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Does this Graph show

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stufine
stufine Member Posts: 13
if it's a High limit issue or that it can't keep up with the cold weather?

It's set at 180, 425btu 9-family with baseboard heaters.



<a href="https://xively.com/feeds/106353/">https://xively.com/feeds/106353/</a>



The last cold snap -5 it ran same way with longer flat tops peaks, but it was colder then. The outdoor reset was on N that time and a notch below this time, I think I can rule out that setting since it did same thing.

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  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    Link

    Can you just post the graph and a full explanation.

    Your link requires a login.

    Carl
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • stufine
    stufine Member Posts: 13
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    graph

    sry for the delay... trying to get couple units ready.



    this building has an outdoor reset and I had the dial near N. I turned it up a notch or so past N and was able to get hotter water. The High limit is at 190 and not the 180 I thought. I just don't remember seeing the boiler run for the length of time it has been. Then I saw the news about the Temps we haven't seen in 20 years. I may have been working on the buildings in 93 but never had the temps online until last year.



    The boiler ran for over 6 hours straight when it was -2 and thought there must be a problem
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    Room temps

    How are the room temps keeping up?

    What type of reset controller?

    Carl
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • stufine
    stufine Member Posts: 13
    edited January 2014
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    so so

    Typical. End units are cold/er than center units. Doing a rough load calc the end units don't have enough BTU for all the outside walls (brick) and windows. Baseboard fins cover almost all walls and have the same layout in each unit. I always went by temp of the baseboard pipes. the supply and return are never far apart... just thought if it can reach those temps pretty easy, it shouldn't have to run long.

    Then seeing 6 hour run times made me think something is wrong even with the temps so close. Now I think if I turn it up higher, I'll get higher water temp but the same long run times.



    The center units can get pretty toasty (75+) compared to the end units. I thought about connecting the end units to the center and then return to the boiler.



    WR 1050 I believe



    The boiler is about 30+yrs old, so I'm looking for better ways when this one craps out..always looking for ways to cut utility cost without installing systems in each unit. which may happen if Duke keeps raising $$



    I think I fixed the Feed link above
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
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    How many end units?

    If it's only a few, consider upgrading those to high output baseboard (or low profile plate radiators.)
  • stufine
    stufine Member Posts: 13
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    4 units

    I did look at the high output baseboard as an option. I also considered using a toe kick heater in a wall cabinet. 2 rooms are fairly open to each other.



    I'm trying to think of a plan for future upgrades. 30 yr old boiler, dead 65gal 125kbtu water heater replaced with a used 75gal 75k btu that can't/couldn't keep up. I now have most units rented to single persons, so it does pretty good now. Think we got 12yrs out of the 125k water heater and it always kept up. (at more monthly usage$$)

    I considered a tankless with storage or indirect tank until a new boiler design setup is figured out.

    Previous owner had this building since 1979 and only did what's needed. Now that utilities cost more it seems a waste to keep that same thinking. I used 1519 ccf this month (which is better than I expected) but the end units suffered.