Heating Help

Hi-limit

@ March 13, 2013 5:05 PM in 100-270 Degree high limit aquastat (manual reset) keeps

A manual reset high limit should not be used as an operating control. You should have another aquastat set at a lower temperature as the operating control. It has to be manual reset to get some one there to realize there is a problem and take some kind of action.
If you have a closed system with proper expansion tank and a pressure relief I would turn the(reset) high limit setting up a few degrees and then try to find out why the operating control is overshooting the set point.

The lowly thermostat

@ February 26, 2013 7:05 AM in The elegance of simplicity has it been lost?

The T-87 has been around forever, before that T-86, before that... and so on. I wish I was wise enough to buy all the the mercury T-stats before they went illegal. I have customers who still have T-stats from the early 50's in use.

 The replacements have been nothing but trouble and elderly consumers have had nothing but trouble using them.

Hi limit ?

@ December 15, 2012 11:09 PM in Beckett AFG

Are you sure it is not cycling on and off because the aquastat is reaching high limit?

steve

@ December 12, 2012 10:45 PM in Dear Customer,

Steve, Bill Nye is my real name, I'm just "not the science guy"

Wow

@ December 12, 2012 6:50 AM in Huge Gas Explosion

No one got hurt! It was surprising to me that none of my local news stations picked this story up. I think if it had anything to do with heating oil it would have been on every channel on every TV.

After the Springfield Mass. explosion a couple weeks ago its makes a person a little nervous about 60 yr old pipe lines buried under your sidewalk.

Steve

@ December 12, 2012 6:42 AM in Dear Customer,

Steve, I'm with you, most of my customers are the nicest and thoughtful people, But today I had an exceptionally bad day with filth,cat manure, fur ,etc. No lights, electrical plug, etc.  It was building for a while and I needed to vent.
I could not Imagine a professional person working under the same conditions. This was tongue in cheek  and meant to be just that.

Piping method

@ December 11, 2012 8:52 PM in Heating pex tubing

Heeltee, how were you going to pipe your system? Radiator to radiator in a series does not work so well. I have had good luck with the homerun method where you supply and return your radiators to a manifold or a monoflo system. I am doing one now in a 100+ y.o. house. We did a copper monoflo loop and will do take offs to rads with pex

the picture

@ December 11, 2012 8:19 PM in Series EC/ECT Peerless hot water/steam furnace issue

The picture you posted shows that the Pressuretrol (little grey box with numbers and pointers on front) is set at about 8 or 9 psi. Your vents are good for 3psi max. As Dan Holohan has been quoted "Crank it down ! "
Also check to see what temperature your hot water aquastat is set at, 160°-170°F is considered "normal" Steam does not happen until 212°

Dear Customer,

@ December 11, 2012 8:02 PM in Dear Customer,

Dear Customer, I worked at your home today. While I was there I came up with an idea, and spoke to your boss at work. Your boss is going to allow me to install 5 cat litter boxes inside of your small cubicle, none of them cleaned of course. Next we will remove all of the light bulbs from the fixtures, you can use a drop light or a flashlight. And then we can store all of your daughters furniture and belongings who, got divorced, dropped out of school, moved back home etc. And then we will ask the custodian not to clean your office for say 10 or 15 yrs. ? Maybe we can blare a TV or stereo at full volume to help you concentrate.

Now that you know what my office is like maybe you will appreciate tradesman a little more. How you doing, Bill Nye

Hey Buddy

@ May 6, 2012 10:11 PM in Hey, Alan Mercurio!

Happy birthday Alan.

Bill

Chris

@ May 4, 2012 10:36 PM in Why Is the US Always Last

Because oil, gas, or energy is too cheap here. When it goes up to $10 bucks a gallon the maybe efficient equipment will become popular. Last week I serviced three 1725 burners and this week one 1725 burner. One guy asked me what the efficiency was ? I told if he really cared or if it mattered he would have replaced his boiler 20 yrs ago.

I don't think many foreign boiler companies sell a sufficient volume of equipment here to make the U.S. market a priority for releasing technology or equipment.

Tim

@ May 4, 2012 10:23 PM in I need some opinions

From what I have seen through the years is that an electrician is the last person you would want to wire heating equipment. Many admit they don't have a clue. But don't get me wrong, there are many licensed electricians who are absolute professionals and are very capable, unfortunately they are in the minority.

Many people can "get the thing to work" but have no idea that they have by-passed safety circuits, etc. You really have to understand controls, safeties, and sequence of events. Diagrams and color codes are nice but it takes a real technician to see past all that and make the equipment perform safely and correctly. To steal the phrase from Dan "You have to see it in your mind's eye".

I would say special training should be required to wire and install gas or oil heating equipment. The older stuff was much simpler, new stuff has a lot of electronics and circuit boards and computers. A lot harder for old rednecks like myself to troubleshoot, you can't just short stuff out with a screwdriver or a jumper wire any more. You let all of the smoke out of the wires.

I think factory training on specialized equipment is an absolute must. So much time and parts could be saved if the technician didn't "see it for the first time" in your basement. There are a lot of old fashioned companies that feel if they have licensed people no further training is necessary. They(techs) can't make any money sitting in a classroom, you have to be in some ones basement making revenue.  Oh but how much money could they save the company in recalls or customer satisfaction with a little classroom time ?

It is sad but I spend great deal of time fixing or undoing what others have done to the equipment, job security, but not in a good way.

