Fixing church heating systems

[SimonH2]

An update on this, I know people like to know the outcome.

Our friendly heating engineer did the alterations last summer, so now we have the combined F&E pipe tee'd in just before the pump as in the last diagram above - but we've left the open vents for now until we see how things are working.
At first I was a bit concerned that we were pumping over (and out of the open vents from the rads) as the pump started up as the level in the F&E tank would drop an inch or two when the pump started. In hindsight, I think this was just air being shifted around in the pipes - when you've a lot of 2" and 3" pipes, horizontal, it takes some time (literally weeks/months) to shift the air out of them. After a few months that issue appears to have gone - though it's hard to tell as I really need to be there when the system is cold and the pump isn't already running to see what happens when it starts up, and I'm rarely there in those conditions (at the moment, the pump is running nearly continuously on the frost stat).

So touch wood, things are now running sensibly. I've got the frost stats (air and pipe) configured to protect the system without heating the church all the time (as the single air stat was previously configured to do ) The burner is now sorted and doesn't seem to be suffering from airlocks (there was a small leak that was letting air in.) We've had a step built to stop rainwater running down the path from flooding the boiler room and burner There's a new bunded plastic tank. And with the mods done last summer, I think we now have a system that's not getting lots of fresh water all the time.
I've also altered the fan-coils so they have an extra low speed - added a switchable resistor in series with the low speed motor connection. That gets them to an almost inaudible level so in theory they can be left on during a service and still do a little bit to move air and keep the place warm. We just have to educate one person in particular not to go round switching them off a a matter of dogma - and that might take some doing (or just remove the switches )

Simon

 

[ianmcd]

spammer has been removed

Makes you wonder what the Manger was heated with when Baby Jesus was born

 

[bernardgreen]

Makes you wonder what the Manger was heated with when Baby Jesus was born

The weather may have been warm enough to make heating unnecessary. The true date of birth is believed to in April or May. This is based on the timing of a comet that was Star of Bethlehem.

 

[SimonH2]

spammer has been removed

Indeed, and given the average age of our dwindling congregation, you are not alone.
However, heating a huge box, with limited insulation and a very large area of single glazing, is "not cheap". I noted yesterday that our oil level had dropped from 3/4 tank to 1/3 tank in the last couple of weeks
We have one person who, when I explained that we were experimenting to try and find a happy compromise between warmth/comfort and cost, replied "but you're supposed to be cold in church"
After Christmas we'll probably decamp to the church hall (smaller, modern built, better insulation) for a few months, so the church will only get a little heating from the frost protection - and we'll burn a lot less oil.

But a further update on how things have gone.
Mostly fairly well. We were still losing some water all the time, so I temporarily capped the vent pipes to eliminate any pumping over - the system is still open vented via the F&E pipe before anyone screams in horror. We're now down to losing perhaps an inch a month from the F&E tank (so a few pints at most) - I imagine there's a tiny leak somewhere we can't see (it's not warm or dry enough to lose that much by evaporation). Is there a sealant anyone could recommend that might deal with this ? Or just leave it - it's only maybe a pint a week in a system I guesstimate holds at least 100 gallons ?

 

[SimonH2]

Makes you wonder what the Manger was heated with when Baby Jesus was born

The weather may have been warm enough to make heating unnecessary. The true date of birth is believed to in April or May. This is based on the timing of a comet that was Star of Bethlehem.

Not to mention, in reality it would have been the "family home" - with Mary and Joseph relegated to the "stables" as other family members probably arrived earlier and bagged all the available space in the home. The "no room at the inn" bit is almost certainly a case of the story evolving as it was retold over may generations before being written down - a variation of "send 3 and 4 pence, we're going to a dance".
It would be typical for the "house" part of the building to be at 1st floor level (and possibly higher), with accommodation for the family livestock underneath on the ground floor. Assuming there was some livestock in it, it would probably be fairly warm even in cold weather.

 

[ianmcd]

I was joking FFS