Loosing heat while boiler on

itzasean

Ok so it's real cold and the steam boiler been going all night. I shut down boiler for 15 mins and slowly added some water because I didn't want the low water shut off to shut boiler down. I only added water to just above the 1/2 mark on site glass. Boiler has been running for an hour but nothing is heating up now?

JUGHNE

Did we have this discussion last May?
One of the things to consider was the drop in gas pressure for your area as the demand increases. Was that checked or upgraded supply provided?
It was also mentioned that you might have one of the rare installations of too small of a boiler.

Has anything changed for the installation from last spring?

KC_Jones

Have you checked to see if the boiler is sized correctly? Are you doing a nighttime setback, if so how much? Did you upgrade your main venting yet?

itzasean

So I had a steam guy here and he said boiler and piping looked good but the return should be larger. I increased the return from 3/4 to 1" . It took almost 3 hours to go from 65 to 69 degrees. I have a gorton 2 main vent

JUGHNE

Where are you and how cold outside was it this morning?
And again where are with the gas pressure delivery system?

KC_Jones

How cold was it when you did that recovery? The only way to know if that is good or bad in your house is to do a heatloss and compare that to your radiation output. 3 hours on a really really cold day could be expected performance, or it could be outrageous no way to know without more data. My radiation is close to my heatloss at design, When it gets really cold I suspend the setback altogether as it could take most of the day to recover from a 3° setback

itzasean

I just had the gas meters changed . I'm in Boston and it was 3 degrees today. I have two radiators that sometimes only heat halfway. Both have a groton vent and are sloped the proper direction.

Jamie Hall

As @Hatterasguy says, 1.5 degrees per hour temperature rise isn't out of line at all on a really cold day. One reason why setbacks are problematic! But the second thought is -- eastern Massachusetts as a whole is known for having gas pressure problems on cold days.

JUGHNE

A new gas meter will not necessarily improve gas pressure when the temps drop. It is a double whammy for the gas company. The colder it is the more gas used and the more pressure drop.

As the day warms with less consumption the pressure will rise.
If you called them about checking your pressure they will not be there at 5 AM when this happens. Probably 9 AM, by then there may not be a problem at your house.
You could ask the neighbors if they have similar problems at the same time.

BobC

A couple of years ago I was havng a problem with my steam boiler and I suspected it might be a gas problem. I put a manometer on the input side of the gas meter and the pressure was falling from 7.5 to 4.5" when the boiler came on. Don't try this unless you know what your doing.

The gas company came out and determined the incoming mail was partially blocked. they replaced the incoming main and all is well.

You could clock the gas meter to see if your using as much gas as you should. Also have a tech check out the boiler to make sure its working right.

It sounds like you really need to tighten the place up to keep the heat inside.

Bob