John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps

Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps: An emerging renewable heat source for North American hydronic systems.
Electrically powered heat pumps, in many varieties, are destined to play an increasingly important role in heating and cooling buildings around the world.

Heat pumps capture low grade heat from solar-resupplied sources such as outside air and soil several feet below the earth’s […]

Radiant Heating Case Studies: Ceiling Panels & Injection Piping

Expert instructor Dave Yates answers student questions with customer anecdotes on the Fundamentals of Radiant Heating discussion board
Student 1: I’ve seen two references in the course to “high temperature” ceiling panels needing to be at least 8 feet above the floor. Is this to prevent children from touching them, or is it to limit the heat in […]

1 Simple Trick to Get the Most Of Your Condensing Boiler

Want to get the most from your condensing boiler? Lower the temperature.
by Roy Collver

One of the most effective energy saving technologies we have available to us right now, is the condensing boiler. Coupled with a well-designed low temperature hydronic heating system, it is easy to produce a 30% to 50% or more reduction in fuel […]

Six Drainback Questions for Radiant Heating Pros to Consider

Vaughan Woodruff answers student questions regarding drainback systems on the Solar Approaches to Radiant Heating discussion board…
Student 1: I have several questions on drainback systems for you…

Question #1
When the solar storage tank has satisfied and the system goes into drainback, what happens at the collector? 

Question #2
How hot does the collector get when it is empty?
Does this […]

Sizing a Pellet-Fueled Boiler

Sizing a Pellet-Fueled Boiler
Bigger is NOT better
There are several types of boilers that can burn wood-based fuels. They include 2- stage wood-gasification boilers, wood chip boilers, and pellet-fueled boilers. Of these, pellet-fuel boilers come closest to mimicking the fully automatic operation of oil and gas- fired boilers. Modern pellet boilers can automatically load their fuel, […]