Twinsprings Research Institute

Re-Used Polyisocyanurate Ceiling

Posted on December 13, 2014 by ellen

Dave has almost finished the 1.5″ polyiso layer on the ceiling. This is the insulation that we bought from Repurposed Materials. The extra insulation on the ceiling is to eliminate the thermal bridging in the wood rafters. The walls of the house have a 1″ foil faced polyiso sheathing so they already have a thermal break.
Dave has marked the ceiling with pieces of tape where he wants to go back with an open can of Great Stuff to fill in the gaps between the sheets.

Dining Area and Entry Ceiling

Some of the ceiling is quite high so it was nice to have the scaffolding to work up there.

Family Room Ceiling

The kitchen and living room are covered but the kitchen area still needs the gaps filled.

Kitchen and Living Room Ceiling

The wiring chase is open for now, it will be insulated and covered after the electrician pulls wire for the whole house. We won’t be able to finish the wiring until the walls are up though. Since the living room furniture is behind the posts, this open area is a “solar hall” where the sun shines brightly on the floor, warming the house and storing heat for evening.

Solar Hall Ceiling

The master bedroom ceiling is finished now. The narrow area at the vertical radon pipe will be the bedroom wall and entry.

Master Bedroom Ceiling

We are going to add the Majpell air barrier film and battens to hang the drywall from. I purchased the air sealing products from A and E Building Systems, our local dealer for many of the best energy efficient building products. In our Indiana passive solar we put 2″ of old fashioned white polystyrene “beadboard” on the ceiling and just bought long screws to attach the drywall.

The battens and the gap filling ideas came from a Fine Homebuilding forum. We used 1.5″ polyiso and Dave did cut the pieces to follow the rafters, that was easier for him.

“…hang full sheets of 2″ polyiso on the rafters, just like hanging drywall. Leave a 1/4″ to 3/8″ gap between the edges of the sheets as you hang them. The ends of the sheets do not have to fall on the rafters, they can land over a rafter bay. I hang them with nails with round cap plates. You only need 4 per full sheet. Another R-12.
Once hung, peek into the gaps to find the rafters. Use a sharpie marker and mark the face of the polyiso so you know where the rafters are. Now use canned foam to seal the gaps.
Use scrap wood, real furring strips, or rip a sheet of 3/4″ ply into 1-1/2″ to 2″ wide strips. These will be your furring strips. Run these horizontally across the ceiling. Using the sharpie marks as your guide, use 4-1/2″ screws to screw through the furring strip, through the foam, and into the edge of the rafter. The ends of the furring strips do not have to fall on the ends of the rafter. They can also land mid-span. But offset the ends of the furring strips from the ends of the sheets of polyiso. If the furring strips are bowed, set them so the ends of the strips touch the polyiso. When you screw down the center, it’ll pull the ends even tighter.
Hang drywall off the furring strips. The drywall plus air gap is worth a little over R-1.”

This is where I found out about capped nails which have worked great. I had to go to Amazon to get long enough nails to go through the foam and into the rafters. We used 2.5″ nails. We have not used the whole box and they were not very expensive.
WoodPro Fasteners PC212-2M Ring Shank 2000-Count 2-1/2-Inch Electro Galvanized Plastic Cap Nails

Capped Nails

After all the gaps are filled, we will install the air barrier and the battens for the drywall nailing, then we can hang walls!

Completed Crawlspace!

Posted on December 12, 2014 by ellen

I finished the crawlspace today and replaced all the old pipe insulation with 1″ thick K-Flex R-7 insulation from Supply House. This insulation is a Greenguard certified product for its low VOC and mold resistance. There is over $275 of pipe insulation on all the exposed radiator pipes and the hot water pipes in the crawlspace, including the hot water return pipe. (So far I have purchased $845 worth, about 360 ft., of this R-7 pipe insulation for the house–although I still have to insulate some of the exposed radiant pipes near the boiler) All the hot water pipe under the slab and to the bathroom in the crawlspace was also insulated with R-7 during construction.)

It took about 15 6′ lengths to cover all the pipes. Where the pipe was too close to the joist or was attached with a pipe hanger, I left a gap in the long pipes then went back and cut extra pieces to cover most of the pipe that could not be encircled and then taped the seams. I cut the elbow ends at 45 degrees and fit them together then taped them to cover the entire bend.

This is a photo of two of the wrapped pipes next to the caulked edge of the vinyl barrier.

Insulated Pipes

Here is where the three pipes enter the closet slab–two radiators and the hot water return pipe.

Pipes insulated to closet slab entry

The new pipe insulation goes into the fiberglass layer and all the way up to the floor.

Radiator Pipe insulated to floor

To complete the vinyl ground cover, the two corners on the west end needed some special treatment because the ground extended past the slab around a metal support post. This had to be covered and sealed too. The old wire was a sensor wire that was under the slab at the closet. The sensor was cut off on the other side during the prep for the new slab and now cut off on this crawlspace side too.

Difficult corner

The patch was cut around the post and caulked to the walls then taped around the post and to the vinyl that was caulked to the slab at the stair edge where there was a gap between some spray foam and the slab top. More evidence of the sinking of the original slab.

Spray foam gap under stairs

Here is the final patch sealed all around the post and to the vinyl barrier.

Patch caulked and taped

Another view shows that the pipe is wrapped with tape and the barrier caulked to the short area of wall around it.

