Indirect Hot Water/Steam Boiler

JustBob

Hello everyone,

  Quick question about the operation of a steam boiler with an indirect water heater attached. Single family house.How is the boiler suppose to function for best efficiency and/or plentyful hot water?  Currently mine is set up with an aquastat to keep the boiler at 160 degrees continuiously, when the heater calls for heat the circulator comes on until the temp setpoint is reached and then the circulator turns off.  Meanwhile the boiler sits there dumb as a stump maintaining 160 degrees all the time.

  My question is should the boiler operate in that manner or would it be better to set it up so the boiler only fires when the water heater calls for heat, and when not calling for hot water the boiler is allowed to cool all the way down?  Thus I would be converting the aquastat into a high temp shutoff set to maybe 200 degrees.

Just wondering how it should be done, as it seems wrong to me. Thanks