NRTRob or Others – Boiler Advice?
Proposal for garage / shop radiant slab “kit” has an option I don’t know anything about. I will talk to the folks who are proposing, but would like your opinion. For $1100 they offer Caleffi manifolds with “full modulation and ball valves for each loop; thermostats; thermo-electric actuators.” in place of copper. Can you tell me anything about all that?
Munchkin Contender with Vision One and outside temp reset is the boiler setup. I know zilch about boilers, am relying on other’s expertise. Is this a decent setup?
Thanks for any and all imput.
PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.
Replies
How many zones/rooms in said shop?
Three
Main shop, (ooops, make that garage for the city's sake) 1740 ft.
Garage, 1000 ft.
Bathroom- warm storage, 110 ft.PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
Three zones, three zone valves serving three manifolds. Sometimes simple can be best.
Each loop doesn't always need a valve.
Flow meters are definitely nice, but the real question is here is how many loops are in each zone? If 3 or less, the actuator route usually makes sense. If more, then zone valving individual manifolds makes more sense, unless this would jack up your manifold feed lengths (and costs) a lot.
contender is a fine choice... vision 1 is a fine choice but be aware with outdoor reset only (such as this system would have) you'll get very good efficiency and consistency as long as you ARE NOT CHANGING THE ROOM TEMPERATURE. If you fiddle with the thermostats, it takes longer to change temperature with outdoor reset. This is not normally a problem unless you are a "weekend warrior" in the garage/shop and want to keep it cooler the rest of the week.
However, I strongly discourage DIY'ers from installing any heat appliance, never mind a mod/con boiler. I doubt you have the tools and the expertise to set it up well and to do it safely. Have a pro provide and install a heat source they can actually fix if something goes wrong. a mod/con is a fine choice if you are serving a real heat load here, and with three shop zones I imagine you are.
Best of luck!
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