maintaining temp vs cold start boiler

moey

I have a old Burnham V-14A oil boiler its currently set to maintain temperature and I have a indirect hot water heating system. I currently heat my house in general with a pellet stove the heat will run at night sometimes on really cold nights that is about it.



Does it make sense to change the system to a cold start by turning the lower temp setting in the aquastat down? It has a R8182H controller/aquastat on it. Or should I just keep it how it is and not rock the boat on something that is 25 years old. It currently runs about every 2-3 hours for about 5 minutes to maintain temperature, unless the hot water system makes a call in which case those times will vary.



Would it even make a noticeable difference in terms of the amount of oil the system uses? It would obviously have to run longer on a call for heat by the hot water system if it wasn't maintaining temp. 

STEVEusaPA

How is it working now?

Plenty of hot water, not enough?  You could turn it down a little bit and see how it performs.  A longer run time is preferred, but not at the risk of condensing on every cycle.

6, 10 minute cycles are better then 12, 5 minute cycles.  The boiler will run a little more efficiently and use slightly less oil, but I dont think it would be a measurable amount.

Make sure all your pipes are insulated, and the domestic piping has heat traps.

Paul48

extremes

At this stage in the life of that boiler, I wouldn't start subjecting it to extremes like that. Just my thoughts.......

moey

its working good

plenty of hot water. In the spring I probably will be replacing the controller/aquastat and it got me wondering about the settings whether the low setting should be cranked down. It sounds like I should probably just leave it be in terms of the temp settings.



The beast aquastat (R8182H) Ive had some intermittent problems with and managed to get a new one very very cheap recently so its getting replaced soon.

billtwocase

I would

depending how the indirect is zoned and wired, i would lower the LO limit to 120 degrees. Because you have an indirect, it will never be a true cold start, and I would never recommend one be cold start. If the indirect has no direct access to your aquastat to bring the unit on and run to HI limit, then you have no choice but to remedy that or maintain about 160 degrees

icesailor

Cold Starts and Indirects:

But, if the indirect isn't wired to start the burner and run the indirect circulator, it is wired wrong. The indirect MUST be wired through the ZC/ZR terminals in the 8124.

When the indirect is wired correctly, you can set the low limit/operating setting at 140 degrees and get no condensation in the boiler. You can set the high limit at 160 to 170 and get good performance from the indirect. The higher boiler temperature will keep the boiler cleaner and give you better heat transfer.