Pipe is fully wrapped with barrier

This was a big job and I have the bruises to show for it. The grandkids came over and thought crawling in the crawlspace was great. It was fun to have this secret place below the floor. They were game to crawl around and enjoyed tunneling from the hatch in the bedroom to the hole in the wall of the master bedroom. I’m glad they enjoyed it and very happy to have this job checked off the to do list.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Energy Efficiency, Radon Mitigation | Comments Off

Effective R Value?

Posted on December 12, 2014 by ellen

Amory Lovins’ home boasts an “effective R-Value” of 40 for the masonry walls. I was skeptical knowing they were masonry with a 4″ polyurethane core. The core would be about 20 if it was XPS foam, less if EPS foam was used. Masonry is not know for its R Value and solid concrete 4″ thick is about an R value of between 1.5 and 2.5. So the wall would be about R-25 not 40.
But I researched the R-value of concrete and found out there is something called “Effective R Value” for a thermal mass wall that has a lower R value of the materials alone. This effective value is described from hot box tests of various wall compositions at the Oak Ridge Laboratory in the early 90’s. A paper was published (Also found here.) and subsequently an article in the Home Energy magazine.
I also found a California Energy Standards Appendix describing additional energy measures, U-factor, C-factor, and Thermal Mass Data for various wall assemblies. Thermal Mass is identified by HC or Heat Capacity. I am not sure how heat capacity is translated into “effective R value” but I’m glad to know about this concept, since our trombe wall has a very low R value due to its materials. 8″ concrete blocks are about R-1.5 to 2.5 depending on the density of the concrete and solid slag blocks at 4″ are similar to 4″ brick for an additional .44 and what appears to be 4″ concrete blocks on the outside layer. That makes our wall about R 3.5 at the high end since the slag brick and the concrete are back to back and there is no air cavity or insulating layer. The heating capacity of the wall would take into account its ability to moderate the temperatures in the home as well as gather heat from the solar collector surface.

Trombe Wall Inside Detail about 16″ Thick

Trombe Wall Outside Detail

This masonry organization mentions the research on thermal mass in their description of masonry R-Value.

“Mass effect is real. High-mass walls really can significantly outperform low-mass walls of comparable steady-stated R-value. However, the mass-enhanced R-Value is only significant when the outdoor temperatures cycle above and below indoor temperatures within a 24-hour period. High mass walls are most beneficial in moderate climates that have high daily temperature swings and nearly all areas with significant cooling loads can benefit from thermal mass in EXTERIOR walls. This is especially true for the sunny Southwest areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.”

They reference the article from the Oak Ridge Laboratory report in the Home Energy Magazine.

“According to an article written by Jeffrey E. Christian and Jan Kosny titled “Wall R-Values that Tell It Like It Is,” wall systems with significant thermal mass have the potential, depending on climate, to reduce annual heating and cooling energy requirements below those required by standard wood frame construction with similar steady-state R-value.

Masonry products, with mass-enhanced R-value or thermal mass, provide some of the best energy values for homeowners today. They consistently rank higher than steady-stated R-value of wood framed walls. Remember, the overall R-value is not as important as how the home is constructed. Attention to details like the windows you select, like low e-thermal, dual pane windows that are tinted, is just as important as the R-value in the walls. In fact, much heat loss or gain, up to 48%, is through windows, not walls! The most energy efficient building materials for the desert or Southwest climate is 24″ thick adobe, which only has an R-value of less than 7. It is energy efficient because of it other attributes including thermal mass, air tightness, thermal lag and thermal dampening. This proves that R-value is just one piece of the energy puzzle, and often, does not paint a realistic picture of energy efficiency.”

Another reference to masonry and R Value:

“The effect of thermal mass (also known as thermal inertia) on walls is well documented. High thermal inertia walls, such as concrete masonry, have the ability to delay and reduce the impact of outdoor temperature changes on conditioned indoor environments, improving energy efficiency. The International Energy Conservation Code (1994) recognizes most masonry walls that weigh more than 25 lb per square foot as mass walls. For example, this wall weight is attained with a 90 pcf 8″ un-reinforced cmu.”

Green Building Advisers take a dim look at thermal mass in this forum discussion, with most of their experience in cold climates, they discount the thermal performance of mass vs insulation R-Value except in some desert buildings. However, a poster from the front range in Colorado touts its effectiveness.

“I live and build on the Colorado Front Range and am a big believer in low tech Passive Solar, so no “expensive equipment” needed to harvest the “free energy”. Passive solar, moderate thermal mass, super tight insulation and being comfortable from 65 to 75 degrees, can “almost completely” eliminate heating bills and expensive heating & cooling equipment.”

This forum also has a good explanation of capacitive vs. resistive heat transfer and R-Value.

“R-values are for resistive insulation, calculated and measured in steady-state conditions where heat flow is consistently in one direction, from the warm to the cold side of an assembly. Capacitive insulation effects result from non-steady state condition where the heat flow reverses on a regular diurnal cycle. This can only be useful where exterior temperatures cycle significantly above and below desired interior comfort conditions e.g. in hot desert climates – heat starts to move slowly through the wall during the day but changes direction to head out again when the exterior cools dramatically at night. This is why traditional building cultures in those climates frequently make use of extremely thick mud or masonry walls and roofs. Capacitive insulation has virtually no effect in steady-state heat flow, which is when temperatures are relatively constant for an extended period of time on each side of a material.”

