Apartment buildings and condominiums are home to families with different comfort preferences or attitudes on energy use. Similarly, many commercial buildings are divided into spaces where tenants have different temperature requirements or usage schedules.
Last month, we looked at a piping approach for adding a pellet boiler and panel radiators to an existing two-zone baseboard system. The system’s original oil-fired boiler was being retained as an auxiliary heat source.
Over the last several years, I’ve been reviewing submittals for proposed heating systems using pellet-fired boilers. The submittals come from heating professionals ranging from contractors to professional engineers. They’re required for a state incentive program that offers significant rebates to encourage growth of the biomass heating market.
Last month, we discussed using a non-pressurized thermal storage tank, in combination with brazed plate heat exchangers in a system supplied by a cordwood gasification boiler.
When designing hydronic circuits, most of us focus on what’s necessary for that circuit to absorb thermal energy at a heat source, carry it along like a conveyor belt and release that energy at one or more heat emitters.