gas-fired Boiler, thermostat and fireplace

djrmich

today is below zero F all day and our indoor temp (per thermostat in living room set to 62) never reaches its setting and actually fell a little. its a split level home and downstairs in family room our natural fireplace is burning all day. Our furnace in basement is gas fired water boiler and has been running all day. rooms have baseboard heating. Shouldnt our furnace be able to keep the home heated to the thermostat setting ? Until this deep freeze this week it has no been a problem for several years. Could there be a problem with the system ? Or is the fireplace part of the problem ? Thank you.

Jamie Hall

The fireplace could be -- I'm not saying it is -- but it could be. Is it natural gas with a relatively small vent? Or is it a real honest fireplace? If it's the latter, there are remarkably few which actually add heat -- they draw so much air from wherever they can get it. Which is pretty cold air just now...

Or there are several other possibilities. For instance -- is the boiler actually running all the time? If it's cycling off, it could be that it isn't set for hot enough water. Or it just may not have the needed capacity...

Gordy

You could look at the aquastat setting in the boiler, and see what it’s set at. Baseboard needs 180, or more to achieve full output potential. Which is needed with this cold snap.

A masonry wood burning fireplace as Jamie says needs air. So unless it has an outdoor air kit the fire place, and the boiler unless the boiler has an outdoor air intake sucks air from every window,door, and crack it can to meet the combustion needs of those items.

It can also be you have just enough emitter, and boiler size to meet a load that is warmer than what you are experiencing for outdoor temps.

Again see what the aquastat setting is on the boiler. It’s possible you may squeak a little more out of it.

JUGHNE

Depending upon where you are and your gas supplier, you could be having low gas pressure and not getting the amount of fire in the boiler you usually have. Have you talked to the neighbors if they have the same problem.
If everyone has their boilers running full time then the gas pressure could drop if the utility has a supply issue. Apparently many on the east coast area have overconnected to new customers. It seems that the real problem is piping to deliver the gas....not necessarily having enough gas available.
If the temps go up then you may have higher pressure but may never know that you had low pressure.

If you have gas stove you can see the burner flame and maybe notice if it is lower than usual.
Or clothes take longer to dry.
Water heater is slower.

And most open front fireplaces are heat losers.
They feel great to stand in front of, burn a candle close to the fire and you might see the flame drawn to it.
That is a huge amount of air going up the chimney and that air you just heated with your boiler.
Then if you have a huge masonry fireplace on an outside wall that is a double whammy of heat loss, about equivalent to having a single pane window that size; they really look neat though and were a large selling point years ago.

Gordy

I just noticed this was in the steam section. Yet you say baseboard heat. I see this a water, or steam based system?