Tankless Water Heater For Floor Heat

[washboy222]

I do, I have 6 self serve 2 autos plus exit and entrance aprons for the autos. Yes it would be for pressurizing the heaters. All of my zones are plumbed together under slab, all I have access to are 2" piping out and return. My circulation pump is a large 2" taco not sure of model.
If I had to do it over I would have used the units you used. The stainless venting was expensive.
It will be easier to use the two 0013 in series, plumbing those in with 3/4" will be easier than soldering the 2" to one pump. I already had to make hot and cold manifolds out of 2" and reducing to 3/4".
Thanks again for posting this it has been a great help.

 

[2Biz]

I'm wondering how you get even distribution if you don't have individual zone valves? Each of my bays and trough have a different valve to regulate flow. My furthest bay (Truck Bay) is full on and the rest are graduated accordingly. Seems to work ok. Do you have any problems with hot/cold spots?

2" is pretty big and I'm sure it is fun to solder! My original manifold and plumbing was 1-1/2" copper. I decided to use 1" when I found out it would flow 40 gpm @ 40psi. I only needed 16 gpm, so 1" was plenty. Lots easier to work with.

Good luck with your project...

 

[2Biz]

Woke up to some snow this morning. The new floor heat is still saving lots of $$$ compared to the old dinosaur.....

 

[cantbreak80]

2Biz,
You should post that pic on E-bay. Some "American Picker" type might offer you enough money for that 7UP sign to pay your natural gas bill for the next decade!

 

[2Biz]

So if that sign comes up missing, I'll know what happened to it, right???? I wonder what its worth, its probably 35-40 years old. Its still in good shape. Kind of amazing actually.

I've often thought about re-furbing the sign. Who knows how long ago the balast went out....I could always install my LED Rope Light invention to get it lit again!

 

[2Biz]

2015 Coldest Month Numbers Are In

Date Range: Feb. 11th thru March 12th (29 days in Billing Cycle)

Temperatures:
21 days Max. temp was below 32°
29 days Min. temp was below 32°
19 days Min. Temp was below 15°
7 days Min. temp was below zero
Coldest night was -15°

NG usage in this billing cycle was 449ccf for a total of $440. The floor heat ran 100% of the time below 33°. I also added a 199K btu NG Water Heater that I didn’t have last winter. This usage includes the floor heat, 199K btu WH, 40K btu ceiling furnace, 2 burner wall heater that I run 1 burner below freezing and 2 burners below 15°…

One thing I did this year was lower my return glycol temp by 2°. That changed the amount of "ON" time the demand heater was seeing while still keeping the bays ice free. Its on the "Edge"! Even adding the WH and my total was less than last year with similar temps.

Very doable considering the bad winter we had…

Anybody else see the same results with similar setups?

 

[sparkey]

2Biz, I am in the need of a new floor heat setup. I read this thread a long time ago and was wondering how your boiler has been working for you? Has it still been trouble free? How many winters have you been running this now?

 

[2Biz]

Getting rid of the old Jarco was the best things I did at the wash. The new Takagi has 3 winters under its belt and has been flawless. See post 126 for the stats of the worst month it had to go through. It kept the floors ice free even down to -15°. Its one of those things you don't have to micro manage...Set it to come on at 32° and forget it. It doesn't break the bank when it runs!

 

[2Biz]

The price has actually came down on the Takagi I settled on. I think I paid $1500....It is down to $1098 now....A bonus for anyone going this route. Or for me if mine ever goes bad!

http://www.supplyhouse.com/Takagi-T...ss-High-Efficiency-Condensing-Water-Heater-NG

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I did the same project, replaced my 25-30 year old floor heat boiler with Takagi instantaneous, and at the same time replaced my water heater with a Takagi + an HTP superstor ultra. I was starting my project right about when 2biz was finishing his, this thread was helpful to me, thanks for that.

It's been working great, I am very glad I did it.
Results from last winter (actually september thru may) compared to the prior year:

............................. HDD Gas CCF Gas $ CCF/HDD
Sept 2014 - May 2015 4555 2532 $2,647 0.556
Sept 2015 - May 2016 3360 868 $786 0.258

HDD = Heating Degree Days
That represents a 54% reduction/savings in gas usage adjusted for HDD. Yes I recognize that it was a warmer winter (lower HDD) so its not quite apples to apples, but its close enough to make me quite happy with the result.
The takagis are quiet, efficient, and I've had no issues at all with them so far.

 

[sparkey]

Its time to give an update on the Takagi T-H3-DV install. It wasn't without issue. Long story as short as I can tell it...Got some bad advice from a Takagi Technician. He suggested a Taco 009 pump to supply the boiler. Doing so only yielded 2.5-3.0 gallons a minute through the boiler at any temp setting. Way too low..

So I went back to the drawing board and did my own calculations...What I came up with required (2) Taco 013 circulators in series to get the necessary head pressure or PSI that the boiler needed for maximum flow (About 40 psi). Lots cheaper and safer than a rotary pump or multi stage pump. I'm thinking they could require a regulator and additional bypassing to make them work in this application.

After installing the new pumps, I am getting double the flow and close to the advertised flows. 70° temp rise is yielding 6 gpm...70° inlet temp-140° outlet temp...But after running the boiler for about an hour, the flow starts to decrease. The culprit is in the tiny screen filter at the inlet to the boiler. It is extremely fine mesh and very small. Its possible when I ran the cleaning solution through the system, It wasn't completely dissolved (It was granular and needed dissolved in hot water). SO cleaning the filter gets it back to the correct flow. I've got a 5 micron filter coming to run between the service ports to help clean the glycol. Hopefully this will resolve the remaining issue...Here are some pics of the install....

Before with (1) pump....

After with (2) pumps supplying pressure to the boiler...

40 PSI Supply pressure after installing (2) pumps.

I just installed this same setup at my wash. I am having constant problems with the small filter screen plugging up on inlet to the on demand heater. Sometimes it will run for a day, sometimes it plugs up in a few hours. What filter did you end up buying to put inline with your heater, and is the 5 micron screen the ideal size?

 

[2Biz]

Here's the one I used with a 5 micron filter.

https://www.dultmeier.com/products/search/8942

I had purchased and used a powdered line cleaner and didn't dissolve it properly. I should have used Hot water...After plugging up the small inlet filter several times, I installed the prefilter between the service ports and let run for a day or two. Its been fine ever since.

Did you install the service ports with a shutoff ball valve in between? See pictures above. I have 2 service ports that I connected the prefilter to. Shutting off the ball valve between the ports forces the glycol through the filter.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I just installed this same setup at my wash. I am having constant problems with the small filter screen plugging up on inlet to the on demand heater. Sometimes it will run for a day, sometimes it plugs up in a few hours. What filter did you end up buying to put inline with your heater, and is the 5 micron screen the ideal size?

I use a filter similiar to the one 2biz linked to, but I got one with a clear bowl so I can easily see if there is anything in it necessitating a filter change.

 

[2Biz]

Just to be clear. I haven't had to run the prefilter since I had to use it when I started the system up for the first time. Its been fine without it for the last 4 years. I still get 6.6 to 7.0 gallons a minute avg. through the heater based on the heater display reading.

 

[sparkey]

Just to be clear. I haven't had to run the prefilter since I had to use it when I started the system up for the first time. Its been fine without it for the last 4 years. I still get 6.6 to 7.0 gallons a minute avg. through the heater based on the heater display reading.

Thanks, I am going to try a whole house water filter filter for a while and see if it fixes it.