Getting ready for the Bio-Mizer

[Furby]

No matter where you are in a loop, you always tee off one way or another.

At the Tee, you'll have two (or more) loops.

[Jeff]

You have to have a circuit, not a loop on a loop, You have one line going out, and one coming back in. In reality you only have one line. it goes out travels a circuit, passing through the elements it needs to heat then returns.  You can t off, yes, but you have to open and close valves to re-route in order to maintain that circuit.

[Radar67]

In radiant heating, they use a manifold to set up zones for different areas. Might be something to google.

[Furby]

Yes, you'll have that if you Tee both lines, that's why I said a "set" of quick connects, but I guess that could be misread.
If you are leaving the pump running and using other means to control your heat at your elements, teeing a line will work.
Now, in an idea situation, your feed and return lines would be bigger than your tee'd lines, but it will still work.
Sorta like what Stew just said, like putting a manifold in at the house.

[Jeff]

About the box... ;) ??

[Furby]

Can you use the pex for something else if it don't work?
Try it!
Might work better if you could get some lines between bags as well as underneath them.

[Jeff]

I figured I would try the box first. If it dont work, use it to plumb the pool. 

[thecfarm]

i think the box idea would work good.Where the lines comes from my outdoor furnace to the house is bare ground and that is with insulated pex.The lines are quite warm where there is no insulation on the pex inside my basement too.You might be surprized how much heat you get from 100 feet of pipe.I have a theometer that records the warmest and coldest temps.Could put that in there to see how warm it gets at times.Walmart has them for less than $20.

[Dana]

Check out www.pexsupply.com free shipping over $300.00 Here is a link to one of their pex lines that can handle clorine.http://www.pexsupply.com/Categories.asp?cID=827&brandid= You will have to check if pex can handle UV light? (sun light) I guess you could always cover it.

[Corley5]

Does the Biomizer have another set of outlets for another circuit  ???  If it does it'd be easier to put another circulating pump on it and start another loop.

[farmerdoug]

Why not just cut into the return line from the house and put in an elbow for each line and route the loop through the box, etc by just making the circuit longer?

[Jeff]

Doug, thats my plan. I also want to run it into the little cabin and to the pool. I just have to figure out where to put valves and croosover lines so I can shorten the circuit and isolate things I dont need at any given time.  I dont need to heat the house and cabin come summer, but I may want to dry sawdust if that works, and heat the pool. In the winter I wont want to heat the pool.

[Bob Dilts]

Jeff, I am enjoying following this thread,very interesting.Can only mention what I learned from experience. My system isn't a complete loop I use t's with ball valves to control flows to each area. Just open valves enough to give you the temp. you need in that particular zone.
  We made a water to water exchanger for our hot tub out of copper ,clorine reacted with copper putting pin holes in pipe and discolouring the water, now have stainless steel.
  Don't no if this helps you any,just what I learned from trial and lots of errors.
Good luck. Bob

[Jeff]

Thanks Bob!  I Figured that is what would happen with copper tubing just by watching what happens to pennies that find thier way into the pool.

Spent the afternoon with Barney and Troy today.   A pretty good load of dust. Were not sure how this is going to burn, but were fixin to find out. ;D

[MartyParsons]

Jeff we use a mixing tank for our operation ( we do not have the Bio Mizer yet) We have one pump and a return into the mixing tank from the main heat source. Each zone has 1 pump and 1 return into the tank. Right now we have 4 zones each controled by a switch or thermostat. Office, Resharp, storage area 1 and storage area 2. We have the tank burried in sand in the maintenance room, we made it out of steel very simple design. We also used Pex tubing and have manifolds (copper) in each zone I think there are 10 loops per zone, that way if you have a leak in a loop you can bypass the leak. ( Hope this never happens) We also have a valve on each manifold to remove air from the system.
We are burning slab wood and sawdust. We are heating a 100' x 80 ' building + a 56 x 60 office. The fire was out last night and it was 78 in the office this morning when I went in. We fired pretty heavy during the day. The temp last night was around 38 degrees. The fire was out.  Once we get the floor warm it is easily kept that way. I think you will need to do some type of heat exchange for the swimming pool because of the chemicals.
M

[Reddog]

Jeff,
Here are some options for self contained coils and fans for you shed/cabin.

http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.asp?pagenum=0600

[Jeff]

umm... did you look at the prices?  :D

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Senor,  you can't make chikken soup out of chikken sheet  : ;D :D

[Jeff]

I got a deal yesterday on some 1" PEX. I got 150 feet.  Do you guys think that for now, just putting that whole uninsulated coil in the open air, in the loop would use up to much of the extra heat?  I dont have any heat exchangers or anything to tie in the shed. I do have the pex crimpers back here for the weekend, so I wanted to do something before they had to go back again monday.  The guy let us keep them a couple more days.

Man, you cant afford to buy 1" crimpers. Over 100 bucks a pair.

[pineywoods]

Dumb question.  I know what pex is and it's expensive. Why not use cpvc hot water pipe??
It's good for 180 deg water at 40 psi..

[Jeff]

The Roll of PEX I got was not. ;D   Thats why I bought it.

Water temps can and do exceed 190 with the Bio-Mizer.

[Reddog]

umm... did you look at the prices?  :D

Knowing the are used commercially, you could start watching the industral auctions and see if these show up.

[StorminN]

Hey Jeff,

You might try a scrap yard / junkyard for a heat exchanger... think self-contained unit that come out of the back of a conversion van or school bus... they are a little radiator and a fan in a box. The fan will be 12VDC of course, but you can get around that or use a different small fan like a large computer fan or small desk fan.

For the pex crimpers, ask around at more of the local plumbers, especially the guys that do hydronic heating. Here, lots of them have upgraded to the electric (cordless?) crimpers and don't use their hand-pump ones at all anymore... I had a guy here offer to give them to me on "extended loan"...

-N.

[Jeff]

I'd like to find a smaller old fashioned"Radiator" for out there, but I dont have a clue where you would start to look. That aint something you could afford to have shipped, and there is no where around here that I know of that would have any salvaged.

[Radar67]

Have you seen the newer, oil filled electric radiators they are selling at the box stores? You might be able to find one of those, used, pretty reasonible and modify it to work with water.