Here are some pictures of a Mechanical room that I'm building right now for the greenest buildling in Canada right now which should attain Leed platinum rating.
The pipe we are using is Fusiotherm (also called Aquatherm) which is a German Polypropolene (PP-R). This pipe is fused using irons and the result is the pipe and fitting become one after the process is performed which leads to extremely long service life. In fact they have charts in the book that list how many days per year you can run it at xx temperature at xx pressure and the pressures/temperatures we are running are generally no where near those listed for the 40+ year service life it is rated for in the charts in the book.
There are essentially 3 pipes we are using - The Blue & Green Pipe (Climatherm) is for heating, cooling & return mains and rated for pretty much everything except potable water applications (pools, heating, cooling, some process piping, etc.). These are the mains which go to radiant boxes in every suite and are mixed or diverted accordingly as the call for heating or cooling is called for (radiant floor heating and cooling). The Green pipe with blue stripe (SDR 11) is Fusiotherm and is rated for cold water potable only for the most part and the Green Pipe with the Green pipe (SDR 7.4) which is thicker is for the domestic hot water and hot water recirc mains. This pipe can handle fairly high water movement and the system is designed at 8 feet per second but we are told they will push for 10+ feet per second service/standards which could really help reduce pipe sizes on some jobs in the future. The fittings we use are universal so they can be fused onto any of the 3 pipes shown.
The system we are installing has 2 - 10 ton Geothermal Heat Pumps which will do the bulk of the heating, supplemented by the 2- IBC VFC 45-225 Boilers (45,000 to 225,000 Modulating Condensing Natural Gas Boilers - Made in Vancouver) in times of extreme demand on really cold days, and the heat pumps are responsible for the radiant cooling as well in the Summer. We have evaculated tubes going on the roof which will heat up 3 - 120 gallon buffer tanks worth of domestic potable water before going into 2 - 120 Gallon Indirect fired hot water tanks. In times of extreme demand when the Solar can't supply enough domestic hot water the boilers will supplement it with each boiler heating one of the indirect fired hot water tanks. There is also a fan coil in the room which the Boiler on the right will be heating to heat the storage area outside the Mechanical room.
Right now the system is is set up for temporary heat for the buildling with one of the Boilers going as you can see, that is why it's a bit messy. One of these boilers has the balls to heat the entire 24 unit building if needed and that's what we have set up to keep the drywallers and painters happy in the mean time while we build the rest of the Mech room.
There is also a large rainwater tank in the parkade which we divert well water previously circulated through the heat pumps and rain water into which will serve all the toilets in the buildling as well as the laundry and some irrigation. This will have a domestic potable make up in times of high demand but we anticipate the building not ever needing it.
Note below - the 1st picture is a fused joint on 25 MM SDR 11 Fusiotherm pipe fused into a 90 (25 MM = 3/4" equivilent but with better cross sections than Copper.)
The second picture below is that 90 but cut midway through the joint. Note that the pipe and fitting have been permanently fused to the point that you can virtually not even see a seem.
The third picture is a 50 MM climatherm pipe that we have drilled a hole in using the Fusiotherm special saddle bit and we are preparing to install a 1/2" FIP saddle to fuse on it.
The 4th picture is of the 2 IBC Boilers on the wall. The left one is running temporary heat as you can see by the lit up digital display. It's a primary secondary system with DHW secondary and Radiant injection secondary to supplement the heat pump but in this case it's rigged for temporary heat as you can probably figure out. We use all Wilo Pumps which are about as good as it gets for quality.
The 5th picture shows the right boiler getting built as you can see.
Note the Boilers are Direct Vent with CPVC 636 Flue gas venting and PVC System 15 for the intake.
Note the black 2" Black High Density Poly Ethylene Pipe coming in behind the left boilers loops. This will be extended to the 2 Heat Pumps when they get installed.
The pipe we are using is Fusiotherm (also called Aquatherm) which is a German Polypropolene (PP-R). This pipe is fused using irons and the result is the pipe and fitting become one after the process is performed which leads to extremely long service life. In fact they have charts in the book that list how many days per year you can run it at xx temperature at xx pressure and the pressures/temperatures we are running are generally no where near those listed for the 40+ year service life it is rated for in the charts in the book.
There are essentially 3 pipes we are using - The Blue & Green Pipe (Climatherm) is for heating, cooling & return mains and rated for pretty much everything except potable water applications (pools, heating, cooling, some process piping, etc.). These are the mains which go to radiant boxes in every suite and are mixed or diverted accordingly as the call for heating or cooling is called for (radiant floor heating and cooling). The Green pipe with blue stripe (SDR 11) is Fusiotherm and is rated for cold water potable only for the most part and the Green Pipe with the Green pipe (SDR 7.4) which is thicker is for the domestic hot water and hot water recirc mains. This pipe can handle fairly high water movement and the system is designed at 8 feet per second but we are told they will push for 10+ feet per second service/standards which could really help reduce pipe sizes on some jobs in the future. The fittings we use are universal so they can be fused onto any of the 3 pipes shown.
The system we are installing has 2 - 10 ton Geothermal Heat Pumps which will do the bulk of the heating, supplemented by the 2- IBC VFC 45-225 Boilers (45,000 to 225,000 Modulating Condensing Natural Gas Boilers - Made in Vancouver) in times of extreme demand on really cold days, and the heat pumps are responsible for the radiant cooling as well in the Summer. We have evaculated tubes going on the roof which will heat up 3 - 120 gallon buffer tanks worth of domestic potable water before going into 2 - 120 Gallon Indirect fired hot water tanks. In times of extreme demand when the Solar can't supply enough domestic hot water the boilers will supplement it with each boiler heating one of the indirect fired hot water tanks. There is also a fan coil in the room which the Boiler on the right will be heating to heat the storage area outside the Mechanical room.
Right now the system is is set up for temporary heat for the buildling with one of the Boilers going as you can see, that is why it's a bit messy. One of these boilers has the balls to heat the entire 24 unit building if needed and that's what we have set up to keep the drywallers and painters happy in the mean time while we build the rest of the Mech room.
There is also a large rainwater tank in the parkade which we divert well water previously circulated through the heat pumps and rain water into which will serve all the toilets in the buildling as well as the laundry and some irrigation. This will have a domestic potable make up in times of high demand but we anticipate the building not ever needing it.
Note below - the 1st picture is a fused joint on 25 MM SDR 11 Fusiotherm pipe fused into a 90 (25 MM = 3/4" equivilent but with better cross sections than Copper.)
The second picture below is that 90 but cut midway through the joint. Note that the pipe and fitting have been permanently fused to the point that you can virtually not even see a seem.
The third picture is a 50 MM climatherm pipe that we have drilled a hole in using the Fusiotherm special saddle bit and we are preparing to install a 1/2" FIP saddle to fuse on it.
The 4th picture is of the 2 IBC Boilers on the wall. The left one is running temporary heat as you can see by the lit up digital display. It's a primary secondary system with DHW secondary and Radiant injection secondary to supplement the heat pump but in this case it's rigged for temporary heat as you can probably figure out. We use all Wilo Pumps which are about as good as it gets for quality.
The 5th picture shows the right boiler getting built as you can see.
Note the Boilers are Direct Vent with CPVC 636 Flue gas venting and PVC System 15 for the intake.
Note the black 2" Black High Density Poly Ethylene Pipe coming in behind the left boilers loops. This will be extended to the 2 Heat Pumps when they get installed.
