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On/Off Oil Burner Cycle

Jamie Hall
Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,160
except... so far as I have found, oil burners run at one and only one rate. So if the burner is big enough to get your teakettle to boil and make up the initial pipe losses, it'll be too big to run continuously during the rest of the heating cycle. Most residential systems, though, if they don't have a deep setback and reset, tend to run just about long enough at a whack to build a little pressure -- ounce or two -- and then the 'stat is happy. A deep setback/reset and she'll cycle at the end of the reset.

Some bigger installations you might have two boilers.

Of course, the old steamers with coal had a very simple gadget which responded to an increase in pressure by shutting off the draught. Worked very well. Except that the rest of the arrangement was not all that efficient...
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England

Comments

  • David Eisenberg
    David Eisenberg Member Posts: 5
    On/Off Oil Burner Cycle

    Dan in his "Lost Art..." pgs.111-112 qoutes John Schultz reccommending burner "on" periods of not less than 20 nor more than 40 minutes at a time. I would think that an ideal system would balance the rate of steam production to the rate of condensation in which case the burner would run continuously with no pressure build-up and turn off only when the thermostat is satisfied. This would avoid all that wasted energy reheating the pipes and radiators after every "off" period. Does this sound logical or am I missing something? David
  • zeke
    zeke Member Posts: 223
    under

    > Dan in his "Lost Art..." pgs.111-112 qoutes John

    > Schultz reccommending burner "on" periods of not

    > less than 20 nor more than 40 minutes at a time.

    > I would think that an ideal system would balance

    > the rate of steam production to the rate of

    > condensation in which case the burner would run

    > continuously with no pressure build-up and turn

    > off only when the thermostat is satisfied. This

    > would avoid all that wasted energy reheating the

    > pipes and radiators after every "off" period.

    > Does this sound logical or am I missing

    > something? David



    It is impossible to control the "on" time of an existing oil burner that is firing at a single rate since the firing rate and the heat load yield a duty cycle and if you spec an "on" time then the "off" time is fixed; then the temperature during the "off" time could fall very much below the setpoint. Especially for a hotair furnace the "on' time has to be determined by the load and the "off" time, a fraction of the "on" time.
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