SonOfMcGee t1_j2700g1 wrote on December 30, 2022 at 2:37 AM

Reply to comment by Blecher_onthe_Hudson in Did your heating fail to keep your temp up last weekend when it was below 10 deg? by Blecher_onthe_Hudson

I used to own a small condo in town that did both hot water and heat (standard baseboard radiators) from a single hot water heater. It was a nifty little system. The heat was just controlled by a recirculation pump connected to the thermostat. Meanwhile on the hot water side, there was a mixing valve with a temperature-sensitive element that would blend in cold water to prevent scalding.
This meant we could turn the water heater up to its max setting for the purpose of more powerful heating but still get safe water out the tap.
Is this how your place is set up (aside from it not being baseboard)?

Blecher_onthe_Hudson OP t1_j27bzke wrote on December 30, 2022 at 4:08 AM

Exactly so. I imagine the size threshold of where it works to be rather small, but mine are 450' and it works fine, without the complexity of boilers or expensive & finicky direct vent mod-con tankless boilers. Also, doing the direct vent on an attached rowhouse can be pretty difficult.