New Propane Furnace

[Biometrix]

Our new to us, downsized empty nest forever home has been a work in progress for the last two years. The utilities were all electric when we bought it. Electric baseboard heat, electric water heater, electric range etc. Since we're kinda out in the boonies there was no natural gas available and I wanted to also install a gas range so I had a 500 gallon propane tank put in the ground pretty much before we even moved in. This week was the conversion to a propane fired 3-zone hot water baseboard heating system and a tank-less on-demand hot water system. I am very pleased with the workmanship, tidiness and pipe management of the contractor I chose for the job. I've basically had four guys here everyday since Monday this week with today being the final connections and testing of the system. Really didn't have any idea how much was involved but here's the new set-up in the basement. Nice little 95% efficient unit that vents with PVC right out the side of the house. The whole unit is about 18" wide and 2' high.

[blackhawkxx]

That is the most complicated home water system I have seen.  You might want to label everything so ten years down the road you will know what everything does and where it goes.

[Biometrix]

51 minutes ago, blackhawkxx said:

That is the most complicated home water system I have seen.  You might want to label everything so ten years down the road you will know what everything does and where it goes.

Meh...cold water comes in, hot water goes out to either heat the house or take a shower. I'll be happy if I can remember my kid's names in ten years.

[SwampNut]

WTF??  Why all of that?  Northern thing?  I've never seen that much shit in a house.

 

Also two of your Flugel valves are cupped.

 

[JoWhee]

Nice work, however, I hope the outlet is 636 CPVC pipe, I'm not sure if it's code everywhere, but it should be. 

[Biometrix]

1 hour ago, SwampNut said:

WTF??  Why all of that?  Northern thing?  I've never seen that much shit in a house.

 

Also two of your Flugel valves are cupped.

 

This is actually a pretty compact and simple system compared to some of my prior houses. You should see one that's plumbed for hot water or steam heat cast iron radiators. You basically need to dedicate 1/4 of your basement to those systems.

1 hour ago, JoWhee said:

Nice work, however, I hope the outlet is 636 CPVC pipe, I'm not sure if it's code everywhere, but it should be. 

Innoflue S636...the installer gave me a little schooling on why they use it even though it's not code here. Guess you two would be on the same page.

[JoWhee]

35 minutes ago, Biometrix said:

This is actually a pretty compact and simple system compared to some of my prior houses. You should see one that's plumbed for hot water or steam heat cast iron radiators. You basically need to dedicate 1/4 of your basement to those systems.

Innoflue S636...the installer gave me a little schooling on why they use it even though it's not code here. Guess you two would be on the same page.

It’s something to do with the fumes it emanates if the pipe should burn. However with a 95% efficiency furnace, something would have to epically fail for it to get hot enough to melt or burn. 

[OMG]

Very nicely done.

I like the new crimp copper fittings but Jeeeze they are expensive.

Hard to see but it looks like there is flush valves installed at the bottom of the heater.

I assume you were instructed to de-scale the system occasionally.

Edited September 17, 2020 by OMG

[Biometrix]

3 hours ago, OMG said:

Very nicely done.

I like the new crimp copper fittings but Jeeeze they are expensive.

Hard to see but it looks like there is flush valves installed at the bottom of the heater.

I assume you were instructed to de-scale the system occasionally.

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with the final result. Will be happier this winter when I can compare electric usage vs. last year. They told me that the crimping tool (big Milwaukee deal with the crimper jaws) costs near $3000 each. I suppose you have to do a lot of plumbing to make that pay off. All said and done they ran about 420 feet of 3/4" copper. They're supposed to come in once a year to do the system maintenance and he mentioned something about de-scaling but I stopped paying attention after they said they'd be doing all the maintenance.  I know how to turn it on and off, shut off the gas and shut off the water to the whole system or to just the zones. 

[ptxyz]

mind sharing the particulars as far as size of the house and cost of materials / installation?

 

here in california, cities are starting to make new construction go the other way (aka electrification).  i believe berkeley now requires new construction to be all electric.

[SwampNut]

36 minutes ago, ptxyz said:

here in california, cities are starting to make new construction go the other way (aka electrification).  i believe berkeley now requires new construction to be all electric.

 

This is a great idea since CA has so much extra electrical capacity.

[Biometrix]

6 hours ago, ptxyz said:

mind sharing the particulars as far as size of the house and cost of materials / installation?

 

here in california, cities are starting to make new construction go the other way (aka electrification).  i believe berkeley now requires new construction to be all electric.

1400 sq ft single level living space. Not heating attached garage or basement "yet" (that's another 1900 sq. ft.). Combo boiler/tankless water heater is 18K to 120K BTU/H for heating and 18K to 199K BTU/H for hot water. They installed 11 baseboard radiators, 3 zones, 420 ft. of 3/4" copper, and of course the main unit w/exhaust and intake and all the doo-dads. Also took away the old 50 gallon water heater.

Already had the 500 gallon propane tank installed (buried) 2 years ago.

2-4 guys were here for a full 5 days (although one was an apprentice)...Total was about $15K.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Biometrix