When ProStaffer Tim Kuhlman isn’t busy testing and reviewing products and tools for our ProStaff program, he does have a busy, full-time job as a plumbing tech for Grasser’s Plumbing & Heating Inc., McNabb, Ill., a family-owned plumbing and HVAC company serving the Illinois valley for more than 60 years.
Recently, Kuhlman was tasked with a new construction job, installing a two-zone radiant heating system for a machine shed for farm equipment and office in Peru, Ill. This is a boiler system for 9,000-sq.-ft. building. With a 130,000 BTU load that will be capable of flowing 27 gpm @ 114 ft. (H2O)—they broke one zone down to 3 pumps , 10 loops per pump; flowing 1gpm per loop—that will heat this building with 90 F water by design.
The roughly 4-day job featured a Weil-McLain Ultra 230 series 3 gas-fired, cast aluminum heat exchanger boiler to “fuel” the radiant heating and four Grundfos 3-speed circulators for hydronic distribution for 8,100+ ft. for the shed and 500+ ft. for the office.
Kuhlman’s coworker Jesse Middleton installed the Uponor EP manifolds—with 36 loops of hePEX oxygen-barrier tubing—and helped solder some of the primary looping. The radiant job also features four Grundfos 3-speed circulators, a Taco Zone Valve Control Module, Webstone isolation valves.
Kuhlman is known for his work ethic and clean designs. He would, in turn, like to throw praise to his boss Chris Davis, and a shout out to his mentor, Jacob Hook, a coworker with an enormous amount of industry knowledge.
