■ Hot Water Heating Testing materials are an important part of determining glycol concentrations. One size does NOT fit all—each type requires a specific tester.
For hydronic heating systems in colder climates, ensuring your system is properly set up to battle chilly nights will save the system in the long run By Roy Collver Plain H2O is an amazing heat transfer fluid. It can be repeatedly charged up with heat—deliver it to where it is needed, release it, and then go back for more— indefinitely. Additionally, a given volume of water can absorb 3,400 times more heat than the same volume of air at the same temperature rise, allowing us to use little pipes to move a lot of energy. A 14-inch by eightinch air duct can be replaced by a three-quarter-inch pipe—your choice. Unfortunately, one property of water that isn’t so helpful is that it expands by approximately nine per cent when it freezes. Because water is pretty much incompressible, that nine per cent is more than enough
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to bust a cold climate hydronic system apart. This is Canada and it gets cold after all.
Practical suggestions Never let the space drop below freezing where there are hydronic components. Make sure to contain the whole system within the allotted space. This might include insulating piping components if they are close to outside walls and make sure there are no outdoor air intakes in close proximity. It could also include circulating heating fluid constantly even Continued on page 17
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