setbacks and steam

ronJ

Gerry,

From cold, the mains get hot in about 3 minutes.
However, I notice that at one radiator I would tend to get some knocking initally when the system starts up from a setback, as compared to no knocking when the system is running constantly.

ronJ

setback and steam

Currently I have my one pipe set to go on as follows:
5:30 am - 10am, and again at 5pm -12am.

Is it better to leave a steam system running, or can setbacks be used with a steam system?

Would the system tend to become more balanced one way vs the other??

Fred Harwood_2

Setback

Setbacks for more than three or four degrees within a 24-hour period may not save anything. Setbacks for 10 degrees or so for several days or more can save energy.

Many with steam heat simply set the thermostat at the lowest comfortable setting, or use a two-degree setback for the away moments or overnight.

Try it.

gerry gill

you would have to do

your own experiments Ron..by that i mean, how dong does it take to recover from set back..you'd have to monitor your gas bills and gas usage..see, steam systems are different animals..for example, it may take 8 minutes for steam to get from the header to the end of the main when the pipes have been allowed to cool down alot..but only take two minutes if the pipes were still warm from the last cycle..with steam every house seems to be different..some do set back and it works fine..some it doesn't work..you'll have to do some experiments of your own.

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Tom Hopkins

setback and efficiency

Ron - I use a setback with my 2 pipe steam system, but there are other tradeoffs besides the time to heat the pipes.

How does your boiler cycle when recovering from a setback? Do you get a series of long burns or does the boiler cycle on and off in short intervals while trying to recover?

Often, when the temperature is held steady, I see far fewer of these short cycles. In the end, though I still do setbacks because I believe my total run time is much lower when I use the setbacks.

Gary

ronJ

Initially, when first firing from a setback and making up a few degrees, the boiler will run a while. Once temp is established, the boiler cycles on for short intervals to maintain the temp.

Tom Hopkins

Steady burn

Ron,

If you can get a steady burn that recovers you from setback, on the surface it would seem that the setback makes sense. If you measure the duration of the cycles to maintain temperature (e. g.) 2 an hour for 10 minutes each) then estimate how many of those cycles you would have if you did not set back (e. g. 10 hours of additional cycling to maintain the higher temperature), it would give you a good starting point for deciding whether or not the setback is paying for itself or not.

Of course, I am assuming that the burner does not fire much during the setback.

Gary