Best Of
Re: What kind of steam trap cage is this ?
It will work with the cap (cover) you have now.
Re: Cold Weather Conundrum
Update: gas company came out to check the pressure. They checked water column and confirmed pressure is good. They also confirmed my clocking measurement which shows the boiler is severely under fired. They advised to get the gas control valve repaired or replaced asap, which is my next step.
Since it’s been running this way for a while I don’t see a reason not to keep running it to avoid pipes freezing for the next few days until I can get a plumber out, but if anyone thinks there’s a safety risk or further damage may occur I could try alternatives.
It’s possible that the valve has been downfired like this for a long time, but seems like something else is going on since the system is still struggling to get the house to 60 (outdoor high of 27 today).
alexd
15% efficiency improvement on Weil-McLain WGO-5 boiler
Thanks again to the many heating pros here who have given me lots of good advice on our Weil McLain WGO-5 oil boilers. These are cold-start boilers without DHW, which are very oversized and as a result run only about a 30% duty cycle on a design day. Heat is delivered via a 100-year-old gravity conversion high-mass hot water system with original cast iron radiators.
In an effort to improve efficiency and reduce oil consumption, I made the following changes at the start of this heating season on one boiler:
- Increased thermostat differential from 1.0 degrees to 1.5 degrees.
- Programmed a 3-degree overnight setback (previously had no setback)
- Added thermal post-purge to keep the circulator running until supply water temp reaches 90 degrees.
The objective of the first two thermostat changes was to lengthen the average boiler run time. Increasing the differential means the boiler has to run longer to make up a bigger temperature rise, and the setback eliminates some overnight boiler runs, causing a longer run in the morning. The result has been to increase average run time from around 30-40 minutes to around 50-60 minutes. In theory, this should increase efficiency. And the thermal post-purge keeps extracting residual heat from the boiler after shutdown.
Now that the heating season is halfway over, I've been able to compare run time data from our ecobee thermostat for a similar period last year, and divide the run times by the heating degree days for those periods to get an apples-to-apples comparison.
Last season's run time/HDD ratio was 6.72 minutes/HDD. With the above changes, this season's run time ratio is 5.72 minutes/HDD for the same period.
So the boiler is running only 85% as long per HDD this season vs last, which means a 15% decrease in oil consumption.
Since I made all three changes (increased differential, setback, and post-purge) at the same time, it's impossible to say how much difference each change made. But cumulatively the effect was considerable. I had been hoping for a 10% improvement, so 15% is a nice surprise.
jesmed1
Re: IBC SFC125 combi 2023 install, poor DHW production;
Sounds to me like the boiler is set up for high temp space heating? If so you need to have a mixing valve on the domestic side. The water in the units heat exchanger is already hot enough that it overtemps the DHW on a faucet opening. I would get that part done correctly first
GGross
Re: Air to Water Heat Pumps
I worked for Warren Energy Engineering for a year. I was an energy efficiency consultant. I inspected the rebate programs in NYC for Con Ed. I got to see the mechanical rooms of all the big sky scrappers. In my reports I listed lots of ways to save some huge amounts of energy. The biggest project I was involved with was Combustion Analysis inspection of 100 boilers for Columbia University. They followed a efficiency calculation found on the Combustion Analyzers. That calculation did not account for the velocity of the air moving through the combustion Chamber. If you underfired the boilers it would dilute the combustion air with excess air and lower the stack temp. This caused the Analyzers to calculate a artificially high efficiency number. In reality this caused the boiler to be underfired. The fuel consumption was higher and efficiency lower in reality. The field technicians were under firing the boilers and increasing CO2 levels on 80% of the 100 boilers in the buildings I inspected. I provided lots of evidence from many different sources over a couple months to try and persuade everyone to change the program but nobody cared and nobody did anything.
I was the geek everyone chose to ignore. So I quit my job and went to work for Arctic Heat Pumps where I am able to make a difference.
Based on my experiences, giving utility companies money for renewable and energy efficiency programs is a waste of time. The incentive is for them to increase fuel consumption per building. It increases there profits. They don't seem to care about actually reducing our carbon footprint.
Oh Steamhead.........A unique Air vent
I can't read all the tiny writing. It seems like a Bakelite housing on the outside. Mad Dog
Re: Excited about Boiler Design
if you use an old gas heater for a buffer, I would disable the aquastat, maybe pull it out and free up a port. Block off the flue on top and bottom. You will still get some heat off it as jacket loss.
It’s sounding like the air volume that HPWH manuals are suggesting, 700 sq ft, may not be adequate. This according to Larry and his friend Gary that is deeply involved in the HPWH analysis in actual run time
hot_rod
Re: What saying or quote sticks with you since you were a newbie?
Or when you have a SS impeller shaft that, due to its rotation, has a left hand thread (That's lefty tighty righty loosey) . "How long should we let them struggle with it till we let them know?"🤔😁😉
Intplm.