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Issues shutting off

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mayancioccolato
mayancioccolato Member Posts: 5
in Oil Heating
Okay, I’m a newbie. And I don’t know anything! But I’ll try to explain the situation.

We have a fuel oil boiler. It then provides hot water and baseboard heating. We primarily heat our house with a wood stove and don’t use the baseboard heating. When this is happening the baseboard stays cold and the boiler only heats up hot water thru out the day. 

When we turn the thermostat on the heat will start up and all the baseboard will be on until it reaches the correct temp. Aka it works correctly. Then when you turn off the heat on the thermostat, or lower the temp super low (so we can then switch to firewood) the baseboard heating will stop working everywhere except our bathroom/bedroom where it will continue to run nonstop. The circulator pump is off at this time but that one strip continues to run (it is the closest strip the the boiler). The only way to get this to stop is to turn off the electricity to the boiler for at least 12 hours. It then acts normally and all of the baseboard stays off when we use our wood stove to heat the house.

please help!! Thank you!

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  • mayancioccolato
    mayancioccolato Member Posts: 5
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    Also, the thermostat and aqua stat have been replaced. 
  • Larry Weingarten
    Larry Weingarten Member Posts: 3,294
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    Hello @mayancioccolato , Just a shot in the dark. It could be convection or "ghost flow". This is driven by hot water being less dense and floating on cooler water. A question, is everything on one level, or is the boiler in a basement, lower than the living space?

    Yours, Larry
    rick in Alaskakcoppethicalpaul
  • neilc
    neilc Member Posts: 2,703
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    sounds like a heat syphon running thru that near bathroom loop,
    hot boiler water keeps rising, and flowing thru the loop and back as it cools,

    post a picture of the boiler, showing as much pipe there as possible,
    and of the pipes leading up to and back from the hot bathroom loop,

    guys, could a heat trap work here?
    known to beat dead horses
    ethicalpaul
  • mayancioccolato
    mayancioccolato Member Posts: 5
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    @Larry Weingarten 
    the boiler is in the basement directly below the bathroom/bedroom loop. 

  • mayancioccolato
    mayancioccolato Member Posts: 5
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    neilc said:
    sounds like a heat syphon running thru that near bathroom loop, hot boiler water keeps rising, and flowing thru the loop and back as it cools, post a picture of the boiler, showing as much pipe there as possible, and of the pipes leading up to and back from the hot bathroom loop, guys, could a heat trap work here?
    I’ll try to post pics soon.
    This is a new development: we pulled the thermostat completely off. And the bathroom loop has cooled down. Mind you the heat was off on the thermostat before. It has been replaced once before as well and continued to happen. We will reconnect it in a few hours and see if has reset itself. 
  • neilc
    neilc Member Posts: 2,703
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    only one zone / thermostat?
    or is this multi zone ?
    known to beat dead horses
  • mayancioccolato
    mayancioccolato Member Posts: 5
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    neilc said:
    only one zone / thermostat? or is this multi zone ?
    One zone
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,837
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    "Ghost flow" is discussed in this text on page 12. (illustration included)
    http://media.blueridgecompany.com/documents/ZoningMadeEasy.pdf

    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics

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