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tyroelite
03-25-2005, 03:51 PM
Hello, I am trying to help my grandfather install the plumbing for the heating system in a new house. (I'll include a layout diagram below... sort of to scale) He has the boiler in the basement and the radiators are all upstairs on the first floor. He would like to have three zones, one that covers the kitchen, dining room, living room and one bathroom (red) and one to cover the bedrooms (blue) and the third to cover the last bedroom, a second bathroom and a utility closet(purple). The locations of the radiators are quite spread out and I am not exactly clear on what the best way to lay the pipes out would be. His idea is to run from the out on one radiator to the in on the next making a circular pattern and out from the last radiator back to the boiler. It seems the heat would be lost quite a bit by the time it got to the last room. Is there some other, better way that the pipes should be run? Is it possible to simply use a T fitting and split a "main" and then run to all of the radiators individually and then have the radiators collect again in a return "main"? Would that make sense if it would work? I have never done any plumbing before but my grandfather has so, I'd like to really understand the situation before the project goes to far in either direction.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ldd136/plumbing.bmp
Here (http://www.personal.psu.edu/ldd136/blanklayout.bmp) is a blank layout if someone wants to offer a different solution.

THanks for your suggestions.
Lyle D.
ldd136@psu.edu

hj
03-25-2005, 04:20 PM
If you are using "real" radiators rather than copper baseboard units then you shoule use a loop system with Mono-Flo fittings. The layout is not too involved , but unless you knew what the fittings were and how to use them you could misinterpret the diagram and have a poor operating system.

tyroelite
03-25-2005, 08:57 PM
The units are baseboard heaters. As they were described to me, a copper pipe with fins. The home is a new modular home, so I imagine they use whatever is the newest method. Does that make a difference in how it should be layed out?