Best Time to Test?

GW

Most combustion-minded folk would test on light-off and once you reach the normal operating temperatures (and shut-down too I might add). When I do HW systems, I try to remember to write down the water temp, because that has a bearing on what the flue gas temp will be. But with steam, you would get it boiling otherwise you'll be getting skewed numbers. The main goal is to make sure you're running safe, then efficient. It you're not boiling you'll think you're running more efficient than you really are (did i type the same thing twice??)

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Dan Sedens

What Is

the best time to test combustion on a new Megasteam? I am installing my first tomorrow and would like to know when is the ideal time to take my readings. Should they be taken during steaming or prior to.
Thanks
Dan

Mark Hunt_3

Testing


Test light off, steady state and shut down.

I could write 1000 posts and still not cover the variables.

I will give you one example.

Brand new oil fired hot air furnace. Spiked at 170+ CO at light off. New equipment doesn't surprise me with high light off numbers. Oils on the HX will do this. I let the unit run for 10 minutes. CO levels dropped to less than 50ppm and remained steady. Burner shut down and the CO jumped to 1300ppm CO. Problem. Solenoid valve was not shutting completely when the burner was de-energized and fuel continued to spray into the combustion chamber and was not burned. It smoldered. HIGH CO. Wasted fuel. Bad solenoid.

I have seen the same thing happen with gas valves as well.

Glad to see you are testing though. If you have any questions, e-mail me.

Mark H

Weezbo

well, that is a very good question.

reason with me a while,...

when you first install the burner in a boiler there will likely be some change within the first hour or two of operation, never be in a Hurry to do something that other human beings lives may be at stake in your decision.

always make certain that the boiler is bought up to temp in stages....bring the temp up to like 70F and shut it off...wait a while for it to adjust,..maybe 5 6 mins or so, then run it up to 100F and do the same thing...then run it up to 140 or 145 and let it readjust...

if it is freezing cold when you set it up you could turn the circ on for a min or two to circulate some of the heat about and warm up the near boiler piping...let it fall off to about 100F and fire it back up....then open one zone at a time giving each zone a chance to get some btu's into the field...let it run with all the zones open i tend to think you want to do the same thing with the indirect..let it adjust its way thru the temp range. then with everything rolling you can go about the building checking for this or that, making certain you don't have any air bound high points that suddenly appeared...for an example...

i think that you should let the boiler run under full load until it shuts itself down check the electrical off on switches look about for the proper operation of the zone valves, relays like that ...then i might go turn on the hot water and wait until it caused the boiler to fire...turn the taps off and go check at the boiler...

all this probably took you about an hour or two...run all the thermostats back up for a while and begin the test on the combustion parameters...

check it again the next day it does not take that much extra effort to check things twice while you are after the work. later some other time you may be swamped and be extremely hard pressed to make it over to the home...

some times i re clean the burner recheck the boiler a third time once i get all the finish workers out of the building so i can drive the heat way way up to get rid of the VOC's and whatever combination of poisons that are built into the products these days and the combination of these emissions in conjunction with high heat ( this usually takes about a day, i come back in on Sunday mornings around10:30 ish leave at 2:30 )...reasoning best to do what i can to make the new home as free of any unseen poisons that i can while i am there......

then i open all the windows and doors the garage door turn on all F Fans and the Kitchen range hood ...and get the gasses out of the place.

then i button it all back up go check the water pies trim work re check the burner sometimes the carpenters saw dust has travelled directly to the Burner, the sheet rock dust, the primer, the paint, and dirt from delivery trucks etc.....

a lot of times i wash the garage floor down and make sure the work area is left spotless.

that's me. that's my story and i am sticking to it.