Triangle Tube

The new Prestige TriMax Control revolutionizes the setup and control of the Prestige Condensing Boiler.  Truly unique, the TriMax makes every aspect of control of the Prestige boiler simple and intuitive.  This is most evident during boiler setup. 

The EZ Setup function allows the boiler to be setup in less than 60 seconds in most cases.  The most common setup options are quickly available with 6 pre-programmed outdoor reset curves.  Domestic hot water settings for use with indirect water heaters such as Triangle Tube's are completed quickly.  The new TriMax control is standard on both the Prestige Solo and Prestige Excellence models. 

The video below demonstrates boiler setup with the TriMax 60 second EZ setup.

The New Prestige Condensing Boiler has advanced features that further advance its position as the most reliable, user-friendly, and easy to install natural gas or propane boiler available.  The Prestige's high efficiency design provides an AFUE of 96% making it the green choice for residential and light commercial hydronic heating systems.  The Prestige Solo can be combined with a Smart Indirect Water Heater for domestic water needs while the Prestige Excellence can provide both space heating and domestic hot water from a single unit.

This video provides an overview of the advanced features of the new Prestige.  For more infomation visit Triangle Tube's website today. 

When the Anchorage Housing Authority approached Bittner Plumbing and Heating to upgrade the heat and hot water for their 44 unit apartment building, they wanted a system that would be efficient and reliable.  Paul Bittner of Bittner Plumbing and Heating worked with Mark Herrington at Heating and Ventilation sales to design in a Triangle Tube Prestige Cascade boiler system with Smart Indirect Water heaters to do the job.

The 44 units are heated with baseboard radiation and the hot water for all units is provided by the twin 120 gallon Smart tanks.  ThePrestige Cascade Condensing Boiler unit is built with three 399 MBH boilers.  This provides a highly efficient and effective boiler plant.  By combining the three boilers, a turndown of over 10 to 1 is achieved.  This helps the plant run efficiently with parallel modulation.  With three boilers, the building has the reliability of redundancy in the event of a boiler error or maintenance.  The three boilers are vented with a common vent manifold to minimize the vent piping and provide a single vent pipe.

The Smart Indirect Water Heaters are also both highly reliable and efficient.  The inner stainless steel tank is designed to expand and contract as the water temperature changes during use.  This tank expansion eliminates scale build-up which reduces efficiency and leads to tank failures.  The unique tank-in-tank design provides a large surface area for heat transfer which reduces the amount of time required to heat the water.  These two Smart units replaced conventional direct fired water heaters.  The Smart tanks have 2" of foam insulation completely surrounding the tanks, keeping heat loss down to less than 2 degrees F per hour.

The Housing Authority's decision to upgrade their cast iron boilers and conventional water heaters with Triangle Tube's efficient Prestige and Smart models is saving money every day. As the heating season progresses I will post the savings data. 

The new Challenger Solo Condensing Boiler joins the Challenger Combi Boiler in providing high efficiency hydronic heating in a compact package.  The Challenger Combi boiler provides both heat and domestic hot water, eliminating the need for a separate water heater.  The Challenger Solo boiler provides heat and can provide domestic hot water when paired with an indirect water heater.

The Challenger Solo boiler features a copper tube heat exchanger with an aluminum combustion block.  This unique design is durable and suitable for glycol applications because the system water or glycol flows only in the copper piping.  The aluminum block efficiently transfers the heat from the combustion air and it's light weight makes installation easy.

The Challenger Solo is available in 85, 105, and 125 MBH sizes.  These models are sized to meet the needs of today's homes.  By modulating its output to match the radiant heating needs, the Challenger Solos will operate longer at lower temperatures, which improves efficiency.  These sizes of the Challenger Solo have an AFUE of 95% and operate on either natural gas or propane. 

The Challenger Solos can provide domestic hot water when paired with a Smart Indirect Water Heater.  The Smart can be sized to fit the needs of the residence, providing the instant hot water response that is expected from traditional tank water heaters, with the efficiency of an instantaneous water heater.

