Best Of
Re: Cleaned out my sooted up boiler.
There is something called a "confined space" when it comes to the amount of combustion air that is needed so the fas burns clean. In order to not be considered a confined space the boiler must be installed in a room that has at least 50 cubic feet of open area for every 1,000 British Thermal Units (BTU) of input. For example, a 100,000 BTU furnace must be in 5,000 cubic feet of space to be considered unconfined. that would be a room that is 25 ft x 25 ft x 8ft high. If there is a door in the finished basement between the room the boiler is in and the rest of the basement, that is your problem.
A louver door would not count, but the basement may not be 25 x 25 so the door from the basement to the first floor would need to be louver also. Of course the first question is always "we never had the problem before, why is it happening now?" All I can say is that you operate the boiler more the colder it gets and you keep doors and windows closed tight the colder it is outside. So the combination of the confined space and the long operating time is why it happened now and not during mild weather when the boiler operates for shorter times with longer off cycle so the combustion air has a chance to migrate into the basement and boiler room.ย
Re: Piping for New Steam Boiler
@Noah_1 No, you're replacing the vacuum controller with vents. Basement pipes should be as we discussed.
The system should work fine if:
The inputs on the rads are metered so you get full condensation and
The pressure is low enough so that can happen without losing your water seals
For the rads that were disconnected, were any orifice plates found? Do you see a check plate (baffler) in the return elbows?
Important:
Is the new boiler already bought? Reason I'm asking is the effective EDR for this system is only 80% of the measured EDR (due to the metering and full condensation requirement). You may also consider dropping the usual 33% pickup factor to 10-15%
Here's a table of orifice sizes I found here that specs sizes by EDR and pressure if you have to replace them.
I don't think the table has the 20% EDR reduction built in.
Re: Insufficient Domestic Hot Water off Indirect Coil
I know itโs not the best system, but I know they arenโt looking to spend a lot based on not being happy with the previous quote. So trying to resolve or make their issue better without a big addition or installation
Re: Insufficient Domestic Hot Water off Indirect Coil
I think a number of boiler pros here have suggested tankless coils are about the worse way to generate DHW, although not as eloquently as you have๐
hot_rod
Re: Insufficient Domestic Hot Water off Indirect Coil
Propose them a heat pump water heater. See if they have utility and/or state incentives, tell them how they won't have to burn oil all summer and be the hero.
People will say "omg no, heat pumps are unproven technology" and yet people come here all the time with direct coil and indirect problems all the time and no one (except me) says anything ๐
Re: New Steam Boiler Installed, Water Hammer, Prematurely Turns Off, Frustrated
Since you are building a lot of pressure it sound like they did not bother to size the boiler correctly.
May need more skimming.
Are the mains pitched correctly ? Are the main vents adequate ?
Pressuretrol should be at 0.5 Cut-In and the Differential set at 1, for a Cut-Out of 1.5 PSI.
No swing joints.
109A_5
Re: Packing Heat
Are you off-grid? Because if you're connected to the grid, especially if you're in a place with net metering, you're much better off using your money and roof space for electric panels and then using the electricity to heat and cool the house.
Re: Near boiler piping
Sorry. I wrote that wrong. Lol. I did skim it with the water that was in there first. Scouts honor. I can't believe the amount of garbage that came out when I blasted it with water
KJB
Re: Why are my wires on L8148L aquastate disconnected
It appears that you have the L8148L control that is compatible with Millivolt and 24 volt gas valves. There is an on board 24VAC transform that is connected to Z and TV under the circuit board by way of those T1 and T2 pins. By reomvinf thoas pins the on board transformer may be disconnected. An external transformer can be connected by using the Tv and the Z terminals on the L8148L.
Since you are going to be replacing the control anyway, you may want to connect the zone valves to the external transformer and not use that transformer forthe replacement control. Look at the HydroStat 3200 Plus, because it is a better control with more features and it costs less, by over $100.00
Wire everything the same way except the Blue and Green wire from the zone valve aux transformer to the new control. (the same works on the more expensive control also L8148J also)
Your system is using the 24 VAC burner terminals B3 and B1 so that means you have a 24 V gas valve or ignition system.
Re: Purging Questions on Radiant Heating System
"The Taco circ in question" meaning the one pushing the loop that's not flowing AKA the second from the top as you've described. Motors should be horizontal like the other three, not vertical.
GroundUp