What did you do to your house today?

[GIZZ]

Originally Posted by Great68

What's your heating system? Hydronic rads (IE boiler + 5 zone valves)?

I'm looking at replacing a 13 year old triangle tube combi boiler, 3 zone to baseboards. Every year it needs something, I'm just waiting for it to fail completely. My buddy says electric but I'm not so sure. Do you have any suggestions?

[Great68]

Like replace your hydronic baseboards with electric baseboards?

I mean electric baseboards are reliable and simple but running wiring in a finished house to facilitate that would probably be a huge pain. And expect your power bill to increase quite substantially.

What has been your main points of failure with your existing system that has you thinking of changing?

[HKS PWR]

Originally Posted by GIZZ

I'm looking at replacing a 13 year old triangle tube combi boiler, 3 zone to baseboards. Every year it needs something, I'm just waiting for it to fail completely. My buddy says electric but I'm not so sure. Do you have any suggestions?

It'll be impractical to put in electric heating at this point (unless your buddy was referring to an electric hydronic boiler)
The most practical solution would be replacing the current combi-boiler with another combi boiler. The Navien NCB-E series and Rinnai I-series are the two more popular ones (made in Korean and Japan, respectively). There are North American brands as well (Noritz, Rheem, IBC, NTI.....) or European (Bosch, Viessmann.....)
In the end, you would want to pick a manufacturer that has good tech support because chances are, you or your plumber/gasfitter will be calling at some point.

[GIZZ]

Yes I was talking electric hydronic boiler, that would have lower operating costs and installation than running electric baseboards. But still higher cost to run than gas combi boiler.

The other half of it is that I read Vancouver and likely surrounding areas will be making a shift to zero emissions space and water heating. That will surely make repairing my already rare gas boiler even harder to find parts for. I'm replacing the low water cut off switch every other year. I changed out the blower once, the new one is loud and I fear it will fail again. This is just the most unreliable and difficult to service thing I've ever dealt with.

[HKS PWR]

Originally Posted by GIZZ

Yes I was talking electric hydronic boiler, that would have lower operating costs and installation than running electric baseboards. But still higher cost to run than gas combi boiler.

That's only half the problem. You still have to figure out how to heat your domestic water.
I've never like the idea of using combination boilers because once you have an issue and it stops running, you lose both space heating and domestic hot water
More often than not, combi-boilers are installed for a lack of space (not sure if this is your case)

Originally Posted by GIZZ

The other half of it is that I read Vancouver and likely surrounding areas will be making a shift to zero emissions space and water heating. That will surely make repairing my already rare gas boiler even harder to find parts for.

I wouldn't worry about that for the time being. It would take YEARS to implement such a thing. Imagine getting 2.5 million people in the lower mainland to retrofit their gas fired appliances to electric? And where does it end? Gas stove/ranges, gas fireplaces, gas BBQ???

[tdeweyn]

Clearing the junk in the garage. Need more empty space.

[fliptuner]

Tell me about it. Had to pull everything out of the garage, to upgrade my compressor in the back corner. Reorganized and junked a bunch of stuff. Now I just need to sell a few things to get a car inside.

[bcrdukes]

I see a motorcycle back there

[fliptuner]

Rebuilding the carb this weekend. 127CID hard tail lol

[Great68]

Originally Posted by GIZZ

Yes I was talking electric hydronic boiler, that would have lower operating costs and installation than running electric baseboards. But still higher cost to run than gas combi boiler.

The other half of it is that I read Vancouver and likely surrounding areas will be making a shift to zero emissions space and water heating. That will surely make repairing my already rare gas boiler even harder to find parts for. I'm replacing the low water cut off switch every other year. I changed out the blower once, the new one is loud and I fear it will fail again. This is just the most unreliable and difficult to service thing I've ever dealt with.

If I were shifting off of gas, I'd be doing a air to water heat pump over an electric hydronic boiler.

https://www.daikin.com/products/ac/lineup/heat_pump

[GIZZ]

That looks expensive too. I'd need the high temp unit for my baseboard radiators.

