Upgrade to System Controls

Paul_11

You do need some control work for sure.
You say you don't have a mixing valve. That is very bad for a cast iron boiler like yours. Yes, your concern for the boiler is real. You should have some way of mixing the water to provide a reduced temperature (120 max) to your floors and yet maintain 140 degrees in your boiler to prevent flue gas condensation and rotting of your boiler sections.
I would say no, you don't want to keep the boiler on durring the day if you don't need it to be on. It will warm up quickly enough, if you provide boiler protection.
However, radiant floor heating in an environment like the desert, where it is cold enough for heat at night and too hot for heating durring the day, for long periods of time is a challenge to get right.
I would reccomend the Tekmar 360 mixing control with a mixing valve.
Good luck.
Respectfully,

Paul B. Shay
pshay@arealgoodplumber.com
LMP 1307
LMFS 654B
212-505-1837
917-939-0593
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Scott05

Upgrade to System Controls

First off let me start by saying that I have searched the forum for my specific questions so I apologize in advance if these questions have been answered in another thread. Here are my questions. I'm wondering if there are some efficiencies to be gained by upgrading my current boiler controls. Current specifications are; six zone hot water in-floor heat, Crown cast iron boiler model Aruba-XE, 75K BTU natural gas, controlled by a Honeywell model L8148A Aquastat relay, a single Taco circulator pump model 007-F5, there is no outdoor reset, the boiler does not provide domestic hot water and there are no mixing valves or fancy plumbing with this system other than the Fill-Trol expansion tank. It's a pretty basic closed system. I live in Northern Nevada, which makes hydronic heating something of an oddity. Living in Nevada we get an abundance of sunshine, which is good, but the sunny days warm the interior of the house which results in no call for heat from the boiler during the day. This is good for the fuel bills, but the boiler cools down since the Aquastat relay does not have a low limit relay. When a zone finally calls for heat in the late afternoon, the circulator pump starts and the boiler fires from a cold state. Besides the fact that all the energy that was stored in the boiler from the previous night time heating is lost and has to be replaced, it can't be very good for the cast iron boiler to go through all the cycles of cold-to-hot and back again. Would that be a correct assumption? Would it be better for the boiler, not necessarily my pocket book, to stay 'warm' during the day by replacing the Aquastat relay with Honeywell L8124A or equivalent? Also, would there be any benefits with a outdoor relay in this system or other controls that would keep heat in the entire system during the day?

Thank You
Scott

kevin coppinger_4

Taco i series...

mixing valve...probably the 4 way version...very neat, very easy to use and has outdoor reset available...kpc

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