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Thermostat or boiler controls?

TKPK
TKPK Member Posts: 70
in Thermostats and Controls

I have a WM EG-65 2 pipe steam boiler that is heating fine and no real issues. Controls are Honeywell S8610F intermittent pilot natural gas control

I have a white Rodgers 1F85-277 thermostat.

I have been tracking heating cycles and burn time just for curiosity and make sure everything is running fine. The graph below shows two strips, the bottom one shows 10 hours of everything working normal in my mind … each peak is a burn cycle. Each burn cycle goes about 15 minutes and then shuts off for 60-80 minutes.

The top strip is yesterday which was a ~40-45F day. Each time the boiler ran, it ran for ~10 minutes, shut down for 20 minutes and ran again for ~10 minutes. Total run time was low as would be expected on a moderate day.

My thermostat has been set at 67 for a couple of weeks and the program is also set at flat 67. On one of the cycles I watched the thermostat and neither the thermostat current temp or program temp ever changed off of 67.

I replaced the batteries in the thermostat just in case. There is no cycle guard. Water levels are fine, never a call for water. I have a magnahelic 0-5” gauge and it never goes over 1.5. I have tested the rollout and spill switches and they test fine. I have an electronic flue damper and it appears to be working fine.

Anything else possible to cause this?

I am heading away for a couple of months so I want to make sure there is nothing I should be doing.

IMG_0545.jpeg

The boiler seems to run more “normal” the colder it is outside and has these double bumps more when the weather moderates but we really haven’t had much really cold weather. Only reason for my concern is I am going away.

Comments

  • LRCCBJ
    LRCCBJ Member Posts: 682

    You're observing the behavior of the thermostat……………nothing more.

    On a cold day, it takes longer for the room to open the 'stat. Of course, the rads are more fully filled with steam and they provide heat into the space for a longer time period after the 'stat opens before it closes again.

    On a warmer day, it takes next to nothing to open the 'stat and the rads have barely received steam. So, they don't have the residual energy to deliver to the room after the 'stat opens. So, the 'stat recloses earlier.

    Depending on the 'stat, you can change the spacing between the cycles by adjusting the "anticipator". This also results in a wider differential in the room temperature……………..which may be undesirable depending upon the occupant(s).

    TKPK
  • TKPK
    TKPK Member Posts: 70

    that is kind of what I was thinking/hoping.

    several weeks ago I changed a setting in the thermostat from fast acting to slow acting which is kind of similar to anticipator. T that time I was getting a lot of double and triple burns in each cycle.

    The slow setting opens the reaction range from 1.2 to 1.5F

    I think my (non) “issue” is that the thermostat only displays 67 but the devil is in the 66.x to 67.x range that is not displayed.

    TYVM

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