I found an excellent article republished here from a LEED AP explaining the difference between thermal mass and R-Value and how “effective R-Value” is calculated. There are some fancy computer simulations that can do the job based on generic data or this method could be used.

“Performance of the building as a whole is simulated over a year’s worth of weather data. The results is an estimate of the annual heating and cooling energy use of that building. Next, walls of the building model are change to non-mass wall and the wall R-value is increased (to make up of the lack of thermal mass). Computer simulations are rerun with increasing wall R-value until the annual energy use of the frame wall building matches that of the mass building.”

James Plagmann, our architect, brought up this issue when he first looked at the house’s construction. He was initially perplexed by the trombe wall structure, saying the heat gained during the day would just leave the building at night. Later he told me he talked to some solar experts about the wall who said it would be effective. In fact his initial thoughts were somewhat correct, the thermal mass wall is “superheated” during sunny days by the sun due to the collectors on the south-facing front of the thermal wall. The walls heat slowly and release their heat slowly into the space. Someone in the above discussion explained that thermal mass is like a water cistern, it has to be filled to provide insulation properties. It works precisely because Colorado is so sunny and the difference between day and night temperatures are similar to those in any desert, hotter during the day and colder at night.
I believe our LEED evaluators (Energy Logic) use energy modeling software to calculate whole house performance to judge the energy efficiency of the building. I assume this software has some type of thermal mass modeling that will take into account the low R-value but high thermal capacity of the trombe wall.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Green Building Interests | Comments Off

Amory Lovins Home Tour!

Posted on December 10, 2014 by ellen

We had a great opportunity due to the Roaring Fork USGBC scheduling of a tour of Amory Lovins Passive Solar, Greenhouse Furnace, Net Zero, photovoltaic and thermal solar home in Snowmass, yesterday! It was a large tour group, about 30 mostly green building experts so their questions and observations were really interesting. There were two or three employees of the Rocky Mountain Institute running the tour and they were very obliging and included lots of interesting details.
Amory Lovins is an energy policy activist who wrote in the mid seventies and forward about changing attitudes and policy for current and future energy needs. He was trained as a physicist but quit his PhD at Oxford to work for Friends of the Earth. He got very involved in writing books and working to change policy on environmental issues and eventually moved back to the USA and with his first wife, L. Hunter Lovins, started the Rocky Mountain Institute which is an energy think tank in Snowmass. The RMI is currently building a net zero super low energy use commercial office building in the nearby town of Basalt, to move their operations into their own building as well as use it for demonstration of energy conscious commercial building techniques.
The home was built circa 82-83 with the help of lots of volunteers in forming the slip form walls–which is an inexpensive masonry building technique also used by Frank Lloyd Wright and his students at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ in the 30’s. Many homesteaders learned the technique from Helen and Scott Nearing, famous homesteaders from the 30’s who were gurus of simple living. Apparently the original technique was invented by Ernest Flagg in 1920. Dave is currently building a slip form garden wall with the old broken up concrete slab that was taken out of the house.
Amory placed a 4″ thick (low CFC Freon) polyurethane foam in the middle of the slipforms and the rock faced each edge while the gap was filled with cement. He used curved forms so the basic house is a rammed earth north wall (the RMI guides mentioned that) and a curving masonry wall that mostly faces south.

Lovins Floorplan

This is a 4000 square ft. house so roughly twice the size of our first passive solar after two additions and almost twice the size of our current remodel. It also houses Amory’s library and for years was the headquarters of the Rocky Mountain Institute so much of the east wing is office and library space.
I wish I had taken more photos, last night I was mostly interested in the radiant heat and data collections systems but the house itself was quite nice.
One of the most impressive areas was the octagonal bookshelves in one of the towers located behind the greenhouse. I have always loved library ladders and there were lots of high shelves to use them. There was also a small bathroom in one of these towers complete with a waterless urinal, toilet with tank sink, mexican-tiled half moon shower and a small hand sink.

Tall library

Tall library ladder

The home had a cozy living room nook with built in couch–also very Frank Lloyd Wright in concept.

Living Room

There were lots of LED fixtures in the ceilings–part of a 2009 retrofit and the ceiling lamps were circle fluorescent.

Lighting

The kitchen was spacious and featured an inductive stovetop, an Asko dishwasher (most efficient) at least a couple of ovens and two of the two compartment Sun Frost refrigerators/freezers with the compressors visible from the back in a pantry. The refrigerator had an extra “fin” outside the entry to include outdoor winter temps in the refrigeration process.

Sun Frost Compressors

The most impressive feature is the greenhouse “furnace” where banana trees and other tropical plants bear fruit in an area of the country that hardly has a long enough growing season for tomatoes. The greenhouse features meandering stone paths, a bridge, a small patio, lush green plants that hang over the paths, a gurgling waterfall and brook that collects in a small pond. Kind of a paradise inside the house. Spreading its heat and humidity to the whole structure.

Greenhouse

The greenhouse is framed by two large concrete arches that have built in pipes that preheat water that goes into the solar heating tank.

Concrete Arch

But that is getting into the mechanicals which I’ll address in a future post. Touring this home was inspiring and enlightening.

Posted in Design Style, Energy Efficiency, Green Building Interests | Comments Off

Sconce Lights Craigslist Find

Posted on December 7, 2014 by ellen

I’ve been working on the electrical layout and planning to keep wiring from the outside walls and inside the thermal envelope. We have one large wiring chase across the building ceiling and plan to have all the rest of the wiring done in interior walls.