And my boiler failed last night, the blower motor failed again. it tries to move so I'm guessing the plastic blades cracked. I hate this thing. Going to be a challenge getting parts, and its so damn cold in here.

[HKS PWR]

Originally Posted by GIZZ

And my boiler failed last night, the blower motor failed again. it tries to move so I'm guessing the plastic blades cracked. I hate this thing. Going to be a challenge getting parts, and its so damn cold in here.

Just curious, where does the exhaust vent to? The roof or the side of the house? Do you have a picture of the mechanical room where this combi boiler is installed?

[GIZZ]

The flue run is about 15' to the side of the house. It's a no fan direct vent, sloping downwards with the final outlet much lower than the boiler. I bought the house like this. There is a capped stack for the old conventional furnace in that room, but earlier this year when I had the roof done I had them shaved the old stack.

I have the same unit in my garage, that exhaust is about 30 ft in length also exiting lower than the boiler. I haven't taken any good pics of the whole room.

[unit]

i want to hide the wires from my tv/soundbar/appletv but i want to keep it as neat as possible below.

i've seen these kits but you always have to install the power inlet into the wall, then connect it to a regular outlet. usually people hide this behind their entertainment unit, but i don't plan to have anything down below to hide wiring. is there any way i can make these connections behind the wall and just sacrifice the power outlet?

[Great68]

It would be against code to put a power plug inside a wall.

But what you could do, is install a new receptacle at the TV level and fish down a length of loomex/romex, and connect into the receptacle box below. May require some drywall cutting/patching to facilitate getting into the existing receptacle box, but this will be your cleanest solution.

[unit]

hmm that's not a bad idea, i think that would be the cleanest way without getting in over my head.

[snowball]

You can fish a flexible plastic conduit/raceway that will make fishing all your power/video/audio cables easily. The hardest part is installing it since you'll need a conduit with a diameter thicker than the power plug.

[Hondaracer]

Unit, I may have the kit to install a power plug as you said above. I bought it for my last place, basically just creates an approved junction from below to above. You can have it if I can find it.

It’s kind of hokey now as I would just wire in a new actual outlet but this is a good solution when you can’t fish a wire run

[Great68]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Unit, I may have the kit to install a power plug as you said above. I bought it for my last place, basically just creates an approved junction from below to above. You can have it if I can find it.

It’s kind of hokey now as I would just wire in a new actual outlet but this is a good solution when you can’t fish a wire run

If I understand his issue correctly, he doesn't have a piece of furniture under the TV and therefore if uses one of those kits the cord from the extended junction to the actual power receptacle will be visible, and he wants that hidden.

[unit]

^exactly!

thanks for the offer honda, i still might take you up on it if i do decide to go that way and just connect the plugs together.

[unit]

on another note, i took possession of my condo last week and move in is in about 2 weeks.
the first thing i did was buy 2 new toilets, because they bought these lame designer square ones that my bidets don't fit on, so i bought 2 american standard elongated ones.

since there is no strata yet i have nobody to ask, but do you normally have to let the strata know if you are changing the toilets? if so then i'll probably have to wait until the strata is formed before doing it, but if it's unnecessary then i'll just change them now. i plan to do it myself since it seems straightforward but was also wondering if it's typical for a strata to expect you to get a licensed and insured plumber to do the job since it involves water. any thoughts?

[fliptuner]

Lol I saw your ad on FB this morning

[unit]

haha! i had like 15 messages in an hour

[bcrdukes]

In my experience, if you are replacing something like-for-like with no modifications, you are good to go. Your only other option is to check with property management. I don't think you need a certified plumber for something like this.

Which American Standard toilet did you get? We're trying to get the Tofino for our renovation, but man, it's jumped in price since last year.

[unit]

thanks that makes sense.

i got the decor, i like the flush sides. especially since i have pets and they tend to leave pet hair in nooks and crannies.