"BuddyBiancalana" wrote in message
...
Sorry about having to start a new string....for some reason, I can't reply
to anything this morning. Oh, well....

Seems they were cutting in some Coke gas (or
something akin, I'm not sure I remember) , which is not as good as pure
Ng.

There was a city utility north of me that was caught pumping in compressed
air to the NG system when it got cold here(long time ago). That gas service
wasn't owned by the city after that...

Also, regarding the bill/check, Citizen's policy is any amount
overbilled over the amount of $100 is refunded in a check to the client.


Not around here. Besides, that's not an overbilled amount.

Now on to some followup.....

Thanks, HeatMan, for your time on this...

Some other points/follow-ups:

1.) There is already visqueen laid down on the crawl space floor. It's
not
sealed to the walls, but it comes to within at least 6 inches of the
walls.
Is that good enough re the moisture/mold? Since the visqueen is already
down, and assuming I lay in the insulation on the walls and out on the
floor
of the crawl space 2 ft out from the wall, do I still need "thermostatic
vents"? How much are they approximately? If the insulation is down, and
the visqueen is also, does the natural heat from the earth (55 degrees,
no?)
still heat up the air in the crawl space in the winter and cool it down in
summer? I assume it work for us either way, no?


YMMV on the visqueen. I had mine to the wall in my old house. I used clear
and you could really see the water under it. Not putting it to the wall is
like leaving your car windows slightly open all the time.

If you lay insulation directly on the visqueen in the crawl, it's going to
become a soggy mess in a few years or less. I have no idea how much the
vents are, go to the box stores and find out! All insulation on the floor
of the crawl will do is keep that heat/cool in the dirt. I'd insulate
between the floor joists. Just make sure your home is rodent proof.

2.) Regarding the hole in the floor. Hopefully this helps with #3 below.
What I'm talking about is, in a location somewhere near the middle of the
house, cutting in a 9"x14" hole in the floor that would expose the crawl
space (obviously I'd put some sort of grate/grill on it). Then, to
promote
circulation, running the bath fan 24/7, creating a flow from the outside
into the crawl space through the one unplugged crawl space vent, to the
hole
cut in the floor, to the bath fan and up and out. That would also seem to
mitigate the moisture/mold potential in the crawl space, even though we
have
the visqueen down already. If you reccommend not cutting the hole, is it
still ok to plug up the crawl space vents since there is visqueen down, or
should I still install the thermostatic vents? If so, how many, one for
the
entire crawl space or one for each of the 6 vents tot he crawlspace from
the
outside?

I wouldn't do it. Period.

3.) Regarding #4 below and the venting of the boiler: I checked the unit
and
its a Weil McClain, kind of hard to read the stamped plate with the specs
on
it, but it looks like model number on the boiler is "PCG-5", "Series 3".
It
says it has an A.G.A. rating of 114,000 BTU's per hour input and 112,000
BTU's output per hour. On visual inspection, there only seems to be the
one
exhaust vent going straight up and out in its own flue separate from the
fireplace. No incoming air supply from what I can tell. Would the
standard
aluminum tube (I believe it to be either 4 or 5 inches in diameter),
connected to the garage window and outflowing to the floor be good
enough/beneficial? It would seem that the cold air from outside in the
winter would naturally want to flow down through the tube (garage is
somewhat heated with a baseboard unit of its own out there, plus the
garage
is on a slab, heating it a little). If it doesn't have an air source, what
has it been using before now?...just relying on the basically unsealed
spaces between the garage door and the frame?


Would it be beneficial? No clue. It probably would help, but you need a
certain amount of square inches regardless. Up until now, I'm fairly
confident the make-up air has been getting in somewhere...

4.) What does that BTU rating above equate to ? The 1,000 BTU's you
mentioned below?


You figure the combustion air requirement on input BTU's. If your air vent
is on the outside wall, you'd need 114 square inches.

5.) What's a sealed combustion unit? Benefits? How much? Is that a
totally new unit/system? I was told to replace the unit we have now would
be about $5-10,000. ....or, simply buy the heat blower attachment for the
AC
unit in the attic for about $800. Is that as efficient/desireable as the
boiler?

Sealed combustion uses air directly from the outside and then vents the
waste gas out, using NO inside air for combustion. They aren't cheap, but
they are efficient, regardless of what that moron Nick says...

6.) On the water temp in the system: I already turned this down from 180
to
140. That should be ok, no? Regarding the Outdoor reset, what is that?
An
attachment? or should it already be on the unit? How much is it if not?

Will it be okay? I don't know. Your house was probably designed for a
water temp of 180°. Setting it at 140° will do for most of the times, but
probably won't be enough when the temps hit the design temprature. Outdoor
reset is like cruise control for your heating system. As the temps drop,
the water temps rise. At 65°, the water may be at 105°. At design
temp(5°?), the water temp would be at 180°. How much? I can't give you a
price from here.

7.) Regarding the water heater: Its a Kenmore "Power Miser 5", at least
10-12 years old, in the garage next to the boiler. I do not have it
wrapped...should I? What provisions do I need to make for the vertical
pipes on the outside of it? Wrap those in it to, or tuck it inside of
those?
On the temp dial, there is not a degree. Instead, on one end of the dial
is
"Very Hot" and the other end is "Hot", with letters going from "Very Hot",
then "C", "B", "A" and then "Hot". It was on "B", and I turned it down to
"A", one level above "Hot". Got a guess as to where that puts it, degree
wise?

Gas water heater? Your ROI on wrapping it with insulation woould probably
be 12-15 years. Insulating the hot water lines would be a good idea, IMO.
To set the temp, you need to get a good thermometer and correlate it with
the letters.

Thanks for all your time on this. I am currently unemployed and have been
for about 4 months now, so any dollars I can save to avoid $300/month gas
bills this winter is GREATLY appreciated! It sounds like the crawl space
insulation is a no-brainer. Am I OK with the R-13?


Okay with R13? Around here, you'd be great. Where you're at, who knows?

I'd spend more time job hunting than talking to neighbors and surfing the
'net. Flipping burgers would make you some money, but I don't think you'll
be able to cut your gas bills enough to make up for the difference...

Good Luck.



Thanks!

Eric Volk
Indy