Zone valves with Δ T circulator Vs circulator pump on every zone

[iceguy4]

At this point I have 6 circulators on my primary house 5 heat/ one HW maker. (taco 007 I think and a taco6 zone controller. I just added a Taco Δ T circulator set to 20° . and 3 zones in an additional building 28' away. (the reason I purchased the pellet boiler) I kind of like thee latter. do you think its worth the $ to switch to valves for my house with a Δ T circulator keeping a dedicated circulator for HW?...OR switch 2 of my circulators(small zones...heat up fast...cast iron) to "bumble bee" circulators.??

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

What's your reasoning?

 

[iceguy4]

What's your reasoning?

simple...less power...more efficient.... I have at least 2 zones that are very small with cast iron radiators and DEEP setback thermostats. when they are in recovery, my Δ T is very low yet the pump keeps pumping full speed. At the least I need to switch to bumble bee circulators.... thoughts

 

[maple1]

I have no experience with Delta T pumps & the bumblebee, but I replaced my 3 speed 15-58 circ with an Alpha circ (Delta P) earlier this summer (have 4 heating zones and 1 sidearm zone). This thing is great. It ramps up & down as zones open & close - and you don't even have to wire the zone valve end switches to it. Just plug it into 120, and it ramps up & down by itself as it senses valves opening & closing. If you want more or less flow to certain zones, you could throttle ball valves on individual zones to tune them in. Plus, it uses very little electricity - and has a neat digital display.

I've got mine set on the lowest setting, and haven't seen it's display over mid-20's in Watts it's using. When just my sidearm circuit is active, it only uses 11, at 1gpm. I guess it would be up to you to justify the expense of the ripping & tearing that would be involved to do what you want, along with the cost of zone valves - but I do know that muliple zone valves with one Alpha is a sweet setup.

 

[BoilerMan]

Do some math and see what the cost/benefit ratio is. A 007 uses .71A or 85 watts, you need to calculate or make an educated guess how many pumps run and for how long on a daily basis. If you have some small zones you may be able to group them together from one 007 and valve them from there, hybrid system.

How old are the 007s? You may be able to replace all of them with one Bee and use 6 zone valves. You also would need to replace the Taco switching relay with a ZV control. You'd be looking at least $900 in materials that's if you do the install yourself.

FWIW, I've had great luck with Caleffi Z-One zone valves. Can't say the same for others.
TS

 

[maple1]

Time for a possibly stupid question.

Would ZV control be needed?

If there are 24v stats there now for each zone, could you just wire each stat to each ZV (assuming they're 24v too), plug your new circ in, and be good to go? Do the Bumblebees need a start signal from a ZV control? The Alpha doesn't, from what I can tell with mine.

Then you could swap out 007s for ZVs, buy one new circ, and sell your 007s & switching relay to curb costs. If you wanted. If possible. With some plumbing work & a bit of re-wiring.

I guess that was more than one.

 

[iceguy4]

Would ZV control be needed?

No the zone valve controller is not necessary...but there cool looking

 

[DZL_Damon]

Alpha delta p pump is less expensive than Delta t pump. Set it slow, 1gpm is hardly less but/ft in baseboard than 4gpm. I draw 9 watts circling my main zone at 1gpm. 17 watts or less for 2 zones at 3 gpm. Sentra zone valves draw no power after their move.