Just put in a new oil fired boiler and moved the manifolds (what a job!) and put full flow ball valves on each line – boiler side and return side – so each line can be completely isolated. Some lines have only one rad, some have three. This fall will be the second winter and I want to do a much better job of balancing the system than this past year’s fussing.
I’m presuming a reasonable strategy would be to: open all valves at each rad, close the ball valve at the manifold half way, then start making adjustments at each rad to try to achieve equal temp. (Should I actually measure the surface temp at each rad?) If some rads don’t get hot enough, open ball valve; if some rads are always too hot, close ball valve more.
On a slightly different note, recirc pump is on the return side. Is it better to control the flow in any single line by adjusting the boiler-side or return-side ball valve?
And does anyone out there know of a book or source with all the best-practice answers on residential hot water recirculating systems?
Cheers.
Replies
To start with your near boiler piping is wrong. Balancing is not something DIYers are usually capable of doing. How many zones do you have? Why didn't you zone with pumps? How many loops on each zone. Do you have flow meters installed on the loops? Why not? You cannot accurately balance without flow meters or test equipment. Piping correctly can overcome the need for balancing on small systems. But you have to know what you are doing to do this. Do you?
Just a bunch of questions that have to be answered before you go to the next step. If you want to fiddle a lot with it you may be able to get within "OK" balancing paremeters without all this. Just fiddle with it.