Dave Lotte

Matthew Nistico wrote:

Dave Lotte wrote:
Back porch now turns on the water heater !

Am I getting all that right?

Yup.
The Elsid pump i have here , only uses 10 watts per hour, while a grunfos pump easily uses 100 watts an hour.  Your " lots of power " to do a small job theory....
The Elsid pump is also 20 years old, and only showing 3 lights, when running at full capacity ( properly )  - it should have 4 lights.  So its not running at full capacity...
Going to soak the little filter in vinegar for a few days and reinstall.  It is there for a reason...,
350 $ for a new pump or 1,000 $ for a new water heater.... not a tough call.

Testing all 6 zones of the house heating, and still finding the back porch does not have enough flow to turn on the water heater ( by itself ).
Before buying another 350 $ low voltage circulating pump, thought i would remove this teeny - tiny filter.  
Since it is in a closed loop system,  there should not be a whole lot of crud in there  (??)

Back porch now turns on the water heater !

After realizing that i could track my power usage by looking at my hydro meter ( duh ! ), i went out and took a video of it cycling through the numbers.

Started at 767 kilowatt hours.  Tried to leave it for 24 hours, but kinda forgot about it.  35 hours later, with the heat on in the bedroom, and having a 40 minute infrared sauna session then a nice hot shower, i checked it again....  sitting at 796 kilowatt hours.

So, did another test.  Turned the heat on in the bedroom, turned off the dehumidifier and only microwaved my breakfast.  11 pm to 11 am .... 808 kilowatt hours.

Looks like either way i am burning about 1 kilowatt per hour.  

Going to have to see how this house compares to the old farm house.  On a -20 day it would usually use 1 megawatt a month in the winter 1,000 kilowatt hours.  I think that is the right term ....

Time will tell.

About the only priority i have when heating the house, is too keep my kitties warm.  Siamese do not like cold.  Main bedroom is being kept at 74 F.  Main house will try for 72.

That being said, trying to figure out the heating bill, so i started to crunch some numbers.

Water pump with only main bedroom running can move .4 gallon a minute.
.4 x 60 minutes = 24 gallons an hour.
Energy rquired to heat 25 gallons per hour up 30 degrees ( floor is 65 water temp is around 95 )  ... 6250 b.t.u.
1 kilowatt of energy equals 3412 btu.
This is just a wild guesstimate.
I do realize that there are btu/hours and kilowatt/ hours,  and trying to figure out the flow and all that, but overall, it does not sound like i will be using very much energy to keep my kitties warm.

Matthew Nistico wrote:Those are some stripped screw heads!

Yaa.  20 years old...

I'm feeling a little stripped as i get older too.

Matthew Nistico wrote:

So how were you able to overcome the minimum flow cut-off built into your heater?

This works right into my next post, because apparently this is why it was shutting off....

I still like Stiebel Eltron water heaters.

Installed the brand new flow sensor in my 20 year old water heater, turned on 2 zones and it ran flawlessly all day.
Once the 2nd zone shut off, after a while - the water heater stopped heating !

Time to do some troubleshooting...

Now, i knew the flow sensor was bad, when i tapped the old one with a screwdriver and it came on - thats fixed...
Works fine with 2 or more zones - so it does work...
Must be the flow.

Read the 20 year old - paper - owners manual, and found that there is a fine water filter at the base of the cold water inlet.
Opened that up, pulled the filter and of course since its 20 years old, it was half clogged with stuff.

It now has more flow ( built in flow meter on manifold )  with only 1 zone running, and the circulating pump is running a bit cooler now too...

Thank you Stieble Eltron !

The plan is to use the 20 year old on demand water heater from the old house, to run the radiant floor heating in the new house.
Ran into a bit of a snag.  The water heater has worked flawlessly all this time, but when moved over and installed, the slow ..., steady flow of water was not enough to turn it on.   Turns out the flow sensor was the issue.
All searches led to the same conclusion ... discontinued, no longer available.... just when i thought i was stuck with an orphan - i contacted Stiebel Eltron U.S.A.
Not only did they quickly locate the part i needed, but then worked out a discount as well.

The heater is now back up and running, ready to heat the house for the winter.

The president in the U.S.A may be despised by most, but i don't blame the people who live there.

Now awaiting the bill for the tariffs.

Coydon Wallham wrote:To be clear, this is specifically within the Facebook app if installed?

Yes.

Both of my accounts gave access to my pictures and videos, so they could " suggest" what i share.

If you use Facebook ....

To all my friends and followers, please follow these instructions and see if facebook is looking at all your pictures on your phone.

Menu
Settings and privacy
Settings
Sharing suggestions
Creative ideas

This is what i found on BOTH my personal account AND the Hobbit home account.
Both turned on.
Now turned off.

Randomly looking at my videos and pictures - i dont think so.

Fot those of you who are wondering if i worry about the 44 tons of earth above my head every day with more to add  ....  not one bit.

Pictures to help explain....

You see, once i made my layout clear to the architect that i wanted post spacing along the beam at 15-15-10  - she wanted to evenly space the posts along the I beam,   10-10-10   or  15-15-15  -  after explaining to her that the engineer will engineer the largest span for the load .... in this case, the 15 foot living room and kitchen are engineered AND rated for TWICE this weight ( i could double the top soil up to 88 tons ).

Here is where it gets interesting - the bedrooms are only 10 feet wide.  With the extra wooden beam worked in there as well - the bedroom roof can hold far more snow load or topsoil since it is 5 feet shorter.
Also, with the wooden beams closer together  ( 24 inch on center instead of 32 inch on center )  it is the strongest part of the building.

The first picture shows the 15 foot span for the main rooms.  Green dots are 32 inch on center beams,  purple dots are the 15 foot span.  Nice and solid -  verified by the engineer to carry the load.

Second picture shows blue dots for the 10 foot span ( shorter and stronger )  while it also shows the red dots ( 32 inch on center beams as required )  but then you have that bit of extra space - so you need an extra beam - which the yellow dots are 24 inch on center.

Making the spot directly under my bed the safest,  strongest spot in the building.

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