PLUMBING WATER TO AIR EXCHANGER

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jimde

New Member
Hearth Supporter
May 27, 2009
71
Northeast WI
I am running my 1.25 inch thermopex through my basement wall about 4 feet down from the top of the wall and then sweeping it up to the floor trusses. At this point I have to convert to standard 1.25 piping ( either copper or pex ) to run another 25 feet to the forced air furnace. Also where I convert I have to tee into the line and run 30 feet to the left to the attached garage for a water to air exchanger in the garage. Does anyone have any plumbing opinions or options? Would it be better to tee in for the garage at the furnace instead?
 
I am no expert on this but it seems to me you will need a manifold of some type to handle this connection and the return for your system or you run to the main and then run to the garage in series . I would think you will want the option to heat the house and garage at different levels and even heat just the house so you want to have a way to control the flow independantly .
 
Tony H said:
I am no expert on this but it seems to me you will need a manifold of some type to handle this connection and the return for your system or you run to the main and then run to the garage in series . I would think you will want the option to heat the house and garage at different levels and even heat just the house so you want to have a way to control the flow independantly .

Agreed. With out some kind of zone valve or second circ for the garage your water supply will always want to take the path of least resistance. It might be 100% your garage or 100% your house, or a mix. Simply adding a tee inline will likely not provide the desired results. I'd build a manifold as soon as you enter the house. You could plumb your pumps right here as well. Run one pump for the house heat and one for the garage. Presto - independant zones...
 
If you decided to go with a "T" type installation with one pump, I would put balancing valves on both loops so you could control the flow to one zone or the other. I like Stee's idea with zone valves and two pumps.
 
Do you plan to run the pump from your outdoor boiler to the home continuously? If so you may be better of creating a primary loop from the boiler to the air/water exchanger. Then use two tees and second pump (controlled) to push water to a secondary zone such as your garage heat. That is a pretty good setup, but clearly not the only way. I find this to be a very simple and cost effective method.

-Kyle
 
I was not planning on continuous run. I have become over run with different options. I also like the dual pump.
 
I am running a similar set up and I just ran the line to my coil in my house furnace first and then out of that furnace over to garage furnace and then back to the boiler. I used copper once I got inside the basement and in the garage. I have one thermostat in the house and one in the garage going to relays to turn the pump on when either stat calls for heat and one relay in the furnace to turn the fan on when there is a call for heat.
 
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