Hydronic Heating plumbing question

[bcboomer]

I'm OK on the bleeding part. I was in the service side of the car business and dealt with French cars with an expansion tank/rad cap that was below the heater and the top of the cooling system. Lots of damage done by helpful pump jockies checking the levels.

Will pressurizing the system improve its efficiency?

One more question. Would the 30 plate exchanger be more efficient than the 20 plate or just add more resistance?

Thanks for your help.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

I'm OK on the bleeding part. I was in the service side of the car business and dealt with French cars with an expansion tank/rad cap that was below the heater and the top of the cooling system. Lots of damage done by helpful pump jockies checking the levels.

Will pressurizing the system improve its efficiency?

One more question. Would the 30 plate exchanger be more efficient than the 20 plate or just add more resistance?

Thanks for your help.

Well the typical radiator cap will be 11 to 13 psig which is fine. If you did not have the engine connected then atmospheric would be fine for the low temp hydronic. Pressurised mainly keeps hot water from flashing to steam and your system will be below that. IF you have a pressure cap with a 11 pound relief your fine with that.

The 30 plate would have lower pressure drop, which is nice. Both the 20 and 30 plate have the same BTU rating (17000)

[Brewgyver]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Totally, completely off-topic, but that's a very American-centric perspective. A good part of the world uses the "," (comma) to denote the decimal location. And Germany, home of Espar, is one of those places. I'd guess that they would say your "17.1" is the "incorrect" presentation.

Blue = . | Green = , | Red = Alternate numbering systems

Well, in the countries using the comma as the decimal, they don't use BTUs at all, so that's a bit of a red herring... And yes, completely off topic.

[bcboomer]

Thanks Sailor Chick,

I think I'll go with atmospheric pressure. Less stress on the system leak-wise.

3/4" is a drag because it means 1" holes instead of 3/4" but I guess 125% more area will improve the flow a lot.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

Thanks Sailor Chick,

I think I'll go with atmospheric pressure. Less stress on the system leak-wise.

3/4" is a drag because it means 1" holes instead of 3/4" but I guess 125% more area will improve the flow a lot.

Oddly flow was fine with 1/2". Pressure drop was 7 times 3/4" though. 3/4" is something around 1 foot of head per 100 feet which is near enough to nothing. Esper heaters have limited working pressure, or so it seems. Less pressure loss is good for the small Esper heaters.

[darylat8750]

Following with interest as something like this is in my future.
Love the links. SailorChic rocks!

[bcboomer]

I guess I slept through my fluid dynamics class.
So I'll take your word for it.

The poor info and instructions are frustrating. You kind of expect it with cheap electronics but not from a company which appears a little self-righteous about its product. How hard would it be for them to write an instruction manual giving all of the required info in an easily understood form?