Combustion chamber size

JeffD

What is your pump pressure at? Remember that in todays world we often increase pump pressure to get better combustion, so that a .85GPH at 140psi will actually be about 1.00GPH. Always check your pump pressure before you assume the wrong nozzle was put in. You can down size a little on an oil burner, say from 1.25GPH to 1.10GPH, but you must be sure that your not condensing in the boiler, flue, or chimney. Boilers will give their rated efficiency when set up according to what the manufacturer has specified.

Rick Rodriguez_2

Combustion chamber size

Did heatloss found boiler over sized. Have a 12 x 14 Chamber want to run .75 nozzel which as I understand requires an 8x8 chamber. Can I and how do I make it smaller. The Boiler is a Weil Mclain A/8 468 Which comes stock with a 1.25 nozzel from service records they are running a .85 nozzel

J.C.A._3

Why?

If you cut the firebox down to that size, your heat transfer will be decimated. This is a wet base boiler, and requires heat transfer in all directions, or as much as possible with the designed firebox. If you stuff an 8X8 chamber in there, you'll be cutting down the heat transfer immensely.

My advice, fire at full rate for the boiler. Consider a "buffer tank" to store the overkill and use IT to heat the house.Longer run times with the right fire will beat a bang bang scenerio every time...but you've got to be able to use those btu's when needed. A buffer tank is like a flywheel. Get it heated,use it to provide the heat and spin it up when needed with a full fire.

Underfiring a boiler will LOWER the combustion effeciency and increase the chances of fouling a boiler, especially an oil boiler. It needs to be either sized properly(read: replaced with a properly sized boiler), or used to make heat in a sensible way, and downfiring isn't the right answer.(I KNOW, space is at a premium....right? What are they/you using for a hot water maker right now? the answer you give can make this real easy, or real hard to give you a solution)

Like the Fram oil filter guy used to say..You can pay me now, or pay me later. Think about how long you're/they're going to be in the house and make a sound decision based on fuel prices NOT going anywhere lower. JMHO. Chris

Rick Rodriguez_2

Thanks; as I suspected, downsizing would have been too easy.
Have a fairly used gas fired water heater am considering an indirect my main concern is an under ground oil tank with 400 gallons and a homeowners policy of $2500.00 due in December. The boiler has a 84% AFUE which is pretty good but its about twice the size that I need what else could be wrong? Was thinking about a gas boiler but I still have a grand worth of fuel oil.

Rick

Steamhead (in transit)

Rick, is this

a steam or hot-water system?

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Ron Schroeder

It can be done

I have frequently underfired boilers with good success but it usually takes a little experimentation in nozzle angles, retention head, low fire baffle in the burner etc. In almost all cases, I have measured slight improvements in efficiency WHEN ADJUSTED PROPERLY. You must make sure that your stack temperature doesn't get too low or that your chimney isn't too large or you will get condensation in the chimney. Extream underfiring is also not a good idea with cold start but can work well with warm start.

The Oil Heat Technology department at Brookhaven National Lab has done some research on successfully underfiring boilers.

Ron

Rick Rodriguez_2

Hot water system