One look at the Alpine basement heating

[geo]

While I was in the Power Panel fishing wires for installation of my Reverse Osmosis System (I'll post it in Mods when finished next weekend), I was wedged in the upper utility basement to retrieve a set of wires. Of course, handy camera in hand, I took a few pictures of the power converter, furnace, back of the panel, AND ONE ASPECT PICTURE OF THE ALPINE BASEMENT HEATING SYSTEM!

First, this is an early build 2011 Alpine 3640RL (built May/June 2010), so yours might be different. There was an access hole between the upper and lower utility basements. So, with camera strapped to my hand, I stuck the hand and the camera through the access hole and took the attached picture! Notice that the basement heat, in this case, is a T-box attached to the 2.5" (6.35cm) heating duct. The open T juncture is basically pointed "sort of" at the valve assembly of the kitchen gray water tank (I've been able to figure this out, the kitchen gray is right next to the black and across from the bath gray). The outflow is not controlled by a louvered vent, and the duct continues on to the black water valve.

There has been so much spectulation and questioning about the Alpine basement heating system . . . I do not believe any of the tanks are wrapped, and I'm not sure what insulation besides the Keystone Radiant Barrier (aluminum coated small bubble wrap) shields the tank from the corregated plastic under-sheath. Maybe Mel might know???? :eek:

The "black ringed hose" you see in the picture is the basement forced air heating system (own design) I installed and described in the Modifications topic area of this Forum.

Any comments on the basement heating?

Ron

[andyrad]

What a mess this company makes of their installations. They should be embarrassed. It's really not that tough to secure things properly so that they don't cause problems down the road. I just hope that this wekend when we take the 3450 out for it's first wet run that we dont have any problems because it's going to get down to -5C at night. I hope the 'heated enclosure' prevents freeze up.

[dave67]

The bad part is his may look like that and the next one will look different.Thats the High quality control they have or lack of.I just finished going thru mine last week and had two water leaks to fix in the plumbing.Kitchen drain leaked like crazy and the bathroom sink sprayed water out at you.They never had the airator on the faucet all the way and found out the hard way.

[andyrad]

When we picked up ours we were told that the water and plumbing had already been tested out and re-winterized so we did not get to see it in action, or lack there of so to speak. I guess I'll find out tomorrow night when we de-winterize it.

[geo]

When I was going over the pictures for the reverse osmosis install post, I looked at this picture again. Notice the two loose screws on top of what appears to be an electrical component (?). This electrical component is in the lower utility basement in front of one of the gray water tanks. Is it a pump? For what? :confused: It's wired and bolted in place. If I can, I'll try for another picture this weekend, but this "thing" is totally inaccessable without removing the underbelly!

Ron