Pex for Heating Baseboard? Sink or Shower?
What size (1/2″ or 3/4″ or 1″) and type (PEXa PEXb PEXc) would you use if you had a 3 Family in Brooklyn and you wanted to redo the heating hot water pipe runs to pex? Can you use pex to run HW lines for sinks and showers and toliets?
What size (1/2″ or 3/4″ or 1″) and type (PEXa PEXb PEXc) would you use if you had a 3 Family in Brooklyn and you wanted to redo the heating hot water pipe runs to pex?
Can you use pex to run HW lines for sinks and showers and toliets?
Fair enough, Bruce, on calling me out on my “snarky” reply.
But when someone is looking for advice and gets a reply like this: “There are a couple of possibilities achievable with pex that standard piping is unable to achieve.”
and “I would go with 1″ riser to the top floor, branched into 3/4″ to the radiators. 3/4″ everywhere else will be OK”
Then I have to call “Um. What?!” on that.
MP and SteamMan, I would expect more of you guys. OP states that he has a 3 family.
Assuming a 3-4 story house, do you disagree with my recommendations or is this soley a turf war?
If you have different suggestions, go for it. If it happened, maybe even due to chance, that somehow I am fairly close to the mark, save the snarky comments and get over your beaten self-esteem.
The mistreatment that apprentices are subjected to is unfortunate. It happened to you so you do it to others. The truly accomplished master tradesmen share their knowledge, they don’t put others down.
It was striking when L Gosset Jr. said that “nothing comes from Kansas but steers and queers”. But if you recall, his background was awfully similar to Richard Gere’s.
A homeowner came seeking guidance, not an engineering analysis. I acknowledged that sizing was usually done competently in the past, but the option of zoning if it wasn’t previously zoned was worth considering.
I have in the past admired your postings, but lose the snark.
Bruce
LOL MP
My thoughts exactly. Guess I spent endless years as an apprentice, getting my self-esteem beaten to a pulp just to learn this trade all for nothing. I could have just asked bruce!
Wow, Brucef. Without any information regarding BTU load, flow rates, etc., you were able to size and spec the poster’s whole heating system! Do you give classes? Or do you need them?
Assuming that your home was planned out correctly when originally installed, and most were professionally planned, then replacing with same diameters is the way to go.
There are a couple of possibilities achievable with pex that standard piping is unable to achieve.
Zoning is the most important. There is the additional cost of a manifold, a Taco zone controller, additional thermostats and wires, and Taco circulator pumps. But you get tremendously greater efficiency, in that you can send more heat where needed (top floor), without having to send too much to lower floors. This has been previously ineffectively achievable by throttling old systems, but zoning is the way to go.
I would go with 1″ riser to the top floor, branched into 3/4″ to the radiators. 3/4″ everywhere else will be OK.
The other posibility is the use of manifold tee’s, to split the flow more effectively.
You can contact me bruce at jerseydata.net
PVC and PEX are two very different things used for very different applications. Cast iron fittings, but not pipe, are used for heating in some cases, but never for domestic water. Cast iron and PVC pipe are both for drainage.
http://www.GatewayPlumbing.com
“Can you use pex to run HW lines for sinks and showers and toliets?”
Read the post all I said was as indicted above Pex cannot be used for domestic water. That is where I indicate that cast iron should be used instead of PVC since Pex cannot be used. I was agreeing with your post…
You absolutely can use pex to supply hot water to radiators.
Cast iron for heating? Pvc is not pex. J, you either don’t understand the post or know very little about plumbing.
Can’t use Pex as stated above. Stick with cast iron or you are going to hear the water running though the pvc pipe.