Outdoor reset

Jim_109

Rather than invest in an outdoor reset, how simple is it for a laymen to adjust the boiler water temperature? Living in the NYC area how often would I need to adjust the temperature anyway? I am not looking to micro manage the temperature, just adjust it a few times a year as the seasons change.

If I manaually adjust the boiler water temp., how would is effect the indirect water heater operation? THANKS!

Unknown

Well,,,

I don't know how anybody else feels but if I have a water heater attached to my boiler I like to see the water temp up at 180* whenever it's calling for heat. I know at least Honeywell has a reset control that will boost the water temp to 180* whenever the indirect calls.

Al Letellier_9

manual reset

Just how good is your memory and exactly how much to you think you can save by doing it manually? IF you adjust the low limit too low, you won't have any hot water. IF you set the HI limit too low you won't have enough heat. IF you set it down manually, will you remember to turn it back up? What if a cold snap hits while you're away and the system freezes? I'm in the business, have a reset control and forgot to reset it after I "cheated" the control to get higher system temp after a storm and power loss of 3 days...took me a week of fixing everyone else's system before I remembered my own and reset the control....how much energy did I waste????
Bite the bullet and do it right...buy a reset control if you are serious about saving energy.

heatboy

Two Stage Thermostat(s).............

.........is/are a great way to poor man's reset. 1st stage operates a pump and the second stage starts the burner. The burner only runs when the load is greater than the water temperature. The beauty is, the system always uses the available BTUs before the burner starts. An indirect is no issue because the aquastat drives the boiler to limit, if needed. After DHW demand, the stored energy will be used be fore the burner starts again.

hb

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Big Ed

They did it that way....

...in the early 1900's. I have a original manual for a gravity system coal fired temperture regulator. It had a arm and a counter weight that controled the intake damper. You checked the outdoor thermometer on the back porch. Read the heat curve chart and set the weight to the disired boiler temperature.. Back then you had to hand stoke and clean the pit any way , so the extra adjustment was no big deal.

The chart is the same we use today...

Leo Galozo

simplest way

set boiler to 180 for hot water. install a three-way diverting valve for home heat. have a good thermometer on the heating side of said diverting valve. 3 adjustments per year usually works. one in fall, set to about 60% of max value from your heatloss. winter set to about 90% of max value from heatloss. spring, set to about 50% max value of heatloss.

If there is a sudden cooling/heating event that is not anticipated, easy to adjust with the thermometer right there!

Ifn you want better fuel usage, get the Vitodens 100, as it has a dial on the front that you can adjust as you would with the diverting valve. just a little more expertise on the wiring, to make sure that you don't send 180* water into the floor loops.

Leo G

Christian Egli_2

The three way thing

A great many installs in Continental Europe are fiddled with in exactly that way.

Standard practice is to have the boiler cooking on aquastat all year round - this to provide indirect tank domestic water and supply the manual mixing valve with a hot input. Then, the home is circulated throughout the season, or often even the whole year with water that more or less follows the seasons.

The home owner, whether obsessive-compulsive or not, will adjust the mixing handle to follow the weather. Shoulder spring and fall call for lots of fiddling while the middle winter is more stable. Easy-ish.

Obsessive-compulsive owners will still fiddle endlessly with the heating curve adjustments on their upgraded computerized boiler plus outdoor reset, if they've switched. No matter what, manual control still comes with the better brain.

But, sometimes you wonder. Europeans are heavy practitioners of the window method to control overheating, particularly the Germans. Still another manual method. All this considered, what people pay for heat in Europe seems higher than what we spend, this even though our utility costs are higher and we have generally colder (much much colder) weather.

** I've been reading data presented to French Senate on issues of comparative heating costs across borders. Heating fuel costs seem lower in Europe precisely because of the many residential district energy systems that can burn waste wood and trash, and the fact homes store large amounts of heating oil purchased at low market prices - no demand pressures command no supply overcharges.

And of course, with cheaper heat, Europe wastes more of it.