joe001
02-09-2011, 01:08 PM
This spring I intend to replace my current natural gas fired boiler (hot water system), and I want to try to educate myself about products and options before I start getting bids.
I have a small 1.5 story Cape Cod-style home with a finished basement. The basement was finished a few years ago, and the single large radiator was replaced with multiple copper fin baseboards that are on a newly created zone (new copper piped loop). The entire first floor is cast iron radiators, and the top floor is a mix of cast iron radiators and cast iron baseboards.
Question 1&2: I would like to have more control over the temp in individual rooms, or at least the middle and top floors. Does it make sense to place thermostatic radiator valves on every radiator on the middle and top floors? I have plaster walls and ceilings and assume I would need to do some exploratory work inside them if I wanted to do separate zone valves for each floor. Is that correct?
Question 3: When the heating company added the basement zone, they installed 2 zone valves. There is a single circulator pump activated by a surface mounted aqua stat. Please excuse my ignorance, but is that the correct way to do it? There are times when the aqua stat keeps the pump on, but both zones are closed, so the water being pumped has nowhere to go. Recently I noticed the pump is making noise. When I manually open either zone valve, the noise goes away. Is there a controller that ensures that if the pump is on, at least one zone is open?
Thanks.
I have a small 1.5 story Cape Cod-style home with a finished basement. The basement was finished a few years ago, and the single large radiator was replaced with multiple copper fin baseboards that are on a newly created zone (new copper piped loop). The entire first floor is cast iron radiators, and the top floor is a mix of cast iron radiators and cast iron baseboards.
Question 1&2: I would like to have more control over the temp in individual rooms, or at least the middle and top floors. Does it make sense to place thermostatic radiator valves on every radiator on the middle and top floors? I have plaster walls and ceilings and assume I would need to do some exploratory work inside them if I wanted to do separate zone valves for each floor. Is that correct?
Question 3: When the heating company added the basement zone, they installed 2 zone valves. There is a single circulator pump activated by a surface mounted aqua stat. Please excuse my ignorance, but is that the correct way to do it? There are times when the aqua stat keeps the pump on, but both zones are closed, so the water being pumped has nowhere to go. Recently I noticed the pump is making noise. When I manually open either zone valve, the noise goes away. Is there a controller that ensures that if the pump is on, at least one zone is open?
Thanks.