How to turn off a boiler for the summer?

emaydeoh

This is probably a silly question but how do I turn off my boiler for the summer? Steam heat system. 

I can turn off the electrical for it via a light switch on the ceiling. Then can I turn off the gas source by turning the knob thing on the main gas pipe that runs into the pilot light area? Should I do anything else to shut down the boiler, drain any water etc?

Jamie Hall

Best not to drain it. Better to raise the water level to just below the top of the sight glass, run it up to full steam, then shut it off and let it sit.

Intplm.

Hello @emaydeoh
Not a silly question. To do anything is a matter of preference to some.
When I was a kid (decades ago) and first learning about steam heat. My father would have me shut the gas off at the supply valve suppling our boiler and also shut off the switch as you are suggesting.We had a standing pilot gas fired boiler back then.
Some folks like to fill their boiler up with water. They call this a "wet lay-up." I never did a wet layup on a residential boiler that I can recall. This is usually done on commercial boilers so I would refrain from the wet lay-up.

Does your boiler have a standing pilot? Or, electronic ignition? If it's standing pilot, shut the gas off.( You will have to relight the pilot when you want to put the boiler back in service.) If not, leave it alone.
Many folks do nothing with their boiler in the off season and that's just fine.
As I mentioned earlier. Its a matter of preference.

emaydeoh

@Intplm. Thank you so much! Our boiler does have a pilot light that you have to light by hand. It kind of scares me to have an open flame running all the time when not in use so I’ll definitely turn off the gas source!

Intplm.

emaydeoh said:

@Intplm. Thank you so much! Our boiler does have a pilot light that you have to light by hand. It kind of scares me to have an open flame running all the time when not in use so I’ll definitely turn off the gas source!

And why not! Especially with todays gas prices. Standing pilot flame is just burning fuel and $$.
Maybe in the future have it changed to electronic ignition?

trivetman

Just make sure you understand how to relight it.  It should be simple to do.

JakeCK

And to add, that standing pilot does add a non zero amount of heat to the house. The roughly 600btu/h may not seem like a lot of heat but when it's 90f and full sun and your ac is floored it makes a difference. That also works out to a little over 4 ccf of NG or a bit under 4.5 therms a month. 

Edit: on second thought with steam the additional heat produced by the standing pilot may not be able to make it up in the rest of the structure before it is lost to the flue. However with old converted gravity systems it can and will. I have the sensor data to prove it. 

HVACNUT

Light the pilot before turning the power back on. There should be a Rollout switch attached to the access panel and it will easily short to ground while removing it to light the pilot. Ask me how I know.

reggi

JakeCK said:

And to add, that standing pilot does add a non zero amount of heat to the house. The roughly 600btu/h may not seem like a lot of heat but when it's 90f and full sun and your ac is floored it makes a difference. That also works out to a little over 4 ccf of NG or a bit under 4.5 therms a month. 

Edit: on second thought with steam the additional heat produced by the standing pilot may not be able to make it up in the rest of the structure before it is lost to the flue. However with old converted gravity systems it can and will. I have the sensor data to prove it. 

JakeCK said:

And to add, that standing pilot does add a non zero amount of heat to the house. The roughly 600btu/h may not seem like a lot of heat but when it's 90f and full sun and your ac is floored it makes a difference. That also works out to a little over 4 ccf of NG or a bit under 4.5 therms a month. 

Edit: on second thought with steam the additional heat produced by the standing pilot may not be able to make it up in the rest of the structure before it is lost to the flue. However with old converted gravity systems it can and will. I have the sensor data to prove it. 

I think it depends on how you look at it , I have a Burnham with a standing pilot that's been left on for as long as I remember.. being it was installed in '67 and is still working fine I'm not going to change any routines to try save money or any other reason unless I have to 🥵. Lol

109A_5

reggi said:

I think it depends on how you look at it , I have a Burnham with a standing pilot that's been left on for as long as I remember.. being it was installed in '67 and is still working fine I'm not going to change any routines to try save money or any other reason unless I have to 🥵. Lol

I have wondered about this, does a standing pilot help extent the life of a boiler as compared to electronic ignition or intermittent pilot. It seems when standing pilots went away the lifespan of boilers diminished. There may be other reasons too. As near as I can tell my steam boiler is about 50 years old and except for one summer decades ago the pilot has been on the whole time.

