Recent content by Dana

The priority for building upgrades would then be: 1: air seal the attic floor/upper floor ceiling plane 1a: air seal the basement walls, starting with the foundation sill & band joists. 2: insulate the attic floor (no AC or heating ducts up there, right?) 3: insulate the foundation walls to a...

The Navien manifold is a hydraulic separator, necessary to guarantee minimum flow through the boiler no matter what the zone radiation flows are doing. The way your system is plumbed doesn't have a hydraulic separation feature, and the radiation flows interact with both the boiler flow and...

Brick clad, but are the walls insulated? Single pane windows/storms, or low-E replacements? Are the basement foundation walls insulated? Attic insulation? A typical 3900' uninsulated 3 story with storms over single panes leaks air like a tennis racquet, and with the height of 3 floors (+...

Are you sure the Viessman is even appropriately sized for the loads ? In particular the individual zone loads, but the whole house load may be too small too. Use the existing boiler and last winter's fuel use as a measuring instrument to find out the whole house load, using this methodology...

Can't put glycol in an "...open system...", which I took to mean it's running potable water in the baseboards. In most of NC it's possible to freeze protect an old farmhouse with systematic upgrades to the building envelope, but it's not cheap. What ZIP code (for weather data and ground...

A check valve works the same where ever it it positioned within the loop.

It depends on the car, but people in Scandanvia camp out in their Tesla Model 3s in sub-zero weather with plenty of charge left to get home. Not all current EVs use heat pumps for most do, but most WILL in short years. The range penalty of running the heater isn't huge with any Tesla, even in...

Consider buying an electric vehicle (EV)- for most the maintenance is essentially reduced to tires & windshield wipers. If you're into road trips, favor quick-charging speed over range. (The Mustang EV has reasonable max range, but the last 20% for topping it up is excruciating.) In short...

It's fine if they're on the side branches of the tee (since there is already turbulence from turning the T corner), but to achieve reasonable hydraulic separation it's best if there is at least some straight pipe both before & after the tees on the long axis. The tried & true rules of thumb for...

Yer welcome! With 3.5" deep cavities partially filled with closed cell foam you'll probably be able to use the fire & soundproofing batts. As for air tightness installing a carefull taped & detailed layer of 2mil nylon "smart" vapor retarder (eg: Certainteed MemBrain) under the drywall would...

If you can afford it, add 1-2" of CLOSED CELL spray polyurethane directly on to the existing polyiso, sealing it to the steel studs, covering the interior side of exterior stud edge. That would bring the foam R up to R12, which would then be good enough to fill up the remaining ~3" of stud bay...

In Chapter 11 of the IRC 2021 (see TABLE N1102.1.3) the code minimum R value for basement walls for your location (Charlestown NH is in US climate zone 6A) is R15 continuous insulation (c.i.) or R19 between wood stud (bad solution) , or R5 c.i. + R13 between wood studs. The 2" of XPS is labeled...

I'm still around- not dead yet. ;) I can't respond in full right now (prepping for a ski race only a few hours from right now), but should be able to look at it in depth on Tuesday.

Wind chill is only about the heat loss from exposed human skin- it has zero effect on the physics of the water in the exhaust gases condensing & freezing in the flue. The absolute temperature is what matters here. Heat tape does indeed help mitigate against flue frost-up on those -40 (true...

While good & correct advice no amount of slope is sufficient to keep the vent from icing up when operating near or at minimum fire in condensing mode in a climate as cool as International Falls MN. Vent icing is a common problem for condensing equipment (even 1 speed condensing furnaces) in...