Alternety
Like an engineer
Heating system about 12 years old
System was generally working last spring. System is configured to exercise pumps.
When I turned on heat a couple of weeks ago it felt like the temperature was a bit low. But thermostat readings showed it was at set levels. It is a tricky part of the year. The house is well insulated, has large South facing windows that begin to get winter sun about now. It makes it a bit confusing for the system since a significant amount of solar energy is accumulated in the floors and other mass. It has not been a real problem.
The thermostat controlling the great room has never worked properly. There are two zones controlled by the great room thermostat. The slab sensors that were installed for this area were not done correctly. I finally removed the sensors and configured the thermostat for air. That seems to be working.
Around 4 days ago things started to get cold in the house. I started looking at the system and there was no longer heat flowing to the in-floor tubing. There are multiple manifolds and valves running on the Tekmar control.
The system is set up with a short loop with closely spaced exit/return pipes for the DHW. There is a pump for the primary circulation loop and a pump for transferring hot water to the DHW tank.
Another loop is attached to the primary loop for floor heating. It has a pump that circulates water from the primary loop to a storage tank that acts as a system buffer for the floor heating.
There is a large loop with another pump that circulates hot water from the buffer tank for the various heating zones.
Several days ago it was clear we were not getting heat. DHW continued to work
There area whole bunches of wires in numerous electrical boxes; sans labels.
When I changed the great room thermostat from slab to air I fooled around with settings on the middle 369 that was controlling that device. As far as I can tell, my settings are good. I have reviewed all of the settings in the 369 and the 262. As best as I can tell, everything is set to reasonable (for default) settings. This afternoon I found that the 262 does not appear to keep setting changes. I am still pursuing this issue. There are a couple of places that seem to refer to slab sensors, but I do not understand them.
The Tekmar controllers are not turning on the floor heating. Using the diagnostic button on all of the controllers shows nothing. I can not find any indication the 262 has a battery for saving parameters. The 369s all seem to have functioning batteries.
It feels like the 262 is bad; despite the internal diagnostics. Or I have somehow screwed something up.
I would really appreciate some help here. I don't really have anyone locally that I know I can trust to fool around with the installation. So far the house is merely uncomfortable. My wife is seriously annoyed. But external weather is making it worse. And I have plants that do not deal well with temps in the 60s.
Diagnostic suggestions will be explored. Ideas explored.
W-M version Ultra 80 Series 2
Tekmar' 3 X 369, 262, Thermostats around the house These are all TN1 versions.
Low water sensor - works as designed. Does not interfere with making DHW.
Temperature sensor on pipe - probably works as designed. Does not cut off DHW. It is in a very awkward location; I will try to get the case off.
Outside temp sensor.
No slab sensors.
Tekmar' 3 X 369, 262, Thermostats around the house These are all TN1 versions.
Low water sensor - works as designed. Does not interfere with making DHW.
Temperature sensor on pipe - probably works as designed. Does not cut off DHW. It is in a very awkward location; I will try to get the case off.
Outside temp sensor.
No slab sensors.
System was generally working last spring. System is configured to exercise pumps.
When I turned on heat a couple of weeks ago it felt like the temperature was a bit low. But thermostat readings showed it was at set levels. It is a tricky part of the year. The house is well insulated, has large South facing windows that begin to get winter sun about now. It makes it a bit confusing for the system since a significant amount of solar energy is accumulated in the floors and other mass. It has not been a real problem.
The thermostat controlling the great room has never worked properly. There are two zones controlled by the great room thermostat. The slab sensors that were installed for this area were not done correctly. I finally removed the sensors and configured the thermostat for air. That seems to be working.
Around 4 days ago things started to get cold in the house. I started looking at the system and there was no longer heat flowing to the in-floor tubing. There are multiple manifolds and valves running on the Tekmar control.
The system is set up with a short loop with closely spaced exit/return pipes for the DHW. There is a pump for the primary circulation loop and a pump for transferring hot water to the DHW tank.
Another loop is attached to the primary loop for floor heating. It has a pump that circulates water from the primary loop to a storage tank that acts as a system buffer for the floor heating.
There is a large loop with another pump that circulates hot water from the buffer tank for the various heating zones.
Several days ago it was clear we were not getting heat. DHW continued to work
There area whole bunches of wires in numerous electrical boxes; sans labels.
When I changed the great room thermostat from slab to air I fooled around with settings on the middle 369 that was controlling that device. As far as I can tell, my settings are good. I have reviewed all of the settings in the 369 and the 262. As best as I can tell, everything is set to reasonable (for default) settings. This afternoon I found that the 262 does not appear to keep setting changes. I am still pursuing this issue. There are a couple of places that seem to refer to slab sensors, but I do not understand them.
The Tekmar controllers are not turning on the floor heating. Using the diagnostic button on all of the controllers shows nothing. I can not find any indication the 262 has a battery for saving parameters. The 369s all seem to have functioning batteries.
It feels like the 262 is bad; despite the internal diagnostics. Or I have somehow screwed something up.
I would really appreciate some help here. I don't really have anyone locally that I know I can trust to fool around with the installation. So far the house is merely uncomfortable. My wife is seriously annoyed. But external weather is making it worse. And I have plants that do not deal well with temps in the 60s.
Diagnostic suggestions will be explored. Ideas explored.
