explain the drawing?

Without a key and flow directions, I'm lost. Why is a thermostat shown on what I'm assuming is a pipe?

 

[Nofossil]

All right, I'm totally baffled. Does it work?

 

[ejhills]

It works on the Main Pump side.

And I shut valves 3 and 4 to keep the kitchen running against the instructions.

Valve 1 and 2 are always open.

Valve 5 seems to be completely pointless.

When the power fails the solenoid opens and dumps to the kitchen. But without power, why is the pump there?

Under power, if the boiler goes over 200 it dumps to the main pump.

Perhaps the solenoid was a check valve in a previous life. I still can't explain the extra aqua stat and pump. It's almost as if a battery backup supply is missing.

Would it make sense to remove the Selenoid and use the mystery aquastat as a balancing valve?

Color me confused...

 

[Tony H]

What are the 2 circular lines ? The one by the valves and the one in the main loop are they the loads ? It looks like valves 1-4 form a double bypass and valve 5 allows water to go thru the wood boiler when the oil is running but if it was left open it would allow hot water to bypass the load when running the wood boiler.
I am no plumber but it seems like an uncommon setup to me. Maybe this is the work of a brillant but deranged master plumber and upon further investigation you will find some fo pipes go nowhere and have no water in them ......

 

[ejhills]

ahyup, thats the electrician in me saying a laod.