I think the cost of gas for off season pilot operation and thermocouples is way less expensive than replacing Intermittent Pilot Control modules and boilers.

ethicalpaul

I think it's correlation vs causation...in the time that standing pilots were replaced, castings were also getting thinner I bet. The pilots didn't cause that

JakeCK

I have heard the theory that the standing pilot helps keep the boiler warm enough so it doesn't rust during the summer months. It's a hard sell. On the one hand yes that little flame does warm it, enough in fact that my sensor strapped on to the supply pipe can see the temperature rise. This might help keep that cast iron above the dew point, maybe not. However that flame is burning O2 and CH4 and is making H20 and CO2, plus whatever incompleteness is caused by contaminates from the dirty basement air that gets sucked up into it. Put another way that flame is actually adding water to the environment and potentially acidic by-products of combustion. And if it doesn't raise the temperature enough that would increase the RH, and lower the dew point.

At the end of the day this is really splitting hairs.

reggi said:

I think it depends on how you look at it , I have a Burnham with a standing pilot that's been left on for as long as I remember.. being it was installed in '67 and is still working fine I'm not going to change any routines to try save money or any other reason unless I have to 🥵. Lol

To each their own. Again it really is splitting hairs. I prefer to turn it off because I have seen that the small amount of heat it generates can and will end up in the house. Another concern I have is that the small flame isn't enough to generate any measurable draft over what would naturally occur. In the summer I could smell that pilot burning away if I stuck my nose by the draft hood.

Chris_L

I was told the same thing about leaving the pilot on to prevent condensation during the summer. This really doesn't make much sense to me. The turned off boiler will be the same temperature as the air around it, and the other metal things in the basement.

They don't get condensation on them during the summer. Why should the cast iron boiler? It's not like a copper cold water line that is much cooler than the air, and certainly does get condensation.

I turn the pilots on my two boiler off during the summer. The basement gets warm enough without them. Better to save some on the gas bill, and I think the Powerpiles last longer when not in the flame.

JakeCK

Chris_L said:

I was told the same thing about leaving the pilot on to prevent condensation during the summer. This really doesn't make much sense to me. The turned off boiler will be the same temperature as the air around it, and the other metal things in the basement.

They don't get condensation on them during the summer. Why should the cast iron boiler? It's not like a copper cold water line that is much cooler than the air, and certainly does get condensation.

I turn the pilots on my two boiler off during the summer. The basement gets warm enough without them. Better to save some on the gas bill, and I think the Powerpiles last longer when not in the flame.

It is possible that during rapid weather changes that the temperature in the basement falls below the dew point where everything will feel damp. It's happened across my entire house before when I've left all the windows open. But that is a transitory event, if a basement is consistently below the dew point one needs to run a dehumidifier.

reggi

Who knows ? I'm not super anal about micro managing every aspect of my environment... I don't live in a bubble so if I use a bit of gas , as I have been for decades, because I see no reason NOT to then I will and be at peace ✌️ either way...if I go before the boiler does ... Can you say the same thing about your system ?? ( I'm satisfied.. what else is there ?)

JakeCK

reggi said:

Who knows ? I'm not super anal about micro managing every aspect of my environment... I don't live in a bubble so if I use a bit of gas , as I have been for decades, because I see no reason NOT to then I will and be at peace ✌️ either way...if I go before the boiler does ... Can you say the same thing about your system ?? ( I'm satisfied.. what else is there ?)

What was the question again? I'm guessing your asking if I'm satisfied with my system. Yes I am, that boiler has been  burning flawlessly for almost 40 years, but I'm getting less satisfied with the cost of fuel. And at 40 years old it's better years are behind it. Time to start planning. And I do not see natural gas being around let alone affordable for another 40 years. 

BobC

i used a dehumidifier in my basement for a few years but when the cost of electricity started to ramp up I knew i had to find a better solution. My cellar windows are 3 pane so I took out a middle pain on one and replaced it with plexiglass with a 4" hole and a 4-1/2" 100ccf muffin fan. That fan runs all summer and gets rid of most of the humidity down there, it uses a lot less juice than that dehumidifier did. I the winter I cover the fan with a plate to close that opening off.