Dibble Res_Electric Plan_Rev-11_14 w_core

Since we want to limit the penetrations in the ceiling I was planning to purchase sconce lighting instead of ceiling lights–except for a few chandeliers and ceiling fans. I found a sweet deal for “outdated” sconce lights on Craigslist. They were from a spa so there were several matching ones.

Spa Sconces $100 Craigslist Ad

Turned out they only had 8 lights, but 2 were double. They were $10 each and I thought that was a very fair price. They are very much a “lodge” style. The spa they came from updated to brushed nickel modern sconces. They threw in all the new backplates from the replacement lights so must have just used their existing backplates. We are very happy with the style and the bargain and we will be able to have matching lights in the main areas of the house.

Stained Glass Wall Sconces

Posted in Electrical, House Systems, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Crawlspace Radon Piping

Posted on December 6, 2014 by ellen

Another thing I am rethinking is the piping that the radon mitigation calls for under the vapor barrier.

I stuck a pipe under the vinyl, measuring for connection to the vent pipe and it looked kind of ridiculous. A short piece of pipe there close to the vent is not going to pull much in the way of radon laden air from under the sealed vapor barrier into the vent. And it would block the vent from pulling air from the entire crawlspace.

Crawlspace Radon Vent Pipe

If radon gas does escape from under the vapor barrier, then the fan should pull it out of the crawlspace before it got a chance to make its way through the insulation and flooring. I’m going to take out this pipe to the vent and just allow the fan to draw air from the entire crawlspace. This matches the crawlspace conditioning requirement that household air is drawn through the crawlspace area instead of outside air. I’ll put a vent to the crawlspace in the master bedroom so that there is an intake. The stairs also have some cracks that would allow house air to be drawn into the negatively pressured (due to the fan) crawlspace.

Just waiting for delivery of more R-7 pipe insulation and the crawlspace area will be complete–until we decide to add extra insulation to the unburied walls.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Radon Mitigation | Comments Off

Scaffolding

Posted on December 6, 2014 by ellen

One of the most important tools for working on our high ceilings has been the sets of scaffolding on wheels. I bought these at Harbor Freight with a coupon so each set was about $200 with tax. I first bought one and then when another coupon was published, went back and bought another one and they have been handy tools to have.
I had to use the double scaffolding to get high enough to fix the bird holes.

Double Scaffolding for Bird Hole Fix

The demolition guys who helped me finish the high areas of the cathedral ceiling used the scaffolding too.

Double Scaffolding for Demo

We have only been using one set to put up polyiso the other is disassembled for now. Both will be used again when we put up the trim and paint etc.

Single Scaffolding

Another useful tool from Harbor Freight has been this ratcheting holder. I could not find it on the Harbor Freight site so they may no longer carry it. They have a ratcheting pickup truck holder which might work the same, but this one has two pads, one on top and one on the bottom that hold the panels to the ceiling. The ratchet gets stuck sometimes and the pole doesn’t tighten as well as it used to, but overall it has been a useful tool. It was also on sale when I bought it for about $10.

Ratcheting Holder

Posted in Construction, Tools | Comments Off

More About Tools

Posted on December 6, 2014 by ellen

It is great to have a good selection of tools when working on such a large project. We also have our daughter and her husband nearby who are willing to lend us their tools when we need them.

Here is a photo of our tool storage area on and below the dining windowsill. It is often messy because we always seem to have more stuff than space to put it, but if we remember to put stuff back in this area, we usually can find the tool we need. Better than searching all over the house and garage.

Tool Storage

I’m going to post more about the tools that we are using for the job because we often wonder if we will use a tool enough to justify its cost. I feel that if the tool will make the job go faster or easier, we should buy it. That is the benefit of doing the work ourselves, we can get some very cool tools in the process.

Posted in Construction, Tools | Comments Off

A Tool for Every Job

Posted on December 5, 2014 by ellen

Battery Powered Caulk Gun

Dewalt Cordless Caulk Gun

I used this 18 volt cordless battery powered caulk gun to quickly spread the caulk for the crawlspace tarps without tiring out my hands with the manual caulk gun. With lots of caulking to do, I think the gun is worthwhile but Dave doesn’t like the automated application. He says it is too difficult to control and prefers the manual caulk gun. He also has larger and stronger hands though.

This seems like a gimmicky tool, but it works and has good reviews on Amazon where I bought it. At the time it was about $200. We have plenty more caulking to do to put up the air barrier membrane and I’m sure more caulking will be called for around the place. So I’m glad I have this option.

It works best for large jobs of course. For small shorter jobs, like caulking the vent patch, I just used the manual gun. It is the long stretches of crawlspace walls for the tarp edges where this really saves time.

Posted in Tools | Comments Off

Crawlspace “After”

Posted on December 5, 2014 by ellen

The conditioned crawlspace is almost complete. The vinyl tarps/billboards are sealed to the walls with caulk. The low VOC Loctite PL375 is inexpensive and easy to work with. It is both a construction adhesive and gap filling caulk and washes up with water.

North and East Walls

The seams are taped with double sided tape between the two layers and yellow vinyl tape on the top of the seams. I used the tape that I bought at the Restore when the plastic vapor barrier was being installed under the concrete. This tape was made by a Denver manufacturer–Bron Tapes.

