Posted by scott2006 on Sun, Feb 18, 07 at 20:32... "Guys, The Legionnairs is nothing to fool with. My neighbor got it TWICE from the hot water tank. The 2nd time the health department finaly figured it out. What happen is hes an old guy living alone and wants to save money. He turns the tank off when he doesn't shower then turns it up just enough to take a warm shower. Then off it goes." Wow...this was not an issue for me. Our apartment in Singapore used a small 15 litre electric HW tank on a timer switch. This is a relatively common arrangement in the Lion City. Just push a button 20 minutes before needing hot water, and I was good-to-go. The timer ran only for an hour at a time. I'd have to push the button again if I wanted more. In a tropical climate, that was rarely necessary. We would sometimes go a couple of days between heating the tank. Other times, I'd forget to hit the timer until it was too late. It was warm water for my shower or the dishes at this point. I'd shut it off right after I was done, as there was no need for the heater to finish it's cycle. The hot (or sometimes warm) water fed the the shower, kitchen sink, and bathroom sink. I showered, washed dishes, and drank without ever getting sick from it. As-far-as-I-know, no-one has gotten Legionnaire's Disease from using luke-warm water in Singapore. I just wish more Asian countries would use S-traps for sinks and showers. P-traps are common in Singapore. No traps are common in Indonesia. Yuck. I guess that's a discussion for another thread. Peace. Marco

If you can lower the water temp and still have enough heat that will help, and better yet, install an outdoor reset so it is automatic. Also with continued air problems and excessive noise once all binding areas and metal to metal contact on the glides have been addressed, most likely you are over-pumping your system with too large of a circulator. too big of a pump is a common cause of the rapid expansion producing the additional noise beyond normal. 1-3 GPM per loop is plenty for most BB systems. Smaller pump(s), lower speed(s), circuit setters or balancing valves to slow down flow should do the trick.

Raising water temps is one way to get more heat out of less baseboard. 160-190 comes to mind. Hot water heat is the most comfortable form of heat ever invented and you will soon love it. The boiler probably maintains a certain low limit temperature, usually 160 degrees. Some have cold start boilers, but let's stick with the most common. When the tstat calls for heat, the burner and circulator will start. The burner will run until the boiler water reaches it's high limit of, usually 180 degrees. At high limit, the circulator will continue to run until the boiler temperature goes below 180 degrees and the burner will restart shortly thereafter. This is called "running off the high limit". If the boiler water never reaches high limit, the burner will run continuously until the thermostat is satisfied. If you have a domestic hot water coil in the boiler and the boiler water temperature goes below the low limit because the burner can't keep up, the circulator will stop, the burner will continue to run until the boiler water get above the low limit, whereupon the circulator will restart. This keeps enough hot water in the boiler for the coil. This is called "running off the low limit". Your boiler may cycle without a call for heat, just to keep the water temp above the low limit for the domestic coil. A good explanation of how an aquastat controls a boiler, google Honeywell L8124A, or L8148A for cold start boilers, or L7224A/L7248A.

Wow, 4-8 degrees is a lot and way too much. Was the sunken room added later? This room has three exterior walls, I bet. Zoning can work, but running a single room, completely separate small zone with a big boiler can lead to awful short cycling. If an efficient boiler is going to be installed eventually, a low mass model, it won't work well at all. What kind of fuel is used for the boiler? Natural gas, I hope. The best approach might be to improve the insulation and air sealing in the room. If that is not enough, adding more emitter need not be very expensive. In 1961, most probably Al fin-tube convector was probably used. You can add length by lining more wall with added convectors. You can put in higher capacity emitter of the same length. It will cost more, but you can add panel radiators or take out the baseboard and install all panel radiators. It is a sunken room so maybe you bring the floor level up a little and put in radiant floor heat, but this will be the most costly. It will, however, be the most comfortable heat you ever had if done right. If you add radiators and keep the existing zones, thermostatic radiator valves (TRV) can add some control for the temp in the individual room -- not too costly probably. No matter what you do to add hydronic heat to this room, you should hire someone that is knowledgable. It might be simple, but if not and it is goofed up, you might cause other problems and be worse off. A good hydronic installer might come in and quickly determine that your system is designed with a very large heat drop from boiler outlet to boiler inlet on the other end of the loop. If the bedroom in question is the last room in the zone, the simple solution might be to move that room to the boiler end of the loop meaning that it gets hotter water (maybe 20 degrees hotter) and more heat. Calculations will immediately show if that will work or it won't. Back to the beginning, insulate and improve air sealing first for the biggest bang for the buck, especially if you have fuel oil or propane heat. Here is an article that I just ran across. It is more about other issues than adding heat to a single room, but there is a section about added emitters including several approaches illustrating the questions involved. It might help you and others. don't get too bogged down in the calculation detail if you don't want. The diagrams and descriptive prose are pretty easily grasped. http://spacepak.com/modules/news/upload/%7B7C28944F-EA07-4E17-B21B-79B37040FA07%7D_water_works.pdf If that link does not work, search "Authored by John Siegenthaler Lowering Water Temperature in Hydronic Heating Systems" Sieganthaler has written many good articles about hydronic heat systems that are pretty easily grasped by people that are not engineers.