My current problem is o-ring seals. The system has taco pumps and the seal blew about 3 weeks ago now. Taco gave me a part number for the model, but after ordering a couple and comparing them to the busted one, it was easy to see they were different sizes. I discussed this with a sales rep at my supplier, describing the pump housing. This is not a standard Taco pump it turns out and we came to the conclusion it was probably specially built as it has a pressure bell, guage, relief valve in addition to the fluid in and out. I'm waiting for a reply from Taco support to see if they have any further information about the Novan optimizer. And if anybody out there knows anything about o-ring seals, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Otherwise the whole thing will probably be pitched.
Hope you guys are having better luck than I. I suppose the new systems are better than these old ones but the payoff is still not there, at least not up here (Illinois). I wrote a computer program to capture the rough gain each day, then I found the different calculations to convert the degrees/gallons to BTU. Then I calculated the BTU to the natural gas cost and figured that I'm saving about $6 / month in the summertime. Keep in mind, mine is not the most efficient installation, but even at $10 /month, it would take about 66 years to break even on an $8000 installation. But then, there's always the possibility something is wrong with my calculation too.
If anybody wants further e-mail on this, I'm up for it at mr.kyle.t@netzero.com.
Oh, and the pebbled glass is supposed to work like tiny magnifying glasses to focus more heat on the fins or so I was told. If I were to do this now, I would go with a storage tank that has the heat exchange built in and eliminate a loop.
