Edmonton Shoptalk

[240glt]

Really, really missing my JCI BMCS

This other stuff just doesn't compare, unfortunately

[240glt]

Anyone looking to the province for some home energy efficiency upgrades this spring, assuming there are some good programs as a result of the new carbon levy ?

We're seriously thinking about a solar array now that we've got a smart meter, hopefully something in the 2 kW range if we can get a grant or rebate on it. The process to get approval to hook your system up to the grid seems a little daunting

[noodlenoodle]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Anyone looking to the province for some home energy efficiency upgrades this spring, assuming there are some good programs as a result of the new carbon levy ?

We're seriously thinking about a solar array now that we've got a smart meter, hopefully something in the 2 kW range if we can get a grant or rebate on it. The process to get approval to hook your system up to the grid seems a little daunting

It should be a little less daunting now than in the past, given the changes in metering infrastructure in Edmonton. Feel free to toss me a PM if there's any particular part of the process that's stymying you.

[Coldrsx]

^^a great resource

https://solaralberta.ca/

[Rocket252]

Originally Posted by noodlenoodle

It should be a little less daunting now than in the past, given the changes in metering infrastructure in Edmonton. Feel free to toss me a PM if there's any particular part of the process that's stymying you.

my friend in Calgary put solar on his house and had a tough time with the utility down there trying to connect to the grid.

hopefully the process has been smoothed out

[noodlenoodle]

Originally Posted by Rocket252

my friend in Calgary put solar on his house and had a tough time with the utility down there trying to connect to the grid.

hopefully the process has been smoothed out

If you've had your meter swapped to the newer automated style there's minimal changes that need to be done wiring-wise (if any), it's mostly just administrative hurdles.

The new meters measure consumption bi-directionally out of the box, plus have the ability to prevent power going out when you're in an outage. If they detect the line side has cut out they won't push any power out until it's rectified.

Over 270,000 of the meters have been swapped so far, with the rest to be done this year.

[240glt]

So probably no transfer switch either then ? Just the array and an inverter basically.. that should simplify things

[noodlenoodle]

EPCOR changed their website recently & now the resource links don't work, but here is the main page on how to become a microgen site in Edmonton.

The links will be fixed ASAP.

E: Links fixed.

[Rocket252]

^ good to hear - I am interested in putting up an array - our roof aligns to the south perfectly and has the space to put cells on.

[Landlocked]

So I know most of you don't deal with the residential side of things very often but I had an interesting situation develop earlier this week. For the first time in 3 years, my power vented hot water heater shut off, and the warning indicator suggested a problem with the blower or air flow sensors. The blower seemed to be working fine, and testing the impact of positive/negative pressure on the tube connected to the sensor suggested it was fine as well. I finally went outside and checked the vent screens for blockages. The intake vent screen was almost completely blocked by 'snow'.

I knocked off the snow/ice and the tank fired up fine, but eventually shut down again with the error suggesting moisture on the sensors.

My thoughts are that the cold snap and snowfall led to a situation where moisture from the exhaust vent was freezing while being sucked back into the intake that was already sticky with hoar frost, potentially along with snowfall picked up from the ground during wind gusts.

Since clearing snow, removing nearby clutter to ensure exhaust has more avenues of escaping the side yard and allowing enough time for condensation on sensors to clear up I haven't had a problem (72+ hours now). Has anyone experienced anything like this and am I missing something I should check? To me the vents seem way too close together for our climate, but seem to meet the manual's specs.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Landlocked

So I know most of you don't deal with the residential side of things very often but I had an interesting situation develop earlier this week. For the first time in 3 years, my power vented hot water heater shut off, and the warning indicator suggested a problem with the blower or air flow sensors. The blower seemed to be working fine, and testing the impact of positive/negative pressure on the tube connected to the sensor suggested it was fine as well. I finally went outside and checked the vent screens for blockages. The intake vent screen was almost completely blocked by 'snow'.

I knocked off the snow/ice and the tank fired up fine, but eventually shut down again with the error suggesting moisture on the sensors.

My thoughts are that the cold snap and snowfall led to a situation where moisture from the exhaust vent was freezing while being sucked back into the intake that was already sticky with hoar frost, potentially along with snowfall picked up from the ground during wind gusts.

Since clearing snow, removing nearby clutter to ensure exhaust has more avenues of escaping the side yard and allowing enough time for condensation on sensors to clear up I haven't had a problem (72+ hours now). Has anyone experienced anything like this and am I missing something I should check? To me the vents seem way too close together for our climate, but seem to meet the manual's specs.

It is a common problem. but the cause could be a number of issues. the venting being close together isn't an issue,. we use concentric venting quite often. I would check to see if the vent and combustion air intake are terminated at the same length. they need to be offset by a few inches.

[240glt]

^^ your intake should be upwind (west) of your exhaust. I replaced the HWT and furnace at the Parkdale house in 2014 with H.E. equipment (and took the chimney out too.. that was a fun chore) and haven't had a problem, H.E. equipment has a really wide turndown ratio and is designed to allow condensation in your exhaust by dropping the flue gas temperature well below dewpoint, so really the equipment should be used to seeing moisture inside it. moisture on the air flow sensor could do it (usually just a pressure switch connected to a tube into the combustion air intake) and if the intake is plugged obviously it won't fire. Here at the complex I am having problems with the flame rod sensors on my boilers fouling which is dropping them out on flame failure, that's more due to construction dust but I bet if they got wet they'd act up just the same

And what Airboy said

[Landlocked]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^^ your intake should be upwind (west) of your exhaust. I replaced the HWT and furnace at the Parkdale house in 2014 with H.E. equipment (and took the chimney out too.. that was a fun chore) and haven't had a problem, H.E. equipment has a really wide turndown ratio and is designed to allow condensation in your exhaust by dropping the flue gas temperature well below dewpoint, so really the equipment should be used to seeing moisture inside it. moisture on the air flow sensor could do it (usually just a pressure switch connected to a tube into the combustion air intake) and if the intake is plugged obviously it won't fire. Here at the complex I am having problems with the flame rod sensors on my boilers fouling which is dropping them out on flame failure, that's more due to construction dust but I bet if they got wet they'd act up just the same

And what Airboy said

I'll check, thanks to both of you. I'm pretty sure the intake is east of the exhaust, and that the exhaust is elevated, via extra angles, above the intake.