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Boiler text Notifications should be a standard

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Comments
If I wanted to keep an eye on my house while gone, heating-wise, I could use a wifi-enabled thermostat. That's good enough.
Police & Fire Equipment Lead Mechanic, NW WI
Lover of Old Homes & Gravity Hot Water Systems
In the 35 years I've lived in this house I've had ONE service call outside of yearly clean outs (when I was on oil). Simple systems are a lot less likely to fail and when they do it's usually pretty easy to figure out why.
Bob
Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
3PSI gauge
Just thinking outside the box here.
The furnace in the house I grew up in worked flawlessly from 1958 until 2002 when it's gas valve finally failed. It had no need to text or email anyone for 44 years and the only servicing it received was the pilot was cleaned once or twice.
Work on that.........not making it easier to tell when the piece of shazbut failed. To me the first thing I thought was "oh so you have absolutely no faith in the equipment you're making?"
forty-four years......................
Are you kidding me! Compare the equipment required to run a modern micro-processed boiler to a standing pilot type that we all know and love.
Then throw in sensitive gas pressure, sensitive voltage, sensitive fluid condition, sensitive venting, sensitive set up and adjustment, lack of qualified installers, troubleshooters and support, I could go on.
Is there anyone on this list that cannot troubleshoot a standing pilot boiler with a few simple tools and a meter? Could you teach and explain that procedure to a person with basic electrical and mechanical skills?
The days of a boiler that never fails may be beyond us.
The ability to monitor and possible fix it via the www, may be the only hope.
trainer for Caleffi NA
The magic is in hydronics, and hydronics is in me
No,
I'm not kidding you.
Perhaps I would be if the things you mentioned were the only failures, but they're not.
Even a modern CI steamer rotts out in 5-10 years if you look at it wrong.
How many standing pilot forced air furnaces have failed since the 1970s due to blower and heat exchanger failures? Are there even any left!?
Yes, those days are long gone, but it's not only because things are more complex.
Lack of qualified installers. We agree on that one 100%!
If there is already an Internet connection available such a device shouldn't cost more than $50 or so excluding any additional sensors or controls needed. I would be very cautious about using one to control a boiler from afar due to the possibility of hacking. If carefully designed it could be useful to alert the owner/technician through email (or other means) of poor function, such as excessive water use, which could otherwise go unnoticed. As long as this outgoing only messaging didn't reveal personal info it wouldn't be of much interest to a hacker except possibly to generate false alarms.
However these things aren't often well designed or properly set up to prevent unauthorized use. Here are just a couple of entries from the comp.risks newsgroup showing what could happen.
catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/29.25.html#subj4.1
catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/28.59.html#subj7.1
You mean like this toaster that pulls the current weather forecast from wifi and then burns it onto your toast?
Yeah.
It's real.
I see a lot of the folks I travel with backing up their pickups with the cameras, not even looking over their shoulder, or using rear view mirrors! Some of the new vehicles will parallel park and even back up your trailer for you.
Of course you can chose to not use these features and functions, but I doubt they are going away.
trainer for Caleffi NA
The magic is in hydronics, and hydronics is in me
With that said, it's my personal belief that technology will be our undoing some day, the Frankenstein monster.
PHC News Columnist
Minnich Hydronic Consulting & Design, LLC
https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/minnich-hydronic-consulting-and-design
http://www.totousa.com/washlet®-s300e-toilet-seat-elongated-ewater
trainer for Caleffi NA
The magic is in hydronics, and hydronics is in me
hot rod pulled out Ol Reliable, The Toto Washlet.
Doesn't help with function, but with one push you can order more and have it delivered to your house.
EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202744301871904.1073741828.1330391881&type=1&l=c34ad6ee78
trainer for Caleffi NA
The magic is in hydronics, and hydronics is in me
Buy a simple, round Honeywell thermostat. Wire it in series with a 600 ohm resistor and connect to the phone line. Set it for a temperature that is low enough to indicate the heat has failed. In other words, if one's heat was supposed to be keeping things at 65, set this monitoring thermostat to 60.
When away, phone home. If the phone rings, be confident that the house is above 60. If a busy signal is heard, the house is 60 or less. That's all there is to it.
I'm certainly far from being representative of the public at large in terms of gadget desire; this won't satisfy most customers. However, in case anyone here seeks an elegant solution for themselves, enjoy.
"Reducing our country's energy consumption, one system at a time"
Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
Oil & Gas Burner Service
Baltimore, MD (USA) and consulting anywhere.
https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/all-steamed-up-inc
I'm keeping my POTS service as long as state regulators prevent AT&T from discontinuing it.
"Reducing our country's energy consumption, one system at a time"
Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
Oil & Gas Burner Service
Baltimore, MD (USA) and consulting anywhere.
https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/all-steamed-up-inc
It had constant problems and Verizon had no interest in fixing it. I got rid of it and never went back.
Have relied on cellphones and cablephones for the most part though we only have cellphones now. I've found them to be more reliable than POTS, though I suppose that depends on the phone you have and where you live.
Both my phone and my wife's phone support Verizon's HD service which actually sounds really good for a phone, better than POTS in many ways.
Which is more or less irrelevant. What isn't, perhaps, is this thought: there are, fundamentally, two kinds of folks when it comes to technology. Those who can fix stuff and keep it running, and enjoy doing it -- which applies, I expect, to most of the regulars here on the Wall. And those who either don't, won't, or can't, which applies to the vast majority. That vast majority is actually almost helpless when faced with, say, a round thermostat. These people need and want the most possible technological assist they can get. What happens when the magic quits isn't pretty, but they can't exist without it...
It's an interesting social phenomenon.
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England.
Hoffman Equipped System (all original except boiler), Weil-Mclain 580, 2.75 gph Carlin, Vapourstat 0.5 -- 6.0 ounces per square inch
Pretty soon society will forget how to wipe their own arse.......
https://www.facebook.com/amijamesmotorcyle.automotive/videos/846430932166959/