Is the Burnham MPO 147 "adjustable"?

shoudabeenaplumba

Any experience downfiring the Burnham MPO 147? I'm looking for 90-100k max output for heat with a 40 gallon TT indirect set for priority.



I'm planning a boiler replacement for my house. I'll have professional help(plumber-in law who owes me MORE than a few favors), but the majority of the install will be done by me. I'm a homeowner, but counting the favors + my last 2 homes this will be my 6th boiler install.



Gearing up to the install, I've replaced all circulators, isloation valves and flanges, check valves, spirotherm, bypassed the boiler's tankless to add an indirect, and installed a Tekmar 260. At this point all the change-out will be 2 flanges, 3' of black pipe, oil line and very little wiring. I was planning on doing it Nov but there's a rumor of tax credits for installs in 2010 for non-condensing oil boilers. Original Trianco boiler is 15 years old, telling me its running about 80% but even if it last another 10 years, I figure I don't want to be doing this when I'm another 10 years older.



I've done three different heat loss calcs for my home and the number comes between 75k-90k not counting the indirect (which is set for priority through the Tekmar 260). At first I thought this was pretty low, because my house is 4300sqft, and 1000sqft of that is over an unheated garage. I've installed an hour meter on my oil burner, which is tuned to 1.02gph and the longest I've seen it yet has been 8hours//day at 10 degrees. If that number seems low its because I've got a wood insert. Not to bore you w/ numbers but that's putting out about the equilvilent of 3 gallons a day, so long story short 90k/hour is more than enough to heat my home.



My plumber-in-law says "bare minimum" is the Burnham MPO 147. I chose burnham because I don't see a difference between it and the Buderus 115, and Burnham is American Made. Burnham also comes standard with the NX, and I'm very familiar with the Beckett burners. I also don't think a low-mass like Biasi would work well with the small zones I have. The Trianco installed has almost the same mass/water volume stats as the Biasi 10-4 and even with the OTR it cylces 5-6 times a hour during the shoulder seasons. The Burham has close to double the mass and I'm hoping that will cut down on cycling. Of course the original boiler was sized to 164k, and that was before a 1500sqft addition!



What I can't find, however is info pertaining to downfiring the 147. I notice that the MPO 87 pretty much has two firing rates (at least the block is the same) but the 147 does not.

CMadatMe

That is a no no

In a nutshell NO....They now make a MPO-115....

Ron Jr._3

The MPO 115

is the same exact boiler block as the 84 . And the " 115 " is a fairly new size in the MPO line .

Since Burnham revisited the output sizing of the 84 , I'd guess underfiring and overfiring the 147 might have official specs in the near future ?  Just gotta make sure the burner head is the right match for the nozzle you select .  

shoudabeenaplumba

Burner head? Hmmmmn,

Now that's an interesting thought.  I thought the head on the burner was fitted to the combustion chamber.  But I guess if you donwfire a burner the flame pattern is going to change, and then the burner flame head.



Problem I see is because I burn wood, I'm always going to be a little oversized.  My house is 2600sqft, with an in-law addition of about 800 sqft.  During the work week I keep my house at 60 degrees, while my parents like a toasty 72.  I come home, load the stove, and by the time I go to bed its 75F, then 65F by the time I leave for work.  On the weekends I burn all day, so the boiler is not heating my house.   I can see a day when I'm not going to use wood, or if someone else were to move in I can't tell them they have to load the stove to keep the house warm.

When, by God, is someone going to start selling a modulating oil boiler for residential use!?

CMadatMe

Condensing Oil Boiler

As soon as the oil companies change the sulfur content in the oil as they have across the pond. I do know that the Vitoladens 300 by Viessmann should be out this year but will only be sold to those that have access to oil that has a specific sulfur content. If you don't have access to it you won't be able to purchase  the boiler. It will also probably have a nice price





http://www.viessmann.com/com/en/products/Oil-fired_condensing_boilers.html

shoudabeenaplumba

I've got baseboard heat

So anything below 130 degrees isn't going to help me.  My understanding with all condensing boilers need low return temps, so I'd be spending the big bucks for conventional eff. numbers.

CMadatMe

What Does Baseboard Heat

Have to do with anything? I have a house  with 5 zones of board that is running with a mod/con and hasn't seen more than 135 degree water yet this season. Yes it has been down right cold here in NY. It's all in the heat loss and footage of heat emitters that is going to determine what your water temp requirement is.



For example Suntemp Residental Board will put out 255 btu's ft at 130 degree water at a 1GPM flow rate. Now let's say we want to keep a return water temp of 130 because we want to condense. That means you need to supply 150 degree water out to the board. So use the average btu ouput @140 degree water. That's 312 btus ft at a 1gpm flow rate. So let's say zone 1's heat loss is 15,000 btu's giving us a flowrate of 1.5 gpm. Using my correction factors @140 degree water my board will put out 317btus ft. The question becomes can I get 47 feet of baseboard into that zone or maybe use hicap board. That will give me 452btu's a ft and I need 33 ft of board.



My point is don't get caught up in the, you cannot condense with baseboard nonsene.

Dezso3

Baseboards generating clicking noise

My room is heated with a hot water baseboard heating system. As soon as



the system was installed, it was making



clicking noises. I figured out a way to attach the pipes to the



baseboards, and the clicking noise went away temporarily. Just



recently, I accidentally knocked a textbook from my desk right on top



of the baseboards, and after that, when the heat came on, they started



clicking like mad, all over again. What I have noticed is that the



pipes and the metal baseboard covers only make the clicking noise if



the covers are attached to the support brackets; if I remove them, the



clicking ceases. I believe this is because when the covers are on, they



pull the support brackets tightly together, which increases tension



between the support brackets and the pipes. When the pipes heat up and



begin to expand, they do not have enough room to do so, and it results



in a clicking noise. However, I am not positive that this is what is



creating the noise. It's extremely annoying because I



wake up early in the morning whenever the heat comes on and cannot



sleep. What the heck can be done about this?

CMadatMe

It's Called

Expansion and contraction.  Unless you have authorization to touch the system there is nothing you can do about it except complain....