Category Archives: Heating

Sep 04 0 comments
Heating, Structure

Basement work

This is something that I meant to get done last year.  This year, it is my goal to finish the basement work.  It is, for the most part, dirty unglamorous work that no one but me will see.  I would love to put a deck or covered porch on the front of the house, perhaps next year.  I’d love to get at that siding too.  The fact is, I can’t, in good conscious, do that work without completing all of the basic structural work first.  The basement is key to the whole house, it needs to be done.  That project includes:

  1. Finish repairing the walls.  I started fixing all of the cracks in the walls last spring.  Things are looking pretty good and I am almost done.  I have a few small cracks to fill in with .
  2. Paint the walls.  Basically to cover up all the repairs and make it look better.  This will also allow me to monitor the basement and see if any new cracks develope.
  3. Replace the rotted rim joist under the front door.  This requires that I finish removing the front deck, which will be done this weekend, weather permitting.
  4. Seal up air leaks around sill plate.  This is important in the two additions as I know that they were jacked up and whatever seal was in place was destroyed.  I will use expanding foam to make a good seal around the entire house.
  5. Insulate the ceiling between the main house and the basement.  I know that we are loosing a lot of heat to the basement every winter.  Now that oil prices are $4.40 per gallon I want to minimize that loss as much as possible.  I am looking to install unfaced R-19 insulation bats in all of the open bays.  This work should pay for itself in the first year.
  6. Finish repairing the termite damage on the main support beam.  Termites are interesting creatures.  They seemed to consume just one part of one of the 2 x 6’s in the main support beam.  It does not seem to have changed the structural integrity, nor can I find any evidence of termite activity in the other two 2 x 6’s.  I have looked and drilled several inspection holes, which I will fill with epoxy. The beam work may take place over the winter months
  7. Replace all of the lolly columns.  They are all looking a little rusty.  I am sure that they will last for several more years, but if I am doing the beam, I might as well replace all of the support columns as well.  I may pour concrete pads under the columns.
  8. Build storage shelves and better organize things.  Since our basement work last spring, things are sort of piled up in the middle of the floor.  It would be nice to set up several large storage shelves.

The most important of all of that work right now is the insulation.  I am going to try and get our oil usage down to one tank full (275 gallons) this year.  It may be a bit of a stretch, last year we used 450 gallons, but I have some strategies.

First off, the insulation and air leak sealing.  Every year I do some work on this and every year it gets better. I think if I can get the basement sealed up, a lot of heat loss through the floor will be avoided.  It will also make thinks like the furnace and hot water heater more efficient because they won’t be sitting in a cold drafty basement.

Secondly, I am working on a solar furnace.  Right now, I think I have a unique design and I am researching existing patents.  If no one else has come up with my design, I will patent it.  I am building a few prototypes to try out.  I am working on something that will take advantage of snow cover and can be mounted on south facing vertical walls.

Thirdly, I am going to have more wood available this year to better utilize the wood stove.  It can be a pain sometimes, but it does save money and the wood supply is still free.  Free heat is good heat.  More on the woodstove and wood supply later.

Popularity: 3% [?]

May 20 3 comments
Heating

Leaking air separator on boiler

Ever since we did the basement water work, I have been very diligent about checking the basement floor after it rains to see if there is any seepage. Imagine my surprise then, this morning when I venture down to the basement (after last night’s downpour) to see this:

water dripping from bad boiler air separator

What the? Holy Hand Grenades Batman!

Oh no, wait, that is not coming up through the floor, it is dripping on the floor… from the boiler expansion tank… or something right above the boiler expansion tank like the air vent. That seems odd. This unit appears to be leaking right along the top seem. They are relatively inexpensive, so I just went to the local hardware store and picked up a TACO 400 Hy-Vent for about $8.00.

boiler air separator

Old leaking air vent.

taco 400 hy vent with pipe thread compound

This is the new air vent with pipe thread compound applied, ready to install.

I did not drain all the water out of the system to replace this, I simply turned off the boiler feed valve. Then unscrewed the old unit and quickly screwed the new unit in its place, using a little pipe thread compound on the air vent thread to make sure it does not leak. I did this when the boiler was cold to avoid being scalded. Some water leaked out while I was doing this, maybe 2-3 ounces or so.

taco 400 hy vent installed on boiler air separator

The installation instructions on the box read:

Screw valve vertically into tapping by hand (DO NOT USE WRENCH) making certain that the cap is screwed down thightly, to prevent scale and dirt from rushing in to valve while filling system.

After system is filled, loosen cap slightly and allow air to be released slowly, otherwise scale and dirt might rush in causing valve to leak. If this does happen, push down valve stem then pull up lightly to dislodge scale.

To shut off valve, screw cap down thightly (sic), for normal venting, open cap on full turn, wherever there is a possibility of water damage, use a waste connector and run tubing to nearest drain.

An air separator in a hot water heating system bleeds air out of the pipes so that the system works correctly. It has an air vent on the top of it. The air vent has a little float in it and when there is enough air in the top chamber, the float drops down, opening a small valve and you hear a little “ssssst.” They are important because too much air in a heating system can cause pump cavitation, knocking, excessive corrosion of cast iron parts, and/or complete system failure.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Apr 23 0 comments
Heating

Heating oil usage, Winter of 2007-2008

I would call the heating season over, for the most part. Last winter we used 430 gallons of heating oil. At 1,575 square feet, that means we burned 0.273 gallons of oil per Ft2 or about 38 kBTU per Ft2 for the entire heating season. Looking at the weather information, there were seven fewer heating degree days (HDD) this winter than the winter of 2006-2007. It was slightly above average temperature wise, but within the normal mean. We also burned less wood in the wood stove, due to lack of enthusiasm on my part for lighting fires every night.

