Looking into the future, I only have a few things on my mind. Projects and bills mostly, then followed by family and work stuff. Well, there is a correlation in many ways between projects and bills, but at least some projects intend to reduce amounts of future bills after paying for a fixed cost asset. So what is the payback or ROI? We looked at these boilers over 4 years ago, perhaps 2003 or 2004, so in marketing terms this is considered a high involvement decision.
Might I digress, I'm not a plumber, but I have done some plumbing in my life when mandatory. Knowing how to do plumbing in Connecticut is metaphorically like having a bird in the hand. In other words, hiring a plumber would blow my ROI, so doing it myself can save a wheelbarrow of cash. Here in lies the rub. I hate plumbing, yet I know it will be cost effective, so I do it. I dislike the puzzle of parts and fittings, even though I have mastered the technical names and terms of them. Tee fittings have three ports. Two are the run and one is the branch. This is important to know when purchasing the correct parts. Also, there are parts called, immersion wells, aqua-stats, flow-checks, mixing valves, expansion tanks, air scoops, street elbows, and a myriad of others are necessary to get the job done right.
Therefore, following the advice of a brilliant guy at work I purchased a plumbing textbook prior to building the addition on my house. This turned out to be very helpful. The book gave me a CD with software to calculate heat loss and fluid flow (i.e. – pipe diameter), as well as hundred of other pragmatic information that was needed to plumb my oil boiler and radiant heat system.
In June, we purchased the Tarm wood boiler, borrowed a pickup and got it to our house. Then the trick was sliding it down the hatchway and into the basement. All 1000 lbs went in easy as pie thanks to my neighbor's innovative thinking and his old doodle-bug with a hand winch powered hoist on the back.
So I have it in the basement, up on the concrete blocks, and have spent 3 days trying to decipher the installation paperwork. It is full of old version of material and information that contradicts itself. Before I go much further I need to call Tarm to make sure I understand which instructions are correct.
2 comments:
I am in the same boat with my plumbing skills. I'm very interested in your progress. I have an appointment with a TARM rep this wed. Were you able to complete the installayion yourself? how did it go...scale of 1 to 10.
David
The instructions are pretty cryptic, but I was able to deciepher most of it. I have the unit 90% installed, and it was about a 7 out of 10 in terms of difficulty. I plan on finishing it up in October, because I want to enjoy the rest of the summer while I can. The hardest part was transporting the unit home and getting it into the cellar. I had a few tricks up my sleve for that. Also keep in mind, I installed my own boiler last year, and had already put some tees in place where I wanted to tap in.
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