Under the Back Door, Taped and Caulked

In this photo you can see the hump in the foreground that is the sewer and water pipes.

Transition from hallway to main area

The original slab continued under the wall and stairs so I covered it with the vapor barrier and caulked it to the top.

Slab Edge Caulked under Hallway and Stairs–next to Master Bedroom

The area around each of the posts is taped–this one was tricky because it had a small gap between the 2 x 4’s. So I taped a narrow piece between the two posts and then connected it on each side to form a gapless layer.

Taped around posts

The old screened vent to the outside was covered by replacing the hole that was made in the 1″ foil covered polyiso and taping it with the special sticky air barrier Siga Sicrall 60 air barrier tape, then filling in the hole in the 2 x 12 rim joist with polyiso from the inside and taping that with the Siga tape. Then fitting a piece of scrap board in the hole in the siding and caulking all the gaps around that.

Outside vent

Finally I used a bit of textured hardboard from an old hollow core door to cover the messy caulked patch.

New vent cover

This is another big task to check off the To Do list. We are getting close to finishing this fall’s work. We need to start another list in the new year!

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Local Products, Radon Mitigation | Comments Off

Wood Boiler Clarification

Posted on December 4, 2014 by ellen

The “Boiler Room” forum on Hearth.com had some folks willing to try to answer my concerns about the system pump overcoming the vent pipe and pushing boiler water into the overflow tank. Unfortunately they had some concerns of their own, mostly about my competence. That was a bit wounding but I tried to just get the info I needed and move on. This is the forum discussion on the topic.

Someone mentioned that with an open system the boiler pressure cannot be higher than the opposite pressure from the elevated tank and it’s “head” or water would flow into the overflow tank.

Pressure in Boiler is Balanced by Pressure from the Elevated Tank

But for the open tank there were several cautions and requirements especially about the corrosive influence of the water in the overflow tank bringing oxygen into the system that seemed to make it a poorer choice than a closed system. The relationship between the vent and the feed pipes remained murky–wasn’t obvious if both are needed, and I can’t really find a full explanation anywhere. Since I have a pressurized fill system instead of the gravity feed of the open tank too, it seemed obvious that I had to move away from the open tank.
Once I understood that the open tank overflow system was specified in the installation instructions to keep the pressure in the boiler under the maximum system operating pressure of 2 bar, then it made sense to forgo the open tank and its issues of design and operation and just use a low pressure relief valve.

Spectra Stove Maximum Working Pressure

Atmospheric pressure at about 30 inches of mercury (the standard measure) equals 14.7 psi or about 1 bar. So operating the system with a 15 psi pressure relief valve will ensure that the system stays well under the maximum operating pressure. These conversions are made easy because of the online measurement converters for air pressure. I used this one–from a free source code site–enter any measure and all others are converted to match!

I ordered a 15 psi pressure relief valve and a 4.7 gallon pressurized boiler expansion tank last night and will install them instead.

The question still remained whether the pump would have provided too much pressure in the system, tripping the 15 psi relief valve, but that is not going to be the case. (Coincidentally, the head from the open tank would have had the same effect on the water in the boiler as the 15 psi pressure relief valve–it would not have moved up the pipe due to the opposite pressure of the height of the water in the vent pipe (head) and atmospheric pressure.)

The explanation from a forum expert was, “Although the pump is intended to build pressure, it is also pulling suction at the same time. Since your system will always maintain a positive head pressure, the entire system will remain flooded at all times. This means that instead of the pump “building pressure” it will just serve to move water.”

The Taco 006 is a high head lower flow pump because there is so much water pumping into the boiler and pulling from the storage tank and pipes. It would have to overcome the total head in the boiler system to build enough pressure to blow the pressure relief valve.

This is the new piping diagram.

Dibble Fireplace Boiler Piping-15

Posted in Fireplace Boiler, Planning, Radiant Heat | Comments Off

Wood Boiler Confusion

Posted on December 2, 2014 by ellen

There is a problem with the piping design for the wood boiler. I finally got all the leaks fixed and the system holds air pressure, but I had the vent pipe plugged so that air would not escape up into the overflow/header tank.

Boiler System holds Air

Sometime in the process I started to wonder what was going to keep the water from just pumping up into the header tank and filling it to overflow instead of pumping the water out to the storage tank. The pump puts the header tank under pressure from below. The pipe is plumbed to dump the water into the tank but through an open hole, not a sealed one. This open tank just doesn’t seem to make sense.

Dibble Fireplace Boiler Piping-14

In fact the water enters the tank from an opening in the side, more like this drawing.

Open System Header Tank

I planned to plug up the other opening in the tank and connect a tube to the highest as an overflow. I didn’t have a return loop to the boiler from this tank because I am filling the system from the storage tank side where the incoming water is located.

The overflow is supposed to go into the upper tank if the stove gets too hot–here is the photo of it getting temporarily installed for testing.

Overflow Tank for Boiler

The pex pipe would connect to the upper copper pipe and the air assembly below that disassembled and plugged since I won’t have a cold return from the tank. Unless I have to! More investigation is required. I did post this question at the Boiler Room at Hearth.com hoping some expert will let me know how to deal with this issue. (Hearth.com experts were not happy with the pex pipe to the overflow, nor the small size of it–and cautioned that the pex would expand and move with any heated water in it and possibly disconnect from the tank entirely, so this pipe would have to be copper too–I had planned to use copper when the tank was moved to a structure above the stove but now the entire open system is scrapped for a closed system instead–See Wood Stove Clarification.)

