Tweaking steam system

Unknown

I live in a 90 yr. old two story house just south of Boston that has single pipe steam. I have a 13 yr. old Burnham V75 oil fired boiler that can produce 596 sq. ft of steam, problem is I only have 190 sq. ft of radiation surface - not to much I can do about that.



I keep the house cool (63) and set it back to about 58 at night.



I retired last spring and in the early fall I decided to see what I could do to make the system more efficient.



First thing I did was to insulate all the bare piping in the cellar, that cost me $275.

Next I bought TLAOSH by Dan Holohan, that cost me $45.

I replaced my main air vent because it didn't seem to be working, that cost me $28. All the radiator air vents were working fine.

I then replaced my pressuretrol with a vapor-stat and a 3 PSI gauge, that cost me about $200. I set the cutout  to 1.3 and  the cut in 0.3 PSI. The old pressurestrol had crept up to 4-5 PSI (on the 30 PSI gauge but I didn't know how bad that can be for efficiency.

I installed a time meter so I can track exactly how much the boiler runs, that cost me $26 used.



The net result is that I reduced my oil usage from 0.083 gallons of oil per degree day (last year) to 0.052 gal / DD (this year). That means I'm only burning 63% as much oil as I was last year at this time (mid February) and Because I'm not working the heat is up a lot more.



At today's oil prices these improvements will pay for themselves pretty quickly. I still have more to do but Id say that Dan's book was probably the best investment I've made in many a year. I just wished I read it before I had that over-sized boiler installed.

jpf321

that's great .. but ..

did you have the same t-stat settings last year as well? you say that you are home more, might that have affected the overall fuel usage .. are you saying that you are saving despite the fact that you are now using even MORE heat by being home? 

Unknown

this year vs last

The thermostat is set the same (63 day and 58 at night) but The setback time has been modified to reflect the fact I'm home most of the day.

I figured that the combination of insulating the pipes, replacing a plugged vent and reducing pressure had a combined effect, in a good way for once. The fact it had that large an effect was somewhat unexpected.