Heating Help

wetvac

@ April 1, 2012 6:58 AM in cleaning baseboard elements

possibly put the head of a wet vac if the angel is ok and run it as you spray

return air

@ November 23, 2011 6:38 AM in Short Cycling

chapchao70 has a good point. could you possibly close the returns upstairs but leave the doors open to the downstairs which would temper the return air and allow for circulation. if the blower stays on then you would at least know what the reason is. I think on the limit switch on the furnace there are three settings. High limit, on , and off. Maybe the "off" setting is set too high or too close to the "on"setting.

post purge

@ June 11, 2011 9:34 AM in Field Controls Oil Vent Damper

the instruction/instlation papers indicate a 3 minute "hold open time" after the burner shuts down. The Carlin has a 15 second post purge. I asked my oil/service company for their opinions. One of the techs said that trapping excess heat in the chamber might have adverse effects on the burner head and nozzle when the unit isn't firing.

field controls oil vent damper

@ June 9, 2011 8:47 AM in Field Controls Oil Vent Damper

Alan; thanks for your reply. Like many others , I'm limited to oil or
propane. My WM WTGO 3 is 7 years old. The tankless coil outlet feeds an older
Carlin Aquabank for DHW storage. The tankless coil inlet is fed by a
solar DHW storage tank. I've insulated the two storage tanks (R19) over
the existing tank insulation; installed drop tubes on the inlets and
outlets of both tanks, insulated the boiler on the outside of the boiler
casing or shell, insulated all the near piping except for the Taco 007,
and have an outdoor reset. I changed the flue from top to rear. The low
limit is set at 125, just high enough to keep the Aquabank at a
comfortable DHW temp for me and keep the aquabank circlator from conatantly running. The differential is 20.The boiler is
cleaned/tuned professionally yearly and no condensation issues are
evident. I put an hour meter on the burner a few years ago and during
the non-heating season the burner run about 20 minutes a day. About
$10/week at $4/gallon. Because this isn't a cold start boiler and I have
to maintain a minimum temperature, I think I've exhausted all the
things I can do except to minimize standby loss up the flue pipe. Thus
the question about the oil vent damper. They aren't that expensive and
the technician can re-tune the boiler for any changes in draft. But I did hear bad things about them in the past.   Mark S

Field Controls Oil Vent Damper

@ June 8, 2011 8:18 AM in Field Controls Oil Vent Damper

Has anyone had experience; and if so, comments on the new Field Controls oil vent damper? From what I understand the older (20 years+) vent dampers were problematic. This unit is a few years old. For a non cold start oil fired CI boiler. Thanks for any opinions. Mark S
http://www.fieldcontrols.com/pdfs/46567100OVDInstSheetRevA0109.pdf

backwards piping

@ May 17, 2011 5:06 PM in Indirect water heater timer

A few years ago my solar storage tank began to leak. I was having trouble with the new tank (external heat exchanger) until I noticed that had piped it backwards. Just a thought.

aquastat high limit ?

@ May 16, 2011 6:57 PM in Indirect water heater timer

Could the high limit on the aquastat be set lower than the "on" setting for the DHW tank/circulator?

"Pool Noodle" as pipe insulation

@ April 8, 2011 6:54 AM in "Pool Noodle" as pipe insulation

I saw "Pool Noodles" in the local dollar store a few days ago. Various gaudy colors. 4' long. 3/4 ID hole and about 1.25 wall thickness. From what I can find out, they are made of polyethylene closed cell foam. I tried to find information about the health and safety issues (fire, fumes)with different answers/opinions, and melting point which seems to be about 220 degrees. Would this product be appropriate for pipe insulation for hydronics and DHW. They were incredibly cheap. (this isn't meant to be an insulting or foolish question). thanks     Mark S.

teckmar

@ April 7, 2011 6:36 AM in Opinion on Nozzle Sizes and Type for Oversized WM

If you have a separate DHW system, the Teckmar 256 single stage boiler control isn't that expensive. The literature suggests that it has outdoor reset and you can adjust the differential to minimize short cycling.

