The Bloomin’ Boiler Changeout

Interestingly enough, Foley Mechanical bid on the hydronics job in 2000 during a whole-house remodel, and—while they didn’t get the job—the company has been called in to make any necessary repairs since 2005. It reached a point where instead of coming out to repair a 26-year-old heating system every so often, this time Foley secured the bid to take out those old boilers, which ultimately outlived their useful lives, and the homeowners agreed that it was time to invest in a new heating system.

Next, Golden was tasked with redesigning and re-piping the installation, not out of necessity, rather just to provide a better layout and better efficiencies. The two Velocity boilers were now front to back—36” deep by 24” wide—replacing the two old, right-to-left configured boilers for easier maintenance and accessibility in-between the boilers.

The re-piping, which provided connected piping, involved moving from a primary/secondary install to a two-pipe system with a total of six hot water coils placed in the ductwork, where air is flowing over the coils originating from six air handlers.

“Previously, the system water would flow through the off boiler but now isolates the boiler flow from the system flow using a Spirotherm Spirovent Quad hydraulic separator—an air, dirt and magnetic separator—which isolates both flows so they don’t interfere,” says Golden.

Bolstered by Taco Sentry zone valves and Taco Veridian ECM pumps, the system is getting consistent temperatures throughout all the zones. “The air handlers now are providing the same supply water temperature regardless of the number of zones calling,” says Foley.

Aging Infrastructure

Navigating through the old neighborhood and working in an attached/duplex-style home built in 1900 presents a unique set of challenges in and of itself. The logistics of traversing through an old seaport town of Georgetown, the streets are narrow, some cobblestone. Parking in the area is nearly impossible. Positioning box trucks and work vans in an area like this can be tricky.

In addition to dealing with an aging neighborhood infrastructure, Golden and his team had to deal with a 125-year-old home, and lugging 500-lb. boilers up and down concrete/stone stairs proved somewhat challenging. The team expanded to six to bring the equipment in from the outside. “We brought in our muscle crew, our young bucks; it’s a young man’s game,” says Foley.