Click here for information about the Challenger Solo Condensing Boiler or other Triangle Tube products.

Most of us don't think about the size of our boiler until we are either cold and the boiler is running or buying a new boiler.  In the first case the boiler is undersized for the house.  When we are buying a new boiler we have the opportunity to avoid buying an undersized boiler.

It is a rare case where a boiler is undersized for a home, and while this prevents a cold house on the coldest days of the year, it also reduces potential efficiency gains.  In most of the year, the full capacity of the boiler is not required, and with low heating loads a boiler will need to cycle on and off to meet the needs.  Modulating boilers reduce this cycling as they can run at a low firing rate.  Traditional boilers operate simply on or off at the highest firing rate.

In a home with multiple zones, a condensing boiler works better than conventional boilers due to its ability to modulate, or adjust its firing rate from full fire to a rate that is only 1/3rd of its full firing rate.  Therefore, when a single zone in a home requires heat, the boiler is able to handle that requirement at firing rate that is better suited for the job.

Triangle Tube's Prestige and Challenger Condensing boilers are designed  to meet the needs of homes with single or multiple zones.  When combined with a Smart Indirect Water Heater they make an energy efficient solution to most hydronic heating needs.

Should flood waters contact a Triangle Tube Boiler, the boiler should be replaced per AHRI guidelines.

Triangle Tube’s Prestige and Challenger boilers are wall mounted, minimizing the impact of flood waters. By choosing one of these products homeowners can not only help prevent future damage, but can also save energy. Contact your local Triangle Tube representative for more information.   

Many of us dream of a future that does not depend on fossil fuels.  Projects like the Rehau Montana EcoSmart green home are showing us the path to this future.  Until we get to a completely fossil fuel free existance, our best choice is to use the least amount of the cleanest fossil fuels.

The engineers choose the Triangle Tube Prestige Condensing boiler to fill this need.  The Prestige minimizes fuel use with an AFUE of 96% and burns clean natural gas.  The Prestige has been designed to minimize emissions and meets California's strict 2012 SCAQMD NOx emissions limits.  The home features residential radiant heating, solar-thermal hot water, and many other energy efficient products.

Please click here to view a complete article on this exciting project !

In another post (click here) I described the combustion process for high efficiency boilers like Triangle Tube's Prestige and Challenger condensing boilers.    One of the key things to consider when installing a high efficiency boiler is the ventilation.  The ventilation is much different than a traditional atmospheric boiler.  The good news is that there are now more options than ever.

Traditional boilers burn an open flame that uses room air for the combustion process.  Heat then draws the flue gases naturally out a chimney or flue pipe.  Dampers are used to minimize the flow of outside air back into the house through the flue.  This process, while simple, is inefficient as it sends previously heated room air that is used in the combustion process up the flue.  In addition outside air frequently makes its way back through the flue damper into the room.

High efficiency boilers use a sealed combustion process.  Air is pushed into the burner by a fan.  This air is usually piped from the outside directly to the boiler to minimize drafts.  Room air can often be used, but in most cases, especially residential, this is not optimum as the room air has been heated so the energy that was used to heat the air was wasted.

Once the propane or natural gas fuel has been burned and the gas has passed through the heat exchanger, it is critical that this flue gas is properly sent outside.  Traditional boilers would use a chimney in most cases to carry the flue gas outside.  The natural convection of the hot flue gases would rise naturally up the chimney.  Because high efficiency boilers use a fan to drive the gases, and because their flue gases are not as hot as a traditional boiler (resulting in low NOx emissions), a chimney cannot be used directly as the flue-way.  It can be used as the chase that holds a flue pipe. The Prestige is approved to be vented through a chimney using a flexible polypropylene flue-way. This allows the flue-way to be installed around bends in a chimney making it much easier to use the chimney as a chase.

