No heat in one zone this morning


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Old 01-22-12, 10:54 AM
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No heat in one zone this morning

Let me quickly outline the system then explain the problem.
I have a boiler with three separate zones with three circulator pumps. One for hot water, one for two bedrooms and a bath room and one for the living room and master bedroom. Not the best setup but I bought the house this way.

So this morning the lr/mbr heat was out but the other bedrooms and hot water worked fine. When I turn the thermostat up I hear the circuit kick on and I feel the pipe vibrating slightly. I thought maybe a pipe had froze since it got very cold last night and I had run the wood stove since about 6pm and loaded it up right before we went to bed. The pipes run thru an Unheated breezeway and it was down to 20f this morning. I put a small heater in there and it's been about 40f in there for about four hours now.

How can I check that the circulator is working and not just humming?
 
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Old 01-22-12, 11:07 AM
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I thought maybe a pipe had froze since it got very cold last night and I had run the wood stove since about 6pm and loaded it up right before we went to bed. The pipes run thru an Unheated breezeway and it was down to 20f this morning.
I'm pretty sure your diagnosis is correct.

I hope you don't have split pipes and leaks when they finally thaw.

This is one of the major snafus when running a wood stove. The heat don't run, and stuff freezes up. You should probably consider having anti-freeze installed in the system if you intend to continue using the wood stove.

How can I check that the circulator is working and not just humming?
There really isn't an easy way... wait for the pipes to thaw and hope for the best.

Is that the only place that the pipes are in unheated space? How about in a crawlspace or something? you could well have more than one spot frozen...
 
 

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