Automatic water cutoff

Glen_7

I posted under "cast iron baseboard" a problem I have had with leaks. Since I travel quite a bit, I am concerned about a heating system leak (h/w) could do great damage. Is there any type of sensor or device that would sense the pressure drop due to a leak and close either the zone or the entire boiler feed? I'm not getting this across with the proper technical jargon but I think you'll get where I'm going.

SWEI

How much is the system losing per day?

if it's more than zero, you have a problem.



Assuming the expansion tank held more than the system's weekly losses I'd valve off the autofeeder and setup a schedule for manual fills while I worked on fixing leaks.

Glen_7

leaks

I don't mean using boiler pressure as an indicator for a leak as that would be obvious. Once the current leak is fixed, I will have 0 pressure loss other than normal fluctuations. I am talking about any kind of failure while I am away from the home. Presumably, with the boiler feed in an always on position, any potential leak in the heating system could flood the entire house given enough time. I know there are automatic water main shutoffs for the domestic plumbing side but don't know how or if that could be done with the boiler. Thanks.

SWEI

If the system is tight

you shouldn't need the autofill at all.  I turn them off whenever possible and teach people to check their system pressure every week or three. 

STEVEusaPA

I think it may be easier...

If you have an alarm system with monitoring.I think it may just be easier to close the water feed, put a low water cut-off on (which you should have anyway), with dry contacts that could signal an alarm to your monitoring company.  They would call you, and you can call someone to take care of the problem. 

If you don't have an alarm company, you can install alarm components your self, with a dialer to do this, or if you leave your router on, could send you an email.

Obviously fixing the leaks needs to really be done, but setting up an alarm to notify you when your away could be worth looking into.

You can start here, and google away

http://www.x10.com/homepage.htm

Paul48

Don't

leave the supply on while you're away from home, and,as said, make sure there is a low water cut-off on the boiler. Depending on where the leak might pop up, you might be able to shut the boiler down sooner with something like this. http://www.transducersdirect.com/HeleoCart/ProductPage/TDPS.aspx

Jamie Hall

Seems to me

there are several parts to this one...



First, if you don't have a low water cut off, get one put on.  ASAP.  That's just plain safety; even if you are right in the building a major leak could happen and there is no way you could get there fast enough to avoid damage unless you were standing right there watching it.



Then, to avoid water damage to things other than the boiler, if you are away and there is no one on call, 24/7, shut off the water feeder when you are away.



Then... if there is a concern that the boiler might shut down on low water while you are away, there are any number of systems which will call all by themselves to report a problem, and they accept a variety of sensors.  A low temp sensor.  A water on the floor sensor.  An auxiliary contact on the low water cutoff.  And so on.



But there really are three issues, not just one -- and each one needs to be addressed correctly.

gennady

flood safe

http://www.watts.com/pages/_products_details.asp?pid=6250