Chapter 1 - Modern Hydronic Heating

Hydronic heating systems use water (or water-based solutions) to move thermal energy from where it is produced to where it is needed.

Ideally, the water in a hydronic heating system is replaced in the system every year.

Providing comfort is the secondary objective of any heating system designer or installer.

Properly designed hydronic systems control both the air temperature and surface temperatures of rooms to maintain optimal comfort.

Maintaining comfort is simply a matter of supplying heat to the body.

A properly designed and installed hydronic system can operate with virtually no detectable sound levels in the occupied areas of a home.

Not every heating system consists of devices that convert one form of energy into another.

Thermal radiation is probably the least understood mode of heat transfer.

The simplest hydronic system can be described as a loop or piping circuit.

In single-loop systems, the flow-check valve prevents hot water in the boiler from slowly circulating through the distribution system when the circulator is off.

Water has many characteristics that make it ideal for a hydronic system. It is readily available, nontoxic, nonflammable, and has one of the highest __________ storage abilities of any material known to man.

Early hydronic systems did not have circulators. Instead, they relied on the __________ of hot water to move water between the boiler and the heat emitters.

Buildings with hydronic heating systems have shown __________ heating energy use compared to equivalent structures with forced-air heating systems.

A given volume of water can absorb over __________ times more heat as the same volume of air for the same temperature change.

Heat is our perception of atomic vibrations within a material. Our means of expressing the intensity of these vibrations is called _________.

Heat emitters that use fans or blowers to force air through a heat exchanger are usually called fan coils or air _________.

All hydronic heating systems will inherently attempt to find a point of _______ and remain in operation at that point.

In an ideal application, the rate of heat production by the heat source would _________ the rate of heat by the heat emitters.

In single-loop systems, the __________ prevents hot water in the boiler from slowly circulating through the distribution system when the circulator is off.

An air separator is designed to separate air from water and eject it from the system. The process is ________ the water is heated.