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#1
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Frozen Heating Pipes - need professional opinion
Hello All -
This is my first winter in my new home and there is an anomalous heating issue. The house is colonial with a bonus room over the garage (Finished Room Over Garage - FROG in some areas). We have a high end furnace with hot water baseboard heat. The first floor zone works great, but the second floor zone has frozen on us each time it got below 10F. Fortunately we have plastic pipes, but I don't like having heat. My opinion is that there is a pipe in the bonus room freezing between furnace calls be the second floor thermostat. The thermostat is in the hallway and is sometimes satisfied by the first floor heat rise (particularly when the fireplace is going). This results in the second floor heating system sitting idle long enough for the pipe to freeze. I don't want to tear the house apart now (I'll need to do something in the spring) and don't want to run the upstair thermostat at 75 all winter. I believe I can largely solve the problem by putting some anti-freeze into the pipes, but my google research yield mixed advice. BTW, I have plastic pipes. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks P -- _______________________________________ I'm lo-carb, eat me |
#2
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"El Penguini" wrote in message
... I don't want to tear the house apart now (I'll need to do something in the spring) and don't want to run the upstair thermostat at 75 all winter. Can you get a programmable thermostat that you can set to put the temperature at 75 for an hour out of every six or so? |
#3
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Thanks for the quick response! I have programmable thermostats (perhaps a
contributor to this problem, actually) but they only allow four time settings - wakeup, leave, return and sleep. I guess I could change to another style that would allow more programming options. Definitely a suggestion I'll think about. Thanks! UP "Andrew Koenig" wrote in message ... "El Penguini" wrote in message ... I don't want to tear the house apart now (I'll need to do something in the spring) and don't want to run the upstair thermostat at 75 all winter. Can you get a programmable thermostat that you can set to put the temperature at 75 for an hour out of every six or so? |
#4
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El Penguini wrote:
Hello All - This is my first winter in my new home and there is an anomalous heating issue. The house is colonial with a bonus room over the garage (Finished Room Over Garage - FROG in some areas). We have a high end furnace with hot water baseboard heat. The first floor zone works great, but the second floor zone has frozen on us each time it got below 10F. Fortunately we have plastic pipes, but I don't like having heat. My opinion is that there is a pipe in the bonus room freezing between furnace calls be the second floor thermostat. The thermostat is in the hallway and is sometimes satisfied by the first floor heat rise (particularly when the fireplace is going). This results in the second floor heating system sitting idle long enough for the pipe to freeze. SNIP One quickie fix may be to install a bypass around the 2nd floor zone valve. Use a ball valve, which can be set to throttle flow. Anytime the boiler circ pump runs (for the 1st floor), a small amt of hot water will circ to the FROG whether or not 2nd floor stat is calling for heat. Come Spring you can do a better job of insulating the FROG. Jim |
#5
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I assume you cannot get to the pipes? If you could, you could wrap
them with electrical heating tape, and power it with an extension cord. Temporary fix maybe?? --James-- |
#6
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"Speedy Jim" wrote in message ... El Penguini wrote: Hello All - This is my first winter in my new home and there is an anomalous heating issue. The house is colonial with a bonus room over the garage (Finished Room Over Garage - FROG in some areas). We have a high end furnace with hot water baseboard heat. The first floor zone works great, but the second floor zone has frozen on us each time it got below 10F. Fortunately we have plastic pipes, but I don't like having heat. My opinion is that there is a pipe in the bonus room freezing between furnace calls be the second floor thermostat. The thermostat is in the hallway and is sometimes satisfied by the first floor heat rise (particularly when the fireplace is going). This results in the second floor heating system sitting idle long enough for the pipe to freeze. SNIP One quickie fix may be to install a bypass around the 2nd floor zone valve. Use a ball valve, which can be set to throttle flow. Anytime the boiler circ pump runs (for the 1st floor), a small amt of hot water will circ to the FROG whether or not 2nd floor stat is calling for heat. Come Spring you can do a better job of insulating the FROG. Jim This is Turtle. I think you hit it there. Now maybe a 1/4" needle valve like for cut offs for ice makers but have it brass. Then you could almost run it wide open to not cut the seat out of the valves. TURTLE |
#7
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On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 13:46:55 -0500, someone wrote:
This is my first winter in my new home... Just new to you, or new construction? If new construction, the builder should GET HIS ASS DOWN THERE and fix this mess. It aint right. And BTW, what the problem with tearing open the garage ceiling to work on this NOW? You can put the insulation back, even the gyp board, and just not tape it until Spring. In the meantime, glycol. It does have its downsides, but in our area many people - including us - have it - rural area with relatively frequent power outages. Good luck, -v. Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file. |
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