Taco Circulator Pumps Or Honeywell Zone Valves?
Taco Circulator Pumps Or Honeywell Zone Valves? This is a question all homeowners must decide when designing a residential hot water heating system.
Cost verses dependability, installation time and performance, are all things that must be considered. Every system will have different characteristics and yours is no exception.
To start with, a one zone system, will require one circulator. All forced hot water systems require a pump, to circulate the water. Added zones are where the question comes in.
This occurs when more then one thermostat is desired to control the temperature of each room or area. Each added zone or loop, will require an additional circulator pump, or each zone will need some way, to control the flow while one pump is used to circulate all zones.
As far as initial cost between the two choices, pumps will cost about twice as much as a zone valve. Installation time is about the same. Therefore the labor to install these will even out. This is a plus in the price column of our comparison.
Other considerations will be the dependability of the product. With 40 years of personal research, the circulator pump is the way to go. Each zone uses it's designated pump to circulate heated water through the radiation for that zone only. This causes much less use on a pump.
Zone valves have in the past carried a reputation of mechanical failure. This however has decreased with new innovations and the addition of an electric motor to operate the valve. Breakdowns for this equipment have been significantly reduced.
Even with the new dependability ratings, the zone valve method requires one pump, to operate the flow for several zones and could overexert the pump in a short time.
Circulator pumps for multi zone systems, are definitely the preferred method for zoning a hot water heating systems. Using a pump for each individual zone will drastically reduce the operating hours for each pump. This will dramatically extend the life of this type of equipment. They will only be required to come on when the zone in question is calling.
Taking the time to research your design preferences ahead of time will avoid the mistake of rushing into a choice, because a contractor is trying to sell you, the most expensive system. Know the warranties on the items your going to use, price the options and be an aware informed consumer.
When it comes to some of the new radiant heating systems, zones are usually smaller loops, this makes using zone valves a common sense move because the pumps really don't work that much harder with a couple of small zones.
Systems with many zones let's say over five, cost of the initial installation will add up quick with the pump method and zone valves may be the answer here as well. So the answer to the question,Taco Circulator Pumps Or Honeywell Zone Valves? Is both, depending on your system these are both great ways to zone a hot water heating system.
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