Wasting oil?? Yes or No ...Heaters are supper hot... steam beast running, not reaching P-Trol pres.

LS123

Hello and good morning all....

I have questions in regards to what happens to steam radiator heater boiler when Tstat number was increase by 5 or 10 degrees... just want to learn and understand the logic...

I am confident that my steam boiler is working as it should be.. little bit of details below....

1) I have steam boiler, very efficient, heat up the house and live in North West CT... in the woods, temp over night reach 20F give or take few. (That is ok...)

2) Once the temp in the room is met what was set on Tstat, boiler shuts down... house gets couple of degrees warmer than Tsts ( that's ok too)

Below is what I need clarification...

While running the boiler... main vents do their job... as well as radiator vents too...

A) what happens to steam that is being produced once the vent on the radiators / mail valves shut down? (unless there is a steam leak that prevents P-trol tripping at 1.5 psi)

Am I just burning oil for no reason when the radiator / main vents close and the boiler is keep running ( and not reaching the P-Trol 1.5 PSI cut off) ?

C) Boiler runs, would not create more than 1/2 PSI... almost always ... radiators get hot about 1/4 PSI on boiler low pressure gauge... and the boiler NOT reaching P-Trol (1.5 cut off.) Is that because oil Nozzle too small.. we always have had .85 GPH and I think 80 or 90 A.

** I was told its ok the way the things working on my boiler... no changes are needed... again I refer to question "A)" , "B)" and "C)" if you could help me understand better...

Thank you!

Jamie Hall

Question A -- as you say, unless there is a steam leak, all the steam being produced in the boiler is being condensed in the radiators -- and heating your house.

so

Question B -- no, you are not wasting oitl. All that energy going into making steam in the boiler winds up coming out of the radiators to heat the house, which is what you want to have happen.

Question C -- I would say that if you are not seeing a pressure rise, but all the radiators are nice and warm, you are in the happy position of having the boiler and nozzle almost exactly the right size to match the radiation. You don't want a pressure increase, and a lot of people jump through all sorts of complicated hoops to avoid it. Be happy.

LS123

@Jamie Hall ... thank you... thus is very good news .... concluding this discussion with a smile that my 70+ year old steam boiler still rocks !!!

ethicalpaul

All is well and I am in a similar situation...on a real big recovery I might possibly start to creep up to 1/2 or 1 psi but I don't like it to get nearly that high.

But I still see it as wasteful. If all my radiators are fully steamed up, I don't want to keep burning fuel since the radiators can give up a lot of stored heat from that point with no fuel being burned.

So I shut off my boiler once I get to the pressure point that indicates all or most of my radiator vents are closed. And that point is about 5 inches water column (.18 psi or 2.89 oz/sq in). When I hit that, I shut it all down for 20 minutes and then let it come back on if the thermostat requests it.

This definitely reduces overshooting too.

I am looking forward to subzero temperatures so I can see what failure points might appear for me.

PS: my system sizing is currently such that I have 1" WC during "radiators filling with steam" time

LS123

hello @ethicalpaul , thanks for sharing this info.... since I weather proof / insulation of main pipes, new gorton 2s, my boiler seems to loose less heat and make the rads supper hot ( and I read on the forum that average one would save 13K BTU having main pipes insulation... now I dont know 13K BTU saving each time boiler rnu ( iam sure there are lots of variables to take in to consideration)

... I figured given last few winters and amount of oil we have used is so far is less ( not sure if we had less colder days then) from what I read few days ago we should be getting some polar vortex left over...

For sure I know my basement stays much warmer, rads get heated fast....

I noticed today that there is some electrical device you and some others had mentioned at below posting....
Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Crazy Idea....Pressure Triggered Time Delay
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/182874/crazy-idea-pressure-triggered-time-delay#latest

sounds like fun....
Best!

LS123

sorry all copy and paste captured some of the other test before the title and url I mentioned above...

Jamie Hall

Your boiler is running very nicely, and matching the heat input to the building demand. You don't need any other controls on it.

Remember that the building heat load is fixed by the inside temperature, the building construction, and the outside temperature. Fancy gadgetry won't reduce that -- not the amount of energy (oil) needed to meet the demand.

If your boiler were oversized and cycling madly on pressure, then you might look into such means for reducing its size (which is what they actually do) -- but yours isn't.

LS123

thanks again @Jamie Hall ... I highly respect and trust you knowledge in heating systems. I do not plan to change anything in my system except maintenance... I do intend to have a meeting with @Charlie from wmass his knowledge and skills are equally impressive. I intend to get a site survey done (by Charlie) and do anything and everything I can to maintain, repair / rebuild, etc late spring, early summer... system has been running for 70+ years (and I LOVE it... it has given me something fun to learn and do.) I do not want to do anything especially during winter, that might leave me with out steam heat...