From: "TURTLE" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Frozen Heating Pipes - need professional opinion
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 23:25:20 -0600


"Speedy Jim"  wrote in message 
news:33dso6F3vgv5vU1@individual.net...
> El Penguini wrote:
>> Hello All -
>>
>> This is my first winter in my new home and there is an anomalous heating
>> issue.
>>
>> The house is colonial with a bonus room over the garage (Finished Room Over
>> Garage - FROG in some areas).  We have a high end furnace with hot water
>> baseboard heat.  The first floor zone works great, but the second floor zone
>> has frozen on us each time it got below 10F.  Fortunately we have plastic
>> pipes, but I don't like having heat.  My opinion is that there is a pipe in
>> the bonus room freezing between furnace calls be the second floor
>> thermostat.  The thermostat is in the hallway and is sometimes satisfied by
>> the first floor heat rise (particularly when the fireplace is going).  This
>> results in the second floor heating system sitting idle long enough for the
>> pipe to freeze.
>
> 
>   One quickie fix may be to install a bypass around the 2nd floor
>   zone valve.  Use a ball valve, which can be set to throttle flow.
>   Anytime the boiler circ pump runs (for the 1st floor), a small amt of
>   hot water will circ to the FROG whether or not 2nd floor stat is
>   calling for heat.
>
>   Come Spring you can do a better job of insulating the FROG.
>
> Jim

This is Turtle.

I think you hit it there.
Now maybe a 1/4" needle valve like for cut offs for ice makers but have it 
brass. Then you could almost run it wide open to not cut the seat out of the 
valves.

TURTLE