Biomass boilers burn various fuels and come in different designs. Water vapor is produced when burning wood-based fuels, and the resulting condensate can be acidic and corrosive to metals like carbon steel and iron.

An installer is asked to pipe up two larger commercial air handlers supplied by a dual boiler sub-system. The building owner wants to make it possible to supply either air handler from either boiler. Can you spot some shortcomings and suggest a better way to accomplish the same objectives?

The installer is tasked with setting up a three-zone radiant floor heating system using a 5-ton geothermal heat pump and a mod/con boiler, connected through a primary-secondary system with closely spaced tees. The system includes 4 earth loops of 1” HDPE tubing, each 500 feet long, supplying the heat pump, and features underfloor tubing with aluminum plates.

A hydronics newbie decides that he can eliminate the temperature drop effect by putting all three supply-side tees upstream of all three return-side tees. If you don’t think it will work, what would you do to change it?

An installer inspects a system where an aging steam boiler supplies several cast-iron radiators. He proposes to convert the system from steam to hot water and replace the old boiler with a mod/con boiler. Can you spot some potential problems and suggest some improvements?

An installer is asked to replace two aging cast-iron boilers with two mod/con boilers, but reuse as much of the existing distribution system as possible. Can you spot several details, omissions or other quirks that will lead to problems over the life of this system?

Can you diagnose why this glitch is happening, and suggest alternate methods for constructing this portion of the system?

Given the current upward trend and volatility of fossil fuel pricing, there’s renewed interest in heating using wood pellets. Federal incentives that currently cover 26% of some qualified equipment adds enticement toward purchasing pellet-burning stoves.

In 2012 the price of #2 fuel oil in upstate New York was approaching a previously unheard of $4 per gallon. This spurred many pending heating system projects to consider the use of cordwood or wood pellets.

Because the price of fuel oil has increased dramatically over the last several months, an installer with lots of experience in installing conventional oil-fired boilers is asked to install a pellet-fired boiler.