Charity Help for Church

Bonnan

I was asked if I could solve the existing problem of overheated boiler room.    Why me?  Retired engineer whose is obsolete.   Room is 7x12x 15  concrete block and packed with a Weil-McLain Model EGH-115-P1  400000 btu output natural gas fired water  boiler with 2 circulating loops, one upstairs & one in basement.   I was told unit was serviced a year ago and burners/heat exchanger are suppose to be ok.    The room stat set at 95 keeps shutting down the boiler  and its obviously very hot in there always.    "Volunteers"  installed a small (I would guess ~100 cf m) exhaust fan some time back.    Nothing (duct work,water lines etc.)  is insulated in the room.      Probably 16-18 rads upstairs never been cleaned!     That"s all I found on first visit.    Gut feel is that operation is quite inefficient  and suffers from the  "volunteer  syndrome".     I have my own  solutions but wanted to run this by the Wall.    Any suggestions on where to start or advice is greatly appreciated.    

STEVEusaPA

I'm not quite sure what ...

you are asking.  It's obvious why the boiler room is overheated.  I would first insulate the pipes....provide for fresh, outside air.

Second, you say have an exhaust fan?  If it's sucking (or trying to) air out of the room, where is the make up air coming from?  That boiler is going to need alot of combustion air, so I would remove the fan and put in some fresh air intakes.  If they're not needed for combustion, that's a different matter.  But I see no reason to exhaust the heated air to the outside.

"The room stat is set at 95 degrees......".  Is that the temp in the church or the boiler room?   Is that the setting or what the temperature is reading?  I assume it's the actually temperature, not the setting, otherwise the problem would be solved already.

Is the church heating fine, and the boiler room is 95 degrees?

Advice on where to start........lol........lock the boiler room, lock the thermostats....

Bonnan

Charity Help for Church

Not really surprised by your response.   Steve.    Should we size the intake cooling fan to produce a slightly positive pressure in the room? And if so how much?  Will recommend implementing your suggestions.  

Thanks for the quick  comments. 

rockhound57

seen that!

I've run into the same issue, but with an added wrinkle: we wanted to add a fan and vents to blow the heat into another part of the building where it could be used rather than lost or trapped, but ran into a fire code issue(???) (or insurance). If we created openings in the fireproof walls, they had to have fire dampers, which they decided would probably be cost prohibitive, so it never happened. I would definitely recommend insulating all accessible piping and if possible add closed combustion to the boiler(s), then you can ventilate as needed without affecting combustion

Ron Jr._3

I agree

insulating the pipes will help . What about a post purge control to dump all the excess heated water into the zones ?  Maybe move the room stat as far away from the boiler and mount it lower to the ground ?

billtwocase

insulate

the piping, and I have installed a Fan in a Can to bring in fresh air and it will also keep the room temp down some

Mark Eatherton

Proceed with caution....

Atmospheric boilers operate on a .02" water column negative vent stack pressure to insure products of combustion go where they are supposed to go. Having a fan on the room COULD cause a reversal in the flue gasses, and create a dangerous carbon monoxide situation. If the burner is on, the fan should be OFF. Not a good idea.



Look at the system as a whole. The boiler room is hot because of the Mean Radiant Temperature. Off hand, I'd guess that the boiler is being maintained in a hot ready steady state condition. This will cause the MRT to sky rocket, and cause discomfort not only in the boiler room, but also in any adjoining connected rooms.



I'd look at the control logic, and if possible, turn the boiler OFF when there is no call for heat. I'd also throw a simple outdoor reset controller on it so that when it does need to run, that the operating temperature is dictated by the outside air temperature. And clean up the emitters. If they are choked up, the typical response is to use a screw driver and turn it up. Its easier to turn it up than it is to clean the convectors/radiators.



And don't forget what Dan says about working for the church, friends and family... No good deed goes unpunished ;-)



Good luck.



ME

rockhound57

details of your post

"The room stat set at 95 keeps shutting down the boiler and its obviously very hot in there always."

   This sounds like a room safety, like a high limit? get rid of it unless someone can give you an engineering or fire safety reason for it being there. Even sprinkler heads for boiler rooms have in the neighborhood of a 190-200* setting. It would be prefferable to have the temp in a comfortable range, but it's much more important to keep the building warm. Ask more questions of people who know the system, but I'd definitely lean toward removing that t'stat, or at least changing it for a higher setting, 120* or more