Posted in Fireplace Boiler, Planning, Radiant Heat | Comments Off

Crawlspace Conditioning

Posted on November 23, 2014 by ellen

We had the initial energy audit done in March of 2012. One of the recommendations in the audit was to condition the crawlspace.

“Your crawlspace can cause major air quality and energy issues in your home. The vents in this area should be sealed. A vapor barrier laid and sealed on the floor, and R-19 vinyl faced fiberglass batt installed on the walls. Pay special attention to air sealing and insulating rim joist areas.”

Covering the dirt in the crawlspace is also part of the radon mitigation process. Since we found out that the exterior of the concrete walls is covered with 4″ of xps foam, more insulation on the crawlspace walls is not a priority, but covering the ground was an important step in adding the crawlspace to the “conditioned” space in the house.

When we purchased the polyiso from Repurposed Materials, we also picked up a couple of heavy vinyl former billboards. We happened to buy 36 x 10.5 ft size–although I had not measured and was not looking for a particular size, one sheet was exactly the width and length of the larger side of the crawlspace. The second one was cut to fill in the rest of the space.

Vinyl over cleared out dirt

The vinyl has a 4″ “edge” where it was mounted to the billboard with pipe–this will be caulked to the concrete walls. All the perforations such as the beam supports and the plumbing will be taped to prevent air/radon escaping into the area.

Taped around plumbing

The vinyl is cleaner and makes it much easier to crawl over than over the raw dirt.

Clean vinyl covers dirt

Here is the second piece of vinyl being installed.

Second piece of vinyl

While installing the first piece, I drug it around under the floor–unfolding it was difficult and time consuming. For the second piece, I cut it and refolded it above ground to make it easier to spread into the space. The colored advertisement portion of the billboard is facing down.

Spreading out the vinyl

The narrow area under the hallway to the bedrooms, has a bit of extra vinyl at the edge. It can be extended over the edge of what is left of the master bedroom’s original concrete slab.

Vinyl in the narrow “hallway” area

I still have some taping and the caulking to finish the floor but it feels like quite an accomplishment to finally get the vinyl installed almost three years after the house was purchased and the initial energy audit recommendation.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Construction, Radon Mitigation | Comments Off

Crawlspace “Before”

Posted on November 23, 2014 by ellen

My first look at the crawlspace under the back part of the house revealed a bit about how the house is supported in the back but also that the builders were not very tidy–leaving a bunch of extra insulation, plastic, boards etc. behind them. These “before” photos were taken in February of 2012, shortly after we took possession of the house.

The crawlspace has a triple 2 x 12 beam crossing parallel to the wall in the hallway that holds the master bedroom roof on one side and the clerestory and part of the attic on the other.

Main beam with rocky ground

This mess was in the far corner near the vent that is now being used for radon mitigation.

Mess in the corner

Throughout the area scraps of insulation, not only pink stuff used in the floor but also yellow stuff that had been used in the walls were scattered. You can see the radon vent in this photo. It may have just been for cross ventilation in the original plan.

Insulation and plastic scraps–the black circle in the stud wall is the vent pipe

Also there were many short pieces of cut off 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 piled about.

Piles of short boards

And some scraps of plywood discarded in the space.

More boards and insulation

Lots of junk to haul out one piece at a time–crawling army style on my stomach over hard clay rocky ground. At least it was dry!

Boards under the house

This shows the end of the main beam and a diagonal spur beam that crosses to the foundation wall near the back door. Lots of scrap wire, pieces of plastic, insulation, and even hose were under the house.

Bits of insulation and wire

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Leaks!

Posted on November 21, 2014 by ellen

The wood boiler is completely plumbed now on the storage side–have not wired anything yet. But I’m having trouble with leaks. I used the air compressor to look for leaks and found a couple of places that I had forgotten to tighten. They were easy fixes.
These two were taken apart, re-sealed with pipe dope and reconnected twice–and they still leak. Figure I stripped the threads by over-tightening so I’m ordering new hex type nipples. I like those better than close nipples.

Hot Side Leak

Cold Side Leak

I would think the leaks were because of the stove-side pipe connections but none of the plugs on other stove outlets leak like this. Hopefully these leaks can be repaired and I can replace the air in the system with water.

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Wood Boiler–EPA Exempt–plus Safety Certification

Posted on November 19, 2014 by ellen

I didn’t get any comments on the piping layouts at hearth.com, but I did have a forum disagreement with a poster about the safety certification of this foreign made stove.

The statement was made that stoves that are not UL/CSA listed cannot be installed or sold in North America. There seems to be some bias toward UL certification which used to be a non-profit safety testing lab for electric appliances. In 2012 the company became for profit and have influenced some insurance companies to require their certification for wood stoves. This company does not have the facilities to test wood stoves so they use outside certifiers. Some people have had trouble with insurance agents who insisted that UL test their stoves! In fact the poster referred to his insurance agent as the source for his statement and based on his insurance, it was true for him, but non-UL certified stoves are not actually illegal or against any US regulations.

