Help with piping/pump sizes

[Blevesque]

Sorry for not posting last night, my internet is down at the house. Yes 1 1'2" pipe will be fine it will handle almost 25 gpm before you start having velocity issues. Is this going to be your only source of heat. I think this is way more complicated then it really needs to be. I'm doing another drawing give me a little while.

 

[Piker]

It will be my only source until i can afford to put in a propane boiler...

Thanks for helping... I really can't hardly handle thinking on this any more... I think I will probably go with Nofossil's solution. Looks pretty simple and low cost.

If you look at nofossils drawing, what pump would you recommend for the wood boiler circ? I will have 5 zones with a total load of about 100,000 Btu's/hr. The biggest zone being about 30,000 Btu's

 

[Nofossil]

It will be my only source until i can afford to put in a propane boiler...

Thanks for helping... I really can't hardly handle thinking on this any more... I think I will probably go with Nofossil's solution. Looks pretty simple and low cost.

If you look at nofossils drawing, what pump would you recommend for the wood boiler circ? I will have 5 zones with a total load of about 100,000 Btu's/hr. The biggest zone being about 30,000 Btu's

In the 'simplest pressurized storage' system, the wood boiler circ is based on the output of the wood boiler, not on the heat load from the zones. Good rule of thumb: 1 gpm for every 10,000 BTU/hr at a 20 degree rise. Since the loop through storage should be very low head loss, you probably don't need a huge circulator.

The load circulator can be even smaller. Again, it should be sized based on the desired temperature drop and the heat load of the zones.

 

[Piker]

I was thinking of using a grundfos ups26-99fc for the boiler circ pump... and a ups15-58fc for the load circ. All main loop piping will be 1.5" copper.

I also have a question... on the simplest pressurized storage system, what is the little box above the right hand side of the upper storage tank on the main supply line.

trying to get some part numbers ready this weekend so I can start plumbing next week.
thanks

 

[SteveJ]

Piker,

The little box in the main supply line between the expansion tank and the storage tank (left side?) is an air separator. This was the only unlabeled symbol I could find.

The only omission (for clarity) I know of on the schematic is the boiler feed with backflow preventer and reducing valve.

nofossil has all of his symbols defined at http://www.nofossil.org/heating.html

Steve

 

[Piker]

I need to ask why there doesn't need to be either a soleniod valve or a zone valve in about the same location as the air seperator. Without one, when the wood boiler circ is off (I am not installing an oil boiler) the load circ could theoretically pull cold water through the return lines and through the wood boiler itself. Is this true? or am i missing something?

 

[Nofossil]

I need to ask why there doesn't need to be either a soleniod valve or a zone valve in about the same location as the air seperator. Without one, when the wood boiler circ is off (I am not installing an oil boiler) the load circ could theoretically pull cold water through the return lines and through the wood boiler itself. Is this true? or am i missing something?

It is a potential problem called 'ghost flow'. As drawn, the direction of the tees discourages this, and the pressure loss for flow through storage should be much less than for pulling flow through the spring loaded check valve that's in the wood boiler circ. A zone valve would add a lot of flow resistance to the wood boiler loop - they have very small orifices. Some have suggested adding another high-flow weighted check valve - probably not a bad idea to be safe.