Hopefully the saga with the water heater is coming to an end soon as the thermosyphon loop that was detailed
here has been fixed. After several months of sporadic discussions with my hvac contractor (who has supposedly been in contact with Water Furnace) about how to fix the problem, how much it was going to cost to fix, and whether I should bear the cost of fixing it, I now have an electronic valve installed on the outlet side of the desuperheater. The valve only opens when the desuperheater comes on and should completely stop the thermosyphon loop that was sucking heat out of my tank.
It's supposed to cool off a lot tomorrow and I turned on the hot water heater for the first time since the end of June yesterday. When the desuperheaters stop supplying all of my hot water this weekend, I'll be able to get some temperature readings from the tank to see if this new valve really fixed the problem.
I have this same problem with my Water Furnace desuperheater, I track the temps with a PLC and that is how I found the problem, I have not fixed the problem yet, are you happy with your solenoid valve solution? I assume that is powered by 24vac? thanks for any help. sloanebiking@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm pleased with the solenoid valve as it has completely stopped the thermosyphon loop.
Deletethanks for the reply, is that a 120VAC coil on the solenoid valve? what circuit are you powering it from? Did water furnace or HVAC contractor share all or some of the cost on this design flaw fix? I was initially thinking the coil would power from zone board 24vac, but I not think they probably came from the circuit that powers the desuperheater pump.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem I had was that the contractor installed one of the ducts of the heat recovery ventilator on the discharge side of the furnace, so it was overpowering the ventilator blower and blowing conditioned air outside through the ventilator. He also installed the humidifier on the discharge which reversed flow when humidifier not on, heating or cooling the mechanical room, I have had both those issues fixed
It's 120V and is powered from the desuperheater pump circuit.
DeleteAfter many conversations with the HVAC contractor, I ended up paying for the parts and they did the labor at no charge.