Does this time for temp rise seem normal?

Don_175

Not sure if this is overly broad and vague. Our steam boiler had been off all summer, so it was completely cold. The other night, I was finally convinced to turn on the heat. The temperature in the house was 59 degrees with a cold boiler. Outdoor temp was around 52. I set the the set point to 68 degrees. It took 105 minutes for the thermostat to be satisfied. The boiler never cycled off the whole time. Later, it took 80 minutes for the temp to increase 5 degrees with the boiler water being relatively warm (boiler hadn't run in 3 hours). Not sure if I'm giving enough variables to figure out if this is within normal specs. House is 1 pipe steam and approximately 3650 sf. Thanks

EBEBRATT-Ed

9 degrees is a big setback. Don't forget cold boiler, cold piping, cold furniture , rugs. curtains everything must come up to 68 degrees not just the air. The fact that the boiler did not shut down is probably a good thing. It shows the boiler is the right side. 3650 sq feet is a sizeable house. I think your ok.

Why not post some pictures of the boiler and piping?

Jamie Hall

I agree with @EBEBRATT-Ed . Sounds to me as though your boiler -- and radiation -- may be pretty well matched to each other for once. Big setbacks such as you describe just simply take time to recover from, which is why some of us aren't too keen on setbacks much over two or three degrees.

Don_175

Thanks guys. Typically, at night, our setback is 3 degrees. This was the first time we turned on the heat so that's why the setback was so high. I did look for later in the day, when the boiler came on to bump the inside temp about 2.5 degrees. It took 50-55 min. Boiler had been off for bout 4 hours.

neilc

yup, gotta see pictures,
how old is boiler?
are you adding water at any frequency ?