Radiant Floor, Heat Pump and Solar Hot Water
Tumalo, Oregon
 

Cascade Sun Works, Inc. undertook the complete rebuild on this three year old radiant heating system.  The original heating contractor installed an Argo 20Kw electric boiler to furnish heat to a downstairs radiant floor system with an upstairs baseboard system.  The system as installed had numerous problems including inability to heat the master bedroom/bath, leaking manifolds inside the house and high operating costs.  In addition, there was three electric hot water tanks operating in the house furnish the domestic hot water.  A simplistic approach to the design as well as mistakes in the installation resulted in a hydronic heating system that was unacceptable.

The boiler system was removed in total from the garage wall and a re-engineered system was installed.  The new system equipped with the original Argo boiler used injection technology along with an outdoor reset to furnish a comfortable and more efficient heating approach.  The new system also incorporated a domestic hot water circuit from the boiler.

After removing two of the hot water heaters under the house, a domestic hot water loop from the boiler system was added to the high efficiency 80 gallon hot water heater.  This allowed the home owners to have large amounts of hot water with quicker recovery times than that afforded by an electric hot water heater.

A Solar Hot Water system was installed using  a Heliodyne Gobi 410 collector and an HP-16 heat exchanger coupled to an 80 gallon storage tank.  The storage tank has tank-tank recirculation to the 80 gallon high-efficiency A.O. Smith electric hot water heater.  This system qualified for the Energy Trust of Oregon Incentive Program as well as State of Oregon Solar Hot Water Tax Credit.

Click on any photo for a larger view Original Installation Mechanical room stripped of original equipment Original interior manifolds showing signs of leaking Cascade Sun Works Manifold Installation Solar Hot Water System being installed New Boiler System System connecting to household piping as well as Domestic Hot Water re-circulation system for Solar Hot Water Finished system Original installation showing set point mixing (single temperature) along with add-on second expansion tank and incorrectly spaced heat take-offs. In addition, the loops did not match from supply to return manifold making balancing extreemly difficult. All supply and retuirn loops are installed ion a symmetrical order. Clean installation makes servicing and balancing much easier. Showing primary loop with base board heating comming off right side, secondary loop injection located under boiler and domestic hot water heater shown under boiler. Insulated high efficiency hot electric hot water heater on left, boiler system in center and solar hot water system on right. . Original Installation Original installation showing set point mixing (single temperature) along with add-on second expansion tank and incorrectly spaced heat take-offs.