Primary Secondary Piping

A Brief History on How B&G Developed This Effective Pumping Technique.
The Fundamentals of How This Pumping Concept Works.
A Detailed Discussion on Several Applications That Benefit From Primary/Secondary Pumping.
How to Apply This Pumping Strategy to Your Next Job.

[@skipsaunders5974]

OUTSTANDING!!!!.... I've had hydronic systems in my house for years. My house in Carlisle was set up by one of my neighbors who was the US President of the company which brought PEX technology to the USA. (sorry, I've forgotten his name).... but he provided PEX tubing which we used to heat our bathroom floor in the Deck House we built in Carlisle in 1983 (we moved in on Christmas day 1983). He also put in the mixing valve and the "closely spaced T" to draw hot water from our traditional boiler which supplied the water for the radiators in the house. Later, when we expanded the house, we used his system to heat the floors of our additions. Move ahead 35 years, and we were moving to Tennessee. Here, we had (in 2012) a company called Northeast Radiant Technology (NRT) design a radiant heat system for our house near Knoxville. Rob (forgot his last name) of NRT designed a great system which we now have enjoyed for over 10 yrs (it is 2022 now). We have a Lochinvar Kight boiler, a Squire hot water storage tank, Tekmar controllers, and PEX which my wife and I installed throughout the floor areas of the house. We have 29 loops of PEX, which have individual flow control valves all of which are orchestrated by the Tekmar system. While we have been extremely pleased with the system, there is no one in the Knoxville area who understands hydronic heating, nor the Lochinvar boiler (even though it is manufactured in Lebanon, TN which is only about 75 miles away from us!... Anyway, my point of this long message is to say a big THANK YOU to you for providing these tutorials. I find myself the person who has to maintain our system (not that there is much maintenance involved), but I would like to know how to tweak it for optimum efficiencies. Your talks have been very helpful for me to learn what it is that Rob of NRT designed and where to make adjustments for best performance. Thanks again.

[@FIA_Inc]

So glad you found these videos helpful!

[@skipsaunders5974]

@@youdontlikewords where are you located?.... Around TN, there don't seem to be many people who understand Tekmar. However, I can tell you that the manuals they supplied to us for each component was very well written and comprehensive. My system is almost a decade old, but we've had zero issues with Tekmar. I'm very pleased to have installed and used Tekmar for our hydronic system control. It provides all the smarts needed to manage the condensing-modulating-boiler supplied by Lochinvar, even though the Lochinvar boiler has it own smarts, I let the Tekmar controler manage everything. It is a shame that NRT is no longer in business, but if you can find someone who understand how to use these systems, you'll be working in the Rolls-Royce of heating systems.... (without the RR prices --- perhaps high end, but not unmanageable when you consider the system's longevity and outstanding capabiliites)

[@shambles416]

This guy having domestic disputes during this video? Thanks fukn golden 😂

[@FIA_Inc]

Bit of free entertainment for you guys!

[@MacMilly707]

That was funny in the beginning, happy wife happy life brother.🤣👍👍😂

[@shambles416]

Old people leaving audio on and/or video still recording lmaoo

[@FIA_Inc]

You should see him in real life...

[@markhoffman]

Excellent presentation

[@FIA_Inc]

Glad you liked it

[@henrybartlett1986]

This is amazing. So many commercial installations are incorrectly installed.

[@FIA_Inc]

It's one of the first things we check for when checking out a problem installation

[@rpsmith]

Why does the common pipe need to be a max of 4 pipe diameters long or 12 inches? What happens if it is twice that length?

[@FIA_Inc]

Exceeding that length will not allow for the proper primary/secondary flow to take place

[@nolanlewis8459]

For multiple boilers in primary secondary configuration are isolation valves necessary? or would check valve, boiler, circ etc. provide enough pressure drop to prevent flow through inactive boilers?

[@FIA_Inc]

Check valves if working properly will prevent unwanted flow but Isolation valves are recommended if and when a boiler needs to be isolated to perform any work on it on the water side.

[@johnbasteen2909]

I'm still confused about how the flow in a secondary circuit can exceed the primary supply. I'm probably confusing volume with flow, but if a primary loop is only supplying 50 GPM of water, how can a secondary pump increase or accelerate that to 100 GPM when the quantity/velocity of water behind it in the supply isn't sufficient to meet the call? Wouldn't that create a massive vacuum behind the tee since their would be a shortage but there's no air to create a void? I mean, I heard your explanation that 50GPM backflows through the common and joins the original 50 GPM that entered the tee initially, I'm just still confused lol.

[@FIA_Inc]

This video, while old, is a really good explanation. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2bRda2qfLSMesk

[@craighvac1808]

How can you have 220f water? That would be steam

[@i.rjardine312]

212f is boiling point of water at sea level

[@tranceaddiction]

If you increase pressure, the boiling point rises. likewise, water boils at lower temp in lower pressures (ie. higher attitudes).

[@iceman846]

Stop clearing your throat

[@FIA_Inc]

I'll make sure to provide him with some lozenges in the future.