How to marry a duel system ?

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Dave 1234
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Post by Dave 1234 » Sat. Nov. 17, 2018 3:41 pm

So I know someone here must have done this before .

One of my wood burner friends has a big house with a hot water base board and combo radiant heat system.

On a heat call the wood boiler gets so overwhelmed that the oil boiler has a heat call to help out.

He wants to switch over to a coal boiler now.

The house is about 3400 sf , well insulated. Should we just add a boiler mate for the radiant part of the system and add a small circulator to maintain the boiler mate?

Looking for the simplest way ,so the two boiler's never see's a sudden drop in temperature , but the house is heated drama free.

Thanks Dave

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Sat. Nov. 17, 2018 7:25 pm

First things first,

Have a heat study done and then compare the cost of upgrading the homes efficiency "more" and decide if the return on the investment is faster for upgrading the insulation and windows and perhaps installing a new oil boiler.

There are too many variables for right now in this algebra problem to come to an immediate solution.

 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sat. Nov. 17, 2018 7:30 pm

So the wood boiler is removed in this case?
Replaced with a coal boiler in the house or where the wood eater sat?...
The high temp baseboard and lower temp radiant can coexist with out a boilermate...
Just need a temp reducing valve on the radiant zone...
That lowers the full temp boiler water down to what the radiant zone was designed for...
Much the same a DHW is tempered to 120* to help prevent scalding of flesh...


 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Nov. 17, 2018 7:34 pm

I'm not quite sure where your go'in with this Dave, but the BoilerMate is only going to give you 30 or 40 thousand BTU. Maybe if you had 2 or 3 of them you could supply the whole house. You can sometimes find the on CraigsList cheap.

I think it's interesting that this wood boiler falls behind. To me, that would indicate a heavier than normal load or the wood boiler is too small.

So, what do you want to do? Stick a coal stoker in there with the oil and wood boilers?

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Nov. 17, 2018 8:19 pm

Dave, pipe the radiant zone with a primary/secondary arrangement, and use an aquastat to drop out the primary circulator if the boiler temperature gets too low.

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