Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Boiler installed in reverse?

I had a boiler installed last weekend. After install technician left, I took a look at the system and noticed that it was installed "curiously". I have hot water baseboards with two zones. The way the system is configured right now, both circulators pump cool water into lower part of the boiler, hot water then comes up thought the pipe on top of the which splits in two - to accommodate each zone. Is this an efficient install, why aren't the circulators pumping the hot air up? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

The vast majority of hot water heating systems are installed that way. The way your system works is the zone opens up when there is a demand for heat, a brief delay and the pump for that zone starts. The pump draws water from that zone causing negative pressure and pushes water to the boiler and causes positive pressure. When the positive pressured water comes out of the boiler, it is attracted to the negative pressure in that zone. Then the two opposing pressures equalize. All this occurs within seconds of the pump starting. Zoning has been done this way for the fifty years. In the last few years, very few contractors are doing the way you thought it should have been done. This is rare and in my opinion is a better way of zoning. The pump is put on the supply pipe and after the pump a flow check valve is installed. This eliminates the need for zoning valves. The way this system works is when the pump comes on it creates negative pressure in the boiler and positive pressure in the zone. The positive pressure water in the zone is attracted to the negative pressure in the boiler and then they equalize. The flow check valves prohibit water from being drawn from a zone that's not in use. It only allows the water to go in one direction and that's into the zone. Both systems are good, except that your present system has proven itself over the years to work well.

If the boiler in and out are reversed it either needs to be repiped or possibly the pump/s can be turned around to flow in the opposite direction. Your baseboards shouldn't have a problem with direction of flow. Before going anywhere with this be sure the in and out is definitly reversed. They should have a label and the pump should have an arrow in the direction of flow. Triple check to be sure.