I re-read our home insurance policy and did some online research of other insurance companies and UL listing is not mentioned, it does not seem to be a universal insurance requirement. But some insurance companies get particular about wood stoves more so than fireplaces. Several web sites assert that there is no legal obligation to purchase or sell only UL listed appliances in the US. Consumer organizations respect the brand and recommend “looking for” this safety listing but appliances that are not listed can be just as safe as those that are. European standards also appear to be just as safety conscious as US or Canadian standards.

The Spectra fireplace wood boiler is certified by the Polish Center for Accreditation.

PCA Approved Spectra Stove

The stove has an official letter of certification from this organization and was tested by this independent lab to earn it.

Spectra Stove Certification

Here is the Google Translation of the letter above:

Institute of Thermal Technology
www.itc.edu.pl

A certificate No 331 (image of PCA seal)
Wood-burning fireplace
Spectra / Funke Aqua
a power rating of 25 kW
with the band aqueous
produced by the company:
Cichewicz Boiler C. O. Sp. with o.o
Ilino 20 B
09-100 Plonsk
was examined by the Research Laboratory of boilers, turbines, equipment,
heating and de-dusting and dust-gas emissions
Section Koslow and Heating Equipment
Institute of Thermal Technology
accredited by the Polish Centre for Accreditation
(Certificate No. AB 048) ITC report Reg. No. 8028

and meets the requirements in terms of efficiency, greenhouse gas and safe
operation stipulated in the Polish Standard BS EN 13229

additional Disclaimer
-Unit Water is designed to work in an open heating system
protected open expansion vessel PN-91 / B-02413.
Provide indispensable service-producer and delivery of spare parts.

Validity of the certificate expires on: 24.04.2010 r.

Dyrecktor
Institut Technique Ciepincj

The European standard for wood boilers includes a requirement for specific measurements of the stove’s size, efficiency, output, etc. The table is on the second page of the certification.

Spectra Stove Certification p.2

This is the English version of the data table.

Spectra Certification Data Table

Not only has the stove been tested for PCA certification–it also earned CE certification (an explanation of CE) which is the European safety standard. This is because this wood boiler was manufactured by Cichewicz in Poland but sold by Buderus, a large German company that specializes in boilers of all kinds. Here is a photo of the CE label.

CE Certification Buderus-Lublin

The person who insisted that UL certification was required, didn’t seem to care about EPA certification. At first I thought that was what was being discussed because EPA certification has been required for all wood stoves sold in the United States since 1990.

The EPA requirements adopted in 1988 exempt some types of wood burners.
“The following are not affected facilities and are not subject to this sub-part:
(1) Open masonry fireplaces constructed on site,
(2) Boilers,
(3) Furnaces, and
(4) Cookstoves.”
Further, the requirements are to ensure that stoves meet emission and efficiency standards.
“An affected facility not equipped with a catalytic combustor shall not discharge into the atmosphere any gases which contain particulate matter in excess of a weighted average of 7.5 g/hr (0.017 lb/hr). Particulate emissions shall not exceed 15 g/hr (0.033 lb/hr) during any test run at a burn rate less than or equal to 1.5 kg/hr (3.3 lb/hr) that is required to be used in the weighted average and particulate emissions shall not exceed 18 g/hr (0.040 lb/hr) during any test run at a burn rate greater than 1.5 kg/hr (3.3 lb/hr) that is required to be used in the weighted average.
The estimated efficiency shall be 72 percent if the model is catalyst-equipped and 63 percent if the model is not catalyst equipped, and 78 percent if the model is designed to burn wood pellets for fuel.”

UPDATE: The EPA adopted new rules for wood burning heaters in February, 2015. These rules are not retroactive to units already in use. The new rules include hydronic heaters, but the standard in 2016 is .32 lb/mmBtu particulate matter with a cap of 18g/h per individual burn rate. By 2020 the standard will be .10 lb/mmBtu with a cap of .15 g/h per burn rate. So the new rules for hydronic heaters are less stringent than the 1988 wood stove standard.

In Colorado, wood stoves that are not EPA approved cannot be burned in certain areas on certain days, and they cannot be installed in the Denver Metro area at all. (Colorado Rule pdf) However, the Colorado rules exempt, wood cook stoves, wood boilers and furnaces because no EPA certification for a wood boiler exists. On “no burn” days in Colorado, Phase II or EPA approved stoves may be used. The Spectra wood boiler appears to meet or exceed the EPA requirements for high efficiency and low emissions for a wood burning appliance so we are confident we are doing out part to limit pollution while still safely using a renewable resource for heat.

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On Second Thought…

Posted on November 19, 2014 by ellen

After working with the components, I changed the wood boiler layout a bit. This is really the 14th version of the piping layout.

Dibble Fireplace Boiler Piping-14

The wood boiler plumbing is installed and set up for air testing before filling with water.

Wood Boiler Hookup

The main difference between the first and second plumbing configuration (or 13th and 14th) is that the old hot water tank is on the wood boiler side instead of on the gas boiler side. It occurred to me that the gas boiler piping should be kept free of any possible sediment in the old water tank so I put the hot water from the wood boiler into the tank instead of into the heat exchanger.

The pipes from the wood boiler are connected to the side ports of the water heater. I installed a pressure relief valve and an expansion tank on the tank even though the wood boiler piping should not be under pressure. The storage tank is far enough from the open piping on the wood boiler that it is possible that pressure could build up in the hot water tank. I thought it was easy enough to install these safety measures.

