I have a circa 1966 hot water system with gas boiler. Two zones, one a walk out basement and the other the first floor. I am doing major remodeling and winter is coming. I have cut off the basement zone and capped off for future piping. I had to remove some baseboard in the first floor zone, and have repiped. Zones are simple loops. The system worked fine before I started this project. The system sat empty for three months. Some of the valves are hard to operate. I have now filled the system and purged to best of my ability. Boiler heats to 175 degrees on gauge. Pressure shows to be 18 psi, but I have no heat in the active zone. Pictures of boiler piping and expansion tank are at http://cheely.com/expansion.jpg http://cheely.com/boiler.jpg Expansion tank seems to be empty, even with fill valve open. If I purge through the valve on the right, I get lots of air that doesn't stop, which may be coming from expansion tank. How should I be doing this, why is expansion tank apparently empty, and do I leave fill valve open when operating system? Thanks

I'm in the process of enclosing our back porch. It's about 26' x 10' and sits 9' in the air over nothing. The walls are 2x4 framing, the ceiling 2x6 and the floor 2x8. I'm having foam sprayed into the ceiling, floor and walls. Three of the walls have windows and there are 4 skylights. The fourth wall is attached to the house. I have a copy of the book Modern Hydronic Heating, which I don't understand, which came with the software Hydronics Design Studio, which I don't understand much better. I fumbled through it, however and came up with this: http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m123/longaville/porchheatloss2.jpg http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m123/longaville/baseboard2.jpg I'd appreciate it any comments on these results and if the baseboard requirements seem accurate. Thanks,