Hey Mark Eatherton !

@ May 3, 2012 7:21 AM in Hey Mark Eatherton !

Hope you enjoy your day today. Looks like my plans are going to be rained out here on the East coast. Was going to watch and maybe partake in some NHRA drag racing.

Another year older and hopefully wiser. Thanks for all you do here and for all you do for the plumbing and heating trades. Mr. Holohan's website has been a great inspiration for many people, especially me, glad I met you. I'm proud to share a birthday with some one as famous as you. Bill Nye.

Zone Valve?

@ February 23, 2012 10:46 PM in New Amtrol Boiler Mate running out of hot water

Do you have a zone valve on the indirect zone? Is the boiler cold start? or does it maintain temperature?  Is the grundfoss pump a 3 speed, if so what speed ?

If you had a Taco zone valve it could take up to 90 seconds to open, if the boiler is cold start the boiler water could actually cool the indirect until it came up to temperature.

I like to set the indirect to 135-140° and use a good mixing valve (honeywell) and use a pump for the indirect, no zone valve.

City Slickers

@ January 31, 2012 9:11 PM in Oil vs NG

You city slickers are lucky to have NG. Us here country boys, out in the sticks, do not have access to NG. The option would be propane but I am not sure how prices compare. I am probably 6-8 miles away from a natural gas pipe line. Maybe 20 miles in the other direction.
I have worked for oil companies for almost 25 yrs and would switch to gas in my own home if it was available. Equipment and insulation play a big part in home heating costs no matter what fuel you use. The previous owner of my home used 6-8 cords of wood and 4-5 tanks of oil pr yr for heat and hot water. I insulated, replaced windows, and doubled the size of the house and use less than 2-1/2 tanks oil and maybe 1 -1-1/2 cord of "recreational" wood. I also switched from scorched hot air to hot water with a Viessmann and outdoor reset.

Who knows what the future holds? Maybe everyone will have their own nuclear reactor in the basement for heat, hot water and electricity. I could dress up like Homer Simpson and change the little pellet in your basement reactor every few years. Bill the space age heating guy.

Up - date

@ January 17, 2012 3:20 PM in Frozen Pex

Well, I went back this morning and the zone had thawed and heat was back on. Last night I exposed as much of the pipe as possible, left closet doors open, and turned other zones way up. It helped that the outdoor temperature had gone up above freezing.

Mark

@ January 16, 2012 11:18 PM in Frozen Pex

I've done both of your ideas in the past. The problem here is the finished basement and limited access to the pipe. It would be isolated from the construction heater and the water would damage the walls, ceiling, floors etc.
When my Dad worked for a company that owned a water company we thawed waterservice pipes with 3/8" poly tubing, 100 ft coils. We had a trailer with two 40 gallon propane water heaters and a 100 pound propane tank. I think we used compressed air to push the water out of the water heaters. It was a really bad cold winter that year. Just kept pushing the poly tubing just as you described.

Frozen Pex

@ January 16, 2012 10:47 PM in Frozen Pex

What can you do with frozen pex ?  If it were copper I could hook up a thawing machine, or I could hold a torch flame on the pipe.
 She was away for the week end, ran out of oil, it was 6°F.  Got oil today, her parents let the driver in to start the burner and then left 5min. later. House was cold for two or three days. I just left at 10:05 PM, still no heat.

Finished basement, walls go right up to floor joist and box off last bay for entire width of house. Pex tubing lays right on top of concrete foundation, no insulation on pex. Pink itchy insulation prevents me from blowing heat gun or hairdryer down the bay. I had to give up. Tomorrow I think I will attach new pex to old pex and pull it through the bay.

Any thoughts ?  And yes it is a real butcher job.

Ron Jr

@ January 14, 2012 6:03 PM in What did we ...

I think getting the 4" blocks to the 2nd floor attic would wear me out!

What did we ...

@ January 14, 2012 8:22 AM in What did we ...

What did we learn this week ?

 I learned that you never leave your tools in the customers basement when you go for parts. He assured me that the basement door would be unlocked. Just by habit he locked it when he closed it, only had to pick up daughter at school and run an errand.  One-1/2 hour later (as I waited in truck) "All done yet ? " he says, I'm like , Dude, you locked me out! Oh, sorry man. Older customers are worse, they fall asleep in the chair and a bomb wouldn't wake them.

Thursday I was in a house that was cleaner than a hospital, not a crumb out of place. I get nervous working in such nice houses. I had to drill two holes through a nice , nice wood floor. You only get one chance. I had no pilot bit. Nice houses Never have metal coat hangers, just wood or plastic. I tore my truck apart looking for something.

I was about to give up and then I found a pair of 11" Carlin electrodes. Eureka, I broke the porcelain off, straightened the tip, and, the perfect pilot bit! Two holes in the right place, no drama. Sometimes you just gotta' do what you gotta' do.

pvc dia.

@ January 2, 2012 10:30 PM in CPVC diameter conundrum...

Not schedule 40 ? Not CTS - copper tubing size?  Was it quest or cresline tubing? polyethelyne. Was it connected with copper crimp band type connectors?

2107

@ December 25, 2011 5:53 PM in Buderus g125be

2107 Logamatic comes with two terminals provided for LWCO. From the factory there is a jumper between the terminals, when you install a LWCO you remove the jumper and make the connection. The LWCO is not supplied, you need to buy your own but the wiring is very simple.