A word of warning about night setback in this cold weather.

RayWohlfarth

I urge you to tell your customers with a steam or hydronic system to remove the night setback from the controls during this cold snap. When the weather is at or below the outdoor design temperature of your location, it is sometimes very difficult for the system to catch up from a night setback temperature. I have seen old churches never get back to the setpoint when the weather is cold. Hoping it saves you a service call.
Stay warm
Ray

Ironman

It's also a good way to freeze pipes that are in outside walls, eaves and attics.

Thank you, Ray.

j a_2

That should fall under the category of, common sense...jmo

DanHolohan

Yep.

Ironman

j a said:

That should fall under the category of, common sense...jmo

True, but common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in everyone's garden.

L Thiesen

Very true about the common sense, I had two customers tell me this week that the weather had not been cold enough to freeze water pipes even though we hit -8 degrees one night. It amazes me how many people don’t grasp the fact that water freezes at 32 degrees.

Leonard

Automatic = Out of sight, out of mind

DanHolohan

I looked out the window for a good long time today and watched the fury of nature. The trees looked like this:

Yeah, the pipes can freeze.

Leonard

Northern NH, NOAA says Sunday dawn -10 degs F, BURRRRRRRR

TV station says Boston -19

Jamie Hall

One might hope that some of the "professionals" would use some common sense, too, though -- our "automatic" oil delivery didn't yesterday when it was supposed to (it's supposed to be weekly); we will be out of oil tomorrow morning. We have friends with the same problem with LP deliveries.

unclejohn

Most people think it's the pipe that froze and not the water in it.

kcopp

I have seen it a few times this week...

mikeg2015

My night setback is for comfort. With all my leaks it gets there in about 1 hour in this weather.

Wait, there are steam systems where radiator matches heat loss? I though having 2x the capacity was normal. I recovered 15f in 2 hours last week at -3f oat.

I agree. A low mass stick frame home even with good insulation could freeze pipes foolishly placed in outside walls pretty fast.

KC_Jones

@mikeg2015 my steam rads are pretty much the heat loss of the house. I might have a few thousand BTU "reserve", but that's not much in this weather. I kept my overnight setback of 3 degrees, and it is managing to claw it's way back, but it will probably take most of the day.

For me it's not a huge deal, for my stay at home wife it is.

nicholas bonham-carter

Maybe you could rotate the air vent on the bedroom radiator, closing the steam off, and have a lower sleeping temperature, without lowering the whole house temperature, or maybe this would be a good use for a TRV.—NBC

NY_Rob

It's amazing how little heat is actually needed to maintain temp vs. raise temp even in the coldest weather.

If you prefer setback, just abandon it for the short cold spell then go back to it later on. Your boiler (and family) will thank you!

AnthraciteEnergetics

It always takes more energy to maintain versus cooling down and reheating. It takes more power to let cool then reheat versus maintain. It's BTU vs BTU/h or kWh vs kW - which one is your biggest constraint/cost.

But yes cooling down too far with low outside air temp and trying to reheat without enough power (BTU/h or kW from your heat source) will take a long time and risk freezing in some situations.

RayWohlfarth

-5 here this morning and our heating design temp is 7 Deg F. Some of the old systems cant overcome that.

New England SteamWorks

Jamie Hall said:

One might hope that some of the "professionals" would use some common sense, too, though -- our "automatic" oil delivery didn't yesterday when it was supposed to (it's supposed to be weekly); we will be out of oil tomorrow morning. We have friends with the same problem with LP deliveries.

Well, you have to pity those poor guys. If they over-staffed to prepare for times like these, everyone would run from them like the plague when they saw the price.

Then you throw in super cold weather which means deliveries need to be made far more frequently, and all the snow, which means deliveries take far longer to make, -and (if I may...) you have the Perfect Storm.

The company that delivers my oil had a driver slip and fall and go out yesterday. A complete disaster for a small outfit. With all the licenses and background checks now needed to be a driver, there aren't any. She's begging me to help her. But I am slammed as well.

Might have to though if I want any oil...

Jamie Hall

Oh I do have pity on the drivers! The poor chap who showed up this morning told me that of the 5 places he had visited so far, I was the only one who had plowed the drive and shoveled the path to the oil fill. And the company is understaffed, too. No, my beef was with the error in dispatching... for what it's worth, I had exactly 3 gallons left when he arrived! Enough for just one hour of steaming...