What this means is our house uses much less heating oil than average. Our first year here, we burned nearly 800 gallons. Improvements in attic insulation, replacement windows, doors, weather stripping, programmable thermostats, heating zones and out door temperature reset, oil burner efficiency and so on have paid off.

Of course, there is more that can be done. This year I hope to finish insulating the basement and crawl spaces, seal up the sill plate, fix some other air leaks and either replace or block up the basement windows. I think blocking up makes more sense as all three of them are on the north side of the house and don’t admit much light to the basement as it is.

My goal is to reduce the oil usage by another 75 gallons next winter, bringing it down to 350-360 or so, which is doable. That would be about 0.222 gallons per Ft2. Current heating oil prices are $4.05 a gallon and that is not supposed to come down. Much beyond this and we will have to start rebuilding the whole house.

Oil Savings:

Last year, we pre-purchased all of our oil for $2.61 a gallon. We purchase 450 gallons and paid $1,175.00. If we where using 800 gallons, that would have been $2,088.00. That means we had a savings of $914.00 over what we would have paid.

Without any further work, this year I project we will save $1417.50. If I get the basement insulation work done and we order less oil, 360 gallons vs. 450 gallons, that increases to $1,782.00. Much more than enough to pay for the needed building supplies to complete the job.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Jan 05 1 comments
Heating, Plumbing, Solar Energy

Bell & Gossett isolation pump flanges

Every once in a while I stumble on something really cool. Yesterday, when looking for some bronze circulator pump flanges I came upon something even better. Bell & Gossett makes something called an isolation pump flange.

bell and gossett isolation pump flangeIt is a pump flange with a ball valve built into it so you don’t have to drain all the water out of a system to change a pump.

Cool, right?

The best part: They are not that expensive.  A set of TACO bronze pump flanges is $31.25, these guys cost $29.82.  They are universal, they fit almost every TACO, Grundfos, and Bell & Gossett small circulator pump.

Circulator pumps do go bad every once in a while.  If  these flanges are used instead of regular flanges, changing out a pump would be a quick and easy job, no need to drain all the hydronic heating loops, or radiant floor loops or solar collector loops, just turn off the ball valves, undo two bolts and slide the pump right out.

I ordered a set and used them this morning on a solar project.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Dec 17 2 comments
Heating, Interior

Checking the Thermal Envelope of my house

Heating season is in full effect around here.  It was very cold and windy last night.  We had our first fire in the wood stove on Saturday and Sunday.  I like having the wood stove going all day, the house really feels warm and comfortable.  Something about having the radiant warmth of a fire that goes right through to the soul.

Something that I have not done yet this year is to check the house for air leaks through the thermal envelope. It sounds more complicated than it really is.

Basically, the thermal envelope is a fancy name for the system of insulation and seals that keep conditioned air from leaking out of the house. This includes the following things:

  1. Attic insulation
  2. Wall insulation
  3. Door seals, and weather striping
  4. Window seals and weather striping
  5. Seal between foundation and sill plate
  6. Miscellaneous seals around outlets, bathroom fans, ceiling lights, recessed light fixtures, dryer vents, etc.

Air leaks account for most of the heat loss in any structure. The higher up in the structure the leak is, the more warm air will escape outside and the more energy will be waisted. This is because of the stack effect that warm air inside a structure creates.

Since my house does not use force air for either heating or cooling, I do not have to worry about leaking air ducts and the job is a little bit simpler.

There are two ways to go about this, the first way is an examination of the seals, windows, insulation, etc. If the insulation has been in place for a few years, air leaks will be indicated by a darkened area. This is because dust and dirt get trapped in the insulation as the air rushes through it. Using a strong flash light,  crawl around in the attic, checking around the bathroom ventilation fans, light fixture electrical boxes and other areas.  Any leaks should be very evident.

Pay very close attention to the attic space, as most of the heat lost through this space. As much as possible, the insulation should be laid down as one continuous blanket with the vapor barrier intact and facing down.  We used blown cellulose insulation which has settled since we put it in last year.  I noticed that if formed its own sort of seal if undisturbed.  The newer foam cellulose insulation is supposed to be very good.

Next, check the top seal on all the windows. The indication would be the same, dust and dirt in one area of the window seal.

Check all of the doors in a similar manner.

Another method is to wait until it gets cold out, then use a source of smoke, like a stick of burning incense. As it passed along the tops of the window seals, the smoke should rise straight up. If it goes sideways towards the window, there is an out draft along the window seal. Along the lower areas of the room such as the bottoms of doors and electrical outlets, the same test can be use, except you are watching for the smoke to blow into the room instead of rising straight up. If the smoke blows into a room, you have an in draft.

You can use the same method to check the seal around the foundation and sill plate. Be careful with the burning incense.  I know we have a problem around the foundation sill plate under the kitchen. In some spots, I can see light shining through the crack, which is not a good sign.  I have put some thin foam insulation in the cracks as best I could, but it needs a permanent fix.

Sealing up the leaks

I used a can of Great Stuff foam to seal up around the bathroom ventilation fan and the dryer vent. That is where I noticed some dirt and discolored insulation. The other thing that I will do is build an insulated box using 1 inch rigid foam board and construction adhesive to put over the stair hatch into the attic.There was weather stripping around the hatch, but I think this was mostly ineffective and a lot of heat was being lost though that hole.

The electrical outlets that are located in outside walls have foam seals between the outlet covers and the wall. This is effective for sealing those openings.

The windows and doors all look good. The basement is another story.  It is a bit of unglamorous work crawling around in the attic and basement, but, if done correctly can save a significant amount of money on the heating (and cooling) bill.

Popularity: 4% [?]