AA 130 M Restoration and Installation

I'm still seeing remnants of the rice coal ash coming out into the ash tub that I used when lighting her up. Given that, I'm gonna guess that the ash, fire, and fresh coal layers haven't settled completely into their routine quite yet.

McGiever wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 10, 2019 9:35 am

Since deciding on fin tube bb in the Salon, how will constant circ on buried loop work then?
On demand DHW stll needs that constant circ...

Things are constantly evolving as we go.. there will be a sink and toilet only in the salon, we've decided to not put a shower in. So given that, I was thinking that an undersink 2 gallon electric water heater would be the perfect solution. It would basically be used for hand washing, wash cloth rinsing and the like, which wouldn't require much hot water at a time. The under sink heater I looked at is about 2 gallons with recovery time of 20 minutes, 1440 watts using 120 volts.

This solution would also eliminate the need for the AA to run 365 days a year and fix the issue of needed constant circulation. I'll want some down time during the summer for maintenance and such..

Primary secondary loop in salon...

So on a Salon bb heat call then pushes half the water content of buried piping through bb first and then the entire water content of buried piping back into the AA all at one time?

In my experience DHW alone isn't enough load to result in good looking ash. Your ash will get lighter and look much better once some more serious load is added.

McGiever wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 10, 2019 10:03 am

So on a Salon bb heat call then pushes half the water content of buried piping through bb first and then the entire water content of buried piping back into the AA all at one time?

Yeah... I might want to see how many gallons that'll be. The water in the insulated pex loop should hold it's heat for a little while, shouldn't it?


My first piece of gadetry.. monitoring hot water after the tempering valve.

CapeCoaler wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 10, 2019 9:55 am

Primary secondary loop in salon...

Can that be achieved with zone valves triggered by thermostat in the salon?

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Sat. Nov. 09, 2019 3:57 pm

Radiators will certainly be quieter. The Slant Fin heat loss app. works good for radiator sizing.

Radiators are great! I have one in the basement that I love. The rest of my home has baseboards. You can't sit on a baseboard to warm yourself up after being outside shoveling snow.

I vote primary secondary in salon also, get the smallest Water to water heat exchanger and use that for domestic hot water and circulate through that 24/7. Then simply T off the main line and put a zone valve for the baseboard run and just control the zone valve via thermostat.

The secondary would need a circulator...
Primary would be like the boiler...
Primary runs constantly, no cold water slugs and quick warmup of the salon...
Add the shower or at least provision for it...
one of the zones will be an indirect for DWH...

Wouldn’t need a circulator for the baseboard, just a zone valve.

That sounds like a very good idea

I could also install the small electric water heater for times the the AA is off line. Do most people run their AAs thru the entire summer? No down time?

I ran my 260 all but 3 months last summer, this summer it shut down for 5 months, I installed a electric heating element in it this summer so it stays warm, 100 degrees. People do run year round though.

Do you keep pressure on it thru the down time?

Is there a treatment that I should add to the boiler water?

Yes I keep pressure on it.

I have never used any treatments.

Lee, there are treatment additives that some use with excellent results. Hopefully they will chime in & tell ya the pro's & con's.