Bob

HVACNUT

BobC said:

i used a dehumidifier in my basement for a few years but when the cost of electricity started to ramp up I knew i had to find a better solution. My cellar windows are 3 pane so I took out a middle pain on one and replaced it with plexiglass with a 4" hole and a 4-1/2" 100ccf muffin fan. That fan runs all summer and gets rid of most of the humidity down there, it uses a lot less juice than that dehumidifier did. I the winter I cover the fan with a plate to close that opening off. Bob

What's replacing the expelled air?

JakeCK

HVACNUT said:

BobC said:

i used a dehumidifier in my basement for a few years but when the cost of electricity started to ramp up I knew i had to find a better solution. My cellar windows are 3 pane so I took out a middle pain on one and replaced it with plexiglass with a 4" hole and a 4-1/2" 100ccf muffin fan. That fan runs all summer and gets rid of most of the humidity down there, it uses a lot less juice than that dehumidifier did. I the winter I cover the fan with a plate to close that opening off. Bob

What's replacing the expelled air?

Ventilating a cold basement with warm humid air sounds like a recipe for mold. I'd rather spend the money running a dehumidifier. 

reggi

BobC said:

i used a dehumidifier in my basement for a few years but when the cost of electricity started to ramp up I knew i had to find a better solution. My cellar windows are 3 pane so I took out a middle pain on one and replaced it with plexiglass with a 4" hole and a 4-1/2" 100ccf muffin fan. That fan runs all summer and gets rid of most of the humidity down there, it uses a lot less juice than that dehumidifier did. I the winter I cover the fan with a plate to close that opening off. Bob

@Bobc ... .  Wasn't there a cat that went with that window???  Right... that was the missing pane if I remember ☺️.
Agree with the dehumidifier energy cost.. I'll fire up the boiler and shut it down before it hits the radiators before running my dehumidifier. .. 

BobC

Yes there was a neighborhood tom that pushed in that pane one really cold night. I went down to check the water level one night and had a feel1ing I was being watched. This was a big old Delco 4 section boiler and as my gaze went up I found a huge tomcat ensconced on that nice warm boiler cabinet. i went upstairs and got him a bowl of water and some dry cat food and left him to enjoy himself, I don't think my cats upsyairs were aware of his presence till the next morning when i went down stairs to find he had gone the way he came but my cats knew he had been there.

As to makeup air this is a 100 year old house so there is no absence of nooks and crannies for makeup air.

PMJ

I still run the original 1957 standing pilot with bimetal strip safety. Leave the pilot on all summer and have for my 31 years with my boiler. Does it help? I think so. At least fair to conclude it doesn't hurt.

I also don't change the water level and the end of the season. Boilers don't like fresh water. One boil doesn't get all the oxygen out. I prefer to leave it with water that has been boiled over and over for weeks, and a piping system completely closed off to the atmosphere.

reggi

PMJ said:

I still run the original 1957 standing pilot with bimetal strip safety. Leave the pilot on all summer and have for my 31 years with my boiler. Does it help? I think so. At least fair to conclude it doesn't hurt. I also don't change the water level and the end of the season. Boilers don't like fresh water. One boil doesn't get all the oxygen out. I prefer to leave it with water that has been boiled over and over for weeks, and a piping system completely closed off to the atmosphere.

Now I'm pretty sure your system is tight but do you think that whatever is in your system after it's last run of the season is the same air 4+ months later ? I understand you don't have vents but you can't put it into vacuum and seal it off and have the same vacuum in it 4+ months later.... Explain please..

PMJ

reggi said:

PMJ said:

I still run the original 1957 standing pilot with bimetal strip safety. Leave the pilot on all summer and have for my 31 years with my boiler. Does it help? I think so. At least fair to conclude it doesn't hurt.

I also don't change the water level and the end of the season. Boilers don't like fresh water. One boil doesn't get all the oxygen out. I prefer to leave it with water that has been boiled over and over for weeks, and a piping system completely closed off to the atmosphere.

Now I'm pretty sure your system is tight but do you think that whatever is in your system after it's last run of the season is the same air 4+ months later ? I understand you don't have vents but you can't put it into vacuum and seal it off and have the same vacuum in it 4+ months later.... Explain please..

The system is just closed up - there is no vacuum. But also there is no pressure difference inside to out so no forces trying to move air in or out. I don't think there is much exchange in a vented system either that isn't running. I think closed is better but not really significant in any way.

Long Beach Ed

I like summertime when the tankless coil gasket turns to rock and leaks, rusting the carbon steel bolts to nubs.