If an existing chimney cannot be used the Prestige and Challenger can both be vented vertically through a roof or horizontally through a wall.  There are many options for the terminations of the venting that will allow it to both function properly and look attractive.  Engineered terminations can help prevent flue gas recirculation, which can destroy a boiler.  It is important that the location of the venting be considered.  It must be located far enough from doorways and windows so that the flue gas cannot enter the house.  Triangle Tube's boilers are supplied with guides that outline the options. 

There are rapid advances in the use of the sun's energy that are making it attractive to a growing number of homeowners.  While solar power has been available for decades (even the White House had panels in the 1970's), the activity in this market is reaching a fever pitch.  These advances are reducing the costs of installation, which is driving new business, driving new investment, further reducing the costs.  That is the power of progress.

One of the best paybacks today in the solar market is solar thermal - using the sun to heat a home's hot water - and even help with some space heating.  The concept is actually very simple.  Circulate water or glycol through rooftop tubes that heat the water and then transfer that heat to domestic water.  Of course it is more complicated than it sounds and there are a lot of ways to get this done.  But the bottom line is that these relatively simple and compact systems can offset much of the energy used to heat the hot water in a home.  And this is significant because hot water heating makes up 25% of household energy costs.

Triangle Tube offers a solar hot water solution for homes with hydronic heating.  The Smart Multi-Energy (SME) Indirect Water Heater is designed to integrate solar energy into the complete hydronic system.  The  SME contains a heat transfer coil that transfers the heat from the solar panels to the hydronic system water that surrounds a domestic water tank.  This large volume of water (both hydronic system and domestic) is able to maximize the  heat energy from the solar panels.

When the solar panels are not able to meet the demand, the hydronic system provides heat from a boiler.  Triangle Tube's Prestige and Challenger natural gas or propane boilers are green choices as their AFUE's are 96% and 95% respectively.  They feature low NOx emissions and modulating controls using outdoor reset to minimize their carbon footprint.

There are four keys to successfully replacing your boiler.  By following these keys, you will ensure a fast trouble-free installation and much lower utility bills.  

1)  Selecting the right product - Craftsmen will tell you that building a fine piece of furniture starts with selecting the right wood.  The same is true in boiler replacement.  By selecting a reliable, highly efficient boiler, you will ensure that the project will be a success if the three other keys are followed.  Choosing a poorly designed product will ensure long term dissatisfaction, even if the other keys are correct.  Triangle Tube's Prestige and Challenger boilers are industry leaders in reliability and efficiency.  For more information on this, see the end of this post.

2)  Select the right contractor - Once again, a good contractor will make or break the project.  There is much more involved in replacing a boiler than simply removing the old boiler and inserting a new one.  The boiler must be sized and the piping layout reviewed to ensure that the heating system works in harmony.  A good contractor will have experience and proper training to know how to join all of the parts of the heating system into an efficient, effective, heating machine.  Click here to find certified Triangle Tube contractors in your area.

3)  Size the boiler properly - A lot has changed in your home since the last boiler was installed.  Perhaps you have new windows and/or doors.  Perhaps radiant floor heating was installed.  An addition may have been added, the attic has been insulated.  A proper heat loss analysis must be performed to select the proper boiler for the house.  An boiler that is too large will cause excessive cycling and drive up energy costs.  One that is too small will not keep the house warm on the coldest days.

4)  Use outdoor reset - One of the biggest efficiency gains in new boilers is the ability to use computer technology to adjust the hydronic system to the heating load.  As the weather gets warmer, less heat is required.  By lowering the system temperature, the house is able to be heated much more efficiently.  Please make sure this important feature is being used.  For more information on outdoor reset, click here.

Triangle Tube's Prestige and Challenger boilers are modern, highly efficient, natural gas or propane boilers that have excellent track records in reliability.  With AFUEs of 95% or higher, and low NOx emissions, these are responsible, green choices for both the environment and your budget.  When paired with a Smart Indirect Fired Water Heater, they form the right solution for your residential heat and hot water needs.