Carlin Aquabank

@ March 22, 2011 6:14 AM in Indirect vs tankless coil

Some of you may remember the Carlin Aquabank. We put one in my dad's house in 1976. Fed by the tankless coil. It has a bronze B&G. Stone lined. It's still going strong with no leaks. Like Icesailor said. 

solar tank sensor placement

@ March 7, 2011 9:04 AM in solar tank sensor placement

What would be the optimum placement for the tank sensor in a solar system?. If it is up top, the system will shut down too soon with the water at the bottom staying cold. But with the sensor nearer the bottom, The circulator will com on in the evening when cold street water enters the tank and it seems some of the days gain will be pumped back to the panels and actually loose temperature. My system is an older Grumman Sunstream, wall mounted HX with 2 pumps. The controller has a set differential (4 deg) with no option to shut the system down when the panels/glycol drop below a user set temperatures. A 30 year system that continues to work perfectly. Except for possibly dumping heat back out under certain conditions. Thanks for any thoughts.   Mark S

Carlin EZ

@ February 27, 2011 7:25 AM in Smooth but noiser 1st 15 seconds

I have a WM WTGO3 with the Carlin EZ burner. Does the same thing. When the teck first set it up, I noticed it. The next year at tuneup time, he said it was the ignition dropping out. Always starts smooth after pre-purge and runs smoothly, during the first 15 second "roar" and then until it shuts of.

radiator cover?

@ February 9, 2011 6:51 AM in Fixing self inflicted heat imbalance after insulating attic

could you experiment with a reflective insulating cover for the radiators and if the heat emitted is lessened, then find a permanent and attractive solution. 

tankless coil

@ February 7, 2011 5:30 PM in Boiler shut-down, cons?

Thanks Charlie; I never considered the effect of cold street water chilling/condensing the boiler as it flows to the DHW system. Possibly the original poster could install a bypass for the DHW during the summer months when the boiler is not needed for heat.

stratification

@ January 21, 2011 8:48 AM in Simple System, Impossible Problem.

I had a problem with a DHW solar storage tank. It was a piping issue similar to what a few others have mentioned in this thread. When I switched the piping to cold in the bottom and hot drawing from the top, my problems were solved.

intake air temp?

@ January 2, 2011 12:13 PM in Prestige Solo 60 on propane - ignition issues

On a commercial natural gas Aerco modulating boiler in the school system I use to work for, we would have lockout problems during the colder winter months. After testing and troubleshooting visits from both the factory rep and the gas company, an internet contact told me about intermittent lockout problems when ramping up with cold intake air temps. Both exhaust and intake went directly thru long 12" pipe runs to the outside of the building. One day I disconnected the intake and fed the intake air to boiler with warm boiler room air. The lockouts stopped. The local fire marshal gave me the OK on a piping run to use intake air from the inside of the building. Alot of time and hours spent on a $20 repair.

teckmar ?

@ December 17, 2010 10:32 AM in oversized oil boiler - what to do?

I have the same boiler (with the Carlin EZ1) and added a Honeywell AQ475
outdoor reset about 4 years ago. The
literature says that the differential when calling for heat is also
controlled by the AQ475 for longer runtimes. The literature for a
Teckmar 256 seems
to say that the differential when calling for heat can be manually set. I
changed from top to rear flue as billtowcase suggests and the stack temp dropped fro 450 to
390. The original nozzle was .95, and last year when the serviceman did the tuneup with the digital meter he changed it to .85. I guess 390 is as low as I could safely go. I get frustrated with the short runtimes also, but aside from buying a new smaller boiler (Basi?) and adding an indirect, there's not much more I can do. The teckmar controllers aren't that expensive. Possibly one of those might help if you can actually up the call for heat runtime differential.

use some thermometers

@ October 25, 2010 12:22 PM in using central ac system to distribute heat

maybe you could buy a few cheap probe type thermometers and place them at the supply and returns to see what might happen.

gel in tank

@ October 3, 2010 7:14 AM in Jell substance in bottom of hot water heater

I found a similar situation. I'm using a 50 gallon Whirlpool electric water heater as a solar storage tank for DHW. The electric elements are not hooked up. The tank temperature gets to about 150 degrees during a sunny summer day. Town water. Plummed with copper. 

slant fin hydronic explorer

@ September 3, 2010 6:28 AM in Boiler Sizing

to double check your calculations, this neat program is still available

http://www.pvsullivan.com/Downloads.html

low limit

@ August 30, 2010 10:46 AM in Best water temp

thanks Charlie. up it goes.

low limit setpoint

@ August 30, 2010 5:41 AM in Best water temp

I have a boiler with a tankless coil for the DHW. I find that for me 130 degrees is a good low limit setpoint year round. My water at the fixtures is hot enough for me and the boiler still stays warm enough so that there is no condensation and/or moisture in the boiler and chimney. That's my first concern.