Stove to Water Heater

The make up water inlet was easier to connect from the utility room too–so the fresh cold water will enter the wood boiler loop from the storage tank on the return side of the heat exchanger.

Cold Water Connection

This change means that the water from the top of the hot water tank will feed the heat exchanger and return past the water inlet, the expansion tank and back into the water tank. This loop has the pump on it and a Honeywell aquastat. When the water pumping into the heat exchanger from the water storage tank is hot enough, it will circulate through the heating system. When it is not hot, the aquastat will send a signal to the Taco relay to turn on the gas boiler.

Storage Tank Loop

This setup is also different because the radiant heat water will always pass through the gas boiler side of the heat exchanger. The pipes are not far away but the diversion might remove heat from the gas boiler’s hot water. I might have to install another zone valve to stop circulation to the heat exchanger when the storage tank is not hot.

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Polyiso Insulation Boards

Posted on November 12, 2014 by ellen

The polyiso insulation boards have been going up on the ceiling! We purchased a “bunk” of recycled boards from Repurposed Materials. Or it may have been two bunks–or about 60 4×8 sheets. This is the same recycling business that sold us the blue XPS 2 x 8 ft. panels for the foundation perimeter. They have been growing by leaps and bounds and now have expanded to Chicago and soon to Atlanta! I’m glad to see that there is growing interest in reuse and repurposing as well as recycling.

We chose the 1 1/2″ 4 x8 sheets of plain paper backed board. We didn’t need foil backed stuff because that functions as an air barrier and we will have an air barrier inside this layer. In the background you can see the boards ready for application. This may be the first photo of Dave working on the house on the blog. He is putting up the polyiso after working all summer on mostly outside projects. He uses a long bladed utility knife to cut the boards.

Cut to Fit

The 1.5 inch boards will add about R-10 or so to the R-46 rockwool insulation as well as form a thermal barrier at the joists so the wood does not conduct cold through to the ceiling. This is an infrared photo of the thermal bridging at the cathedral ceiling from our initial energy audit. The wooden rafters transmit cold from the outside to the inside enough to see the temperature difference in the photo. The polyiso layer should eliminate thermal bridging.

Thermal Bridging

The walls already have a thermal barrier because there is 1″ foil covered polyiso used as outside sheathing. So the wall near the window does not show colder studs than the insulated walls.

Outside walls with polyiso

Once all the polyiso is installed this will be true for the ceiling too. When we have walls, this will be the family room ceiling. Dave is spraying Great Stuff foam into any cracks between the boards. There is a skylight in this ceiling and allows for updraft cooling in the house on hot days. Skylights are considered energy wasters though. Energy saving is a trade off.

Cathedral Ceiling

Just for the heck of it, I aimed a temperature differential meter at the ceiling where there is partial coverage of polyiso. The temp at the ceiling without insulation was about 58, the temp at the insulation was 70.1 and the temp at the polyise was 74.6.

Flat Ceiling

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Wood Boiler Plumbing

Posted on November 10, 2014 by ellen

I am currently connecting the plumbing for the wood boiler. I am pretty sure I’m spending way too much money on this system for its value in our super insulated house. But we are used to heating with wood and since the house has radiant heat it seemed to make sense at the time to install a wood burning fireplace that also heats water for the radiant system.

This is the current rendition of the boiler piping and wiring diagram. It is actually the tenth diagram from the original layout. I found the translation from the Polish manual and the technical language in other resources a bit difficult and this layout took a lot of study.

Dibble Fireplace Boiler Piping-10

For comparison, this was the first rendition. I was pretty confused about the configuration of the open system above the boiler, as well as how I would get the hot water from the boiler to the heating system. I knew I didn’t want to mix the rolled steel side with the pex, copper, and stainless side so from the beginning I was planning to use a flat plate heat exchanger to keep the systems separate.

Dibble Fireplace Boiler Piping-1

The most helpful information for the assembly of this system came from Nofossil.org. I found the site through the wood boiler forum at hearth.com. I just posted this diagram to that forum and I’m waiting for comments. It is great to have an interactive site with experts just waiting to answer your questions.

This is the diagram from nofossil that helped me design the system. Of course my 40 gallon water heater does not have enough storage, and I am not using a stand alone Domestic Hot Water (DHW) tank–our hot water is heated instantaneously by the gas boiler.

Boilers plumbing-diagram

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RED bedroom!

Posted on November 9, 2014 by ellen

The kitchen set up makes it much easier to cook for ourselves, but the added advantage was moving the kitchen out of the second bedroom and setting up a bed for overnight guests. The red bedroom is a bit shocking to some with its fire engine red walls and orange ceiling. The room positively glows in the sunlight! But it is also kind of cool. (warm?)

Queen sized bed

The hum of the radon fan can be heard in this room, but setting the bed up against the loft wall seems to dampen it a bit.

Bed with loft over

We had been using the room as a sitting room/kitchen/storage area. The kitchen table and chairs were set up when the old hickory furniture first arrived.

Bedroom “kitchen”

The tables and the sitting area worked as a breakfast and lunch eating space. Dinners were served at the kids house. We still go there for dinner almost every night!

Kitchen table in bedroom

We had the basics for a kitchen in the bedroom and did the dishes in the bathroom sink. The dorm fridge set up in the closet worked better for short visits than it did with two of us using it all the time. Glad to have a larger “automatic defrost” model now!

Dorm fridge in closet

We are also looking forward to having some overnight guests!

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