If house and storage are cold. must you heat storage before house or can house be plumed easily to h
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I plumbed my heat zone to have priority over my storage. No fancy controls required - simply install the inputs and outputs from your heat zones "before" the tanks. I would be one cold wood burner if I didn't have it setup this way...on the days I'm feeling lazy and let my tanks dip a bit too far down.
There are a couple of stickies in this forum that discuss piping strategies. Both allow house-first priority. Half the reason for storage is to absorb extra heat that the house doesn't need.
If momma's butt is cold and it's because your heating the tank and not her hang on. It's not hard to do, check out those stickies and make one work for your plan.
all of our drawings (available on our website) that show storage allow for the house to be the priority and the tank to absorb any heat not being used by the house. As others have suggested, this is definitely the way to go. Having to wait for your tank to come up to temperature before you get any heat from your wood boiler is a major pita and not necessary.
Chris
Chris
pipe it so it has all the options. Any or all the loads should prioritize the tank loading.
Pick the loads off in order of importance. Many prioritize DHW first. Use enough pump and pipe size to get this job done quickly. Generally heat zones can be off for 20 minutes while DHW gets satisfied.
Generally with enough horsepower you can handle more than one load at a time. But also you want the ability to cover loads and the tank at the same time IF the energy is available to do this.
Ideally you want to send the coolest possible return to the boiler, above condensing (dew point) of course. This is where the delta T circulator on the boiler loop plays so well. it allows just the exact amount of flow (via temperature monitoring) to the boiler to keep it out of trouble. Other smart circulators, or differential controls, or setpoint control can determine what other loads can be handled at the same time.
I think the biggest challenge is getting all the controls on the same page. Building a platform on which they can communicate properly. Check with NoFo on that, seems to be his passion. Not many installers, even the pros, get that part of the puzzle optimized.
Even though wood heat is "free" no reason not to harness it as efficiently as possibly. Distribution efficiency and insulation efficiency should be planned and budgeted into your design.
hr
Pick the loads off in order of importance. Many prioritize DHW first. Use enough pump and pipe size to get this job done quickly. Generally heat zones can be off for 20 minutes while DHW gets satisfied.
Generally with enough horsepower you can handle more than one load at a time. But also you want the ability to cover loads and the tank at the same time IF the energy is available to do this.
Ideally you want to send the coolest possible return to the boiler, above condensing (dew point) of course. This is where the delta T circulator on the boiler loop plays so well. it allows just the exact amount of flow (via temperature monitoring) to the boiler to keep it out of trouble. Other smart circulators, or differential controls, or setpoint control can determine what other loads can be handled at the same time.
I think the biggest challenge is getting all the controls on the same page. Building a platform on which they can communicate properly. Check with NoFo on that, seems to be his passion. Not many installers, even the pros, get that part of the puzzle optimized.
Even though wood heat is "free" no reason not to harness it as efficiently as possibly. Distribution efficiency and insulation efficiency should be planned and budgeted into your design.
hr
Rugar said:
Use a circulator (or zone valve) zone control board like Taco makes and tie your main house thermostat (or whatever) into the priority zone. When it satisfies everything else will run.
Also consider a "time out" function on the DHW priority load. In the event the boiler gets stuck on a priority load you don't want to freeze up the home. I believe tekmar and others have this feature, which reverts the system back to heating after a pre-determined time period.
hr
hr
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