Hydronic Heating Basics

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.  

Combination boilers are a popular option for many households, especially where there is limited space for heating equipment.  Combination boilers are so named because they are a combination of a boiler and a water heater.  This is a relatively new term even though boilers have long been used to provide hot water directly from the boiler. 

Traditional cast iron boilers often used a hot water coil that was inserted into the water reservoir in the boiler.  Domestic hot water was heated as the water passed through the hot water coil.  Triangle Tube had been a significant supplier of these inserts for over 60 years. 

Today's high efficiency boilers are designed with much lower water content than traditional boilers which eliminates the space for a hot water coil.  Instead, most high efficiency boilers are paired with a seperate indirect water heater such as Triangle Tube's Smart Series.  These water heaters provide hot domestic water by circulating boiler system water around the domestic water. 

Many homeowners desire to produce both space heating and domestic water heating from the same appliance.  The product that does this is a Combination Boiler, such as Triangle Tube's Prestige Excellence model.  Most combination boilers on the market today utilize a small heat exchanger built into the boiler to produce domestic hot water.  These boilers do not store hot water and are designed for homes where domestic hot water use is limited.

The Prestige Excellence combination boiler is unique in that it contains a 14 gallon hot water tank that provides fast and reliable hot water.  The unique tank-in-tank design rapidly heats incoming water to ensure a continuous flow of up to 180 gallons of hot water per hour.  Unlike instantaneous water heaters, the Prestige Excellence can provide immediate hot water from its integrated tank.

The Prestige Excellence is the perfect solution for homeowners looking for a high efficiency boiler, with an AFUE of 95%, with plentiful hot water in a compact, reliable appliance.  The Prestige Excellence uses natural gas or propane and works with residential radiant heating systems.

As we get further into the fall and winter heating season, the advantages of radiant heating become a reality for many people. Most of America lives in homes heated with forced hot air heat. While this is the easiest heating system for a builder to install, it also is one of the least comfortable. Forced hot air heating produces extremely dry air, which some systems try to remedy with an in-line humidifier. In addition to the noise and drafts, forced hot air systems also create more dust in the house. Finally forced air systems send hot air to the home that quickly rises to the ceiling, requiring that the entire room be kept at a high temperature for the room to feel comfortable.

Radiant heating systems eliminate all of the problems listed above, which is one of the reasons they are gaining in popularity.   Radiant heating uses a boiler to heat hot water that is then circulated through the home, heating as it goes.  Many people think of radiant heating as the traditional cast-iron or baseboard radiators. However, today the fastest growing form of radiant heating is radiant flooring. These systems are invisible once installed and can be added to existing homes by attaching the heating tubes to the underside of the flooring.

Radiant heating eliminates the noise, dust, and drying effect of the forced air systems, immediately making the home feel more comfortable. And because the radiant heat transfers heat to people and items in the room, rather than the air, it is much more energy efficient. 

  The heart of a radiant heating system is the boiler. Triangle Tube’s Prestige boiler is designed to provide the heat in a radiant heating system with maximum efficiency.   The Prestige boiler uses a condensing heat exchanger to maximize the heat recovered from the fuel to achieve an AFUE of 95%. In addition the advanced control of the Prestige modulates the firing rate to meet the heating needs, and uses outdoor reset to align the heating system temperature with the outdoor temperature, eliminating waste. In addition, the Prestige boiler can be used to heat domestic hot water by pairing it with the Smart indirect fired water heaters.

Whether you are considering a renovation or new home construction, you should consider radiant heat. The small investment up front will pay dividends with a healthy, efficient heating system.

We all expect to see a flue taking exhaust gases out of a working boiler, but unless you are using a condensing boiler it is also taking away your money.   One of the gases in the exhaust is steam, which carries unused heat energy with it out of the flue and out of your wallet. Condensing boilers convert much of this steam into water, releasing this heat energy into the boiler and into your home. This increases the energy efficiency of the boiler by more than 10%.   

We all understand that to convert water into steam, we need to add heat. The opposite is also true. If we convert steam into water we can recover that heat. This heat energy is known as latent heat. This latent heat is retrieved from the steam and used to heat the boiler water in a condensing boiler. Much like a cold glass of water condenses the humidity in the air; a relatively cold return section of a boiler will condense the steam in the flue gas. This happens when the water returning to the boiler is less than 130F.

Traditional boiler systems have avoided condensing the flue gas steam by keeping the return water temperatures above 130F. Traditional boilers are made from cast iron which will rust and fail if the flue gas steam condenses.   Condensing boilers are designed in aluminum and stainless steel to resist corrosion. Triangle Tube’s Prestige condensing boilers utilize a specialized grade of stainless steel to withstand the heat and corrosion in its condensing heat exchanger.  

Triangle Tube’s Prestige Condensing Boiler is able to achieve an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) over 95% by recovering the latent heat of the flue gas. In addition, the Prestige boiler uses other advanced “green” technology such as modulation and outdoor reset. The Prestige boiler is designed to use either natural gas or propane and burns clean enough to meet California' Low NOx emissions requirements.  Contact Triangle Tube to find out how the energy efficiency of Prestige Condensing Boiler can help lower your fuel bills.

“It’s hot, but it’s a dry heat,” is something that we often hear about the weather in the Southwest. A dry heat in the summer may be considered a good thing, but in the winter, an increasing number of homeowners are opting for “wet” hydronic heat. Hydronic heating systems use water instead of air as the heat transfer medium.     

For decades, millions of homes have been heated by boilers, baseboards, and radiators by water circulated from a central boiler. The result is a silent, clean, and reliable heating system that is energy efficient and hygienic. Without the need to circulate air throughout the house, there are fewer drafts and less dust, while the humidity is maintained at a much more comfortable level. 

In addition to radiators and baseboards, radiant floor heating systems have become very popular in recent years. Radiant floor systems circulate hot water through tubes that are attached or embedded under the floor. Radiant floor heating delivers heat where it is most needed, at the coldest part of the room. Hidden underneath the floor, it is invisible and allows the maximum freedom in furniture placement.  Radiant floor heating can be used under carpeting, wood floors, tile, or even embedded in concrete slabs.

The heart of the hydronic heating system is the boiler. While traditional boilers were large objects consuming space in the basement, the modern high efficiency boiler is more compact and much more efficient. Modern boilers such as Triangle Tube’s Prestige high efficiency boiler use advanced control technology to maximize their efficiency. Advanced features such as outdoor reset and modulation enable the Prestige to best match its output to the heating needs. And the use of advanced materials allow the modern boilers to maximize the heat extracted from the fuel being used. The Prestige boiler uses a high grade stainless steel heat exchanger to extract heat by condensing the combustion gases, which was not possible in older cast iron boilers resulting in a 10% improvement in efficiency. 

Finally, hydronic heating systems can heat not only your home, but your domestic hot water, and even your pool as well. Indirect fired water heaters are recognized as the most energy efficient and reliable domestic water heating options available. Triangle Tube’s Smart indirect fired water heaters lead the group in efficiency with their unique stainless steel tank-in-tank design. And Triangle Tube’s Maxi Flo pool and spa heat exchangers allow you to extend your summer using the efficiency of the Prestige boiler.

Whether in new construction or renovation, today’s hydronic heating systems are leading the way in efficiency. Contact Triangle Tube today to discover the benefits of hydronic heating for yourself.