steam boiler ran for 11 hours today!

Jim_10

Yeah I think your right, I measured a couple of years ago for the insulation, I think i confused the insulation size with the pipe size. Does it matter that in branches off like that when placing a main vent further down? I have to take a pic of the other end and see what you guys think. The only problem is that theres not much space between the pipe and ceiling at the end of that run and its a finished apartment now...

jim_14

Just got myself one of those honeywell programmable t-stats. My usuage shows my system ran for 11 hours today. I somehow dont think this is too normal. I have it set for 70 degrees at 6am, at about 7am it showed around 2 hours of on time and I was just starting to get heat from the rads. Now granted its been very cold here in NY for the past 2 weeks, single digits over night. I know that its supposed to come on before 6am so that the temp is 70 at 6am.

Now this digital stat has some sort of smart technology where it learns how to operate your system after about a week. The book even tells you that it will do this and to expect this during the time it takes to learn whats best for your system. Now Im no dummy, and this 11 hour thing and 2 hours in the AM just doesnt feel right to me.

Oh yeah, gas steam boiler, single fam house, 2 stories. Any ideas?

[Deleted User]

well, seems to me that since its really

really cold right about now, that if say for example you have a house with a heat loss of 100,000 btu per hour at 10 degrees outside. and your ibr rating on the boiler is 100,000 btu that your boiler would be running 100% of the day. what say you.

jim_14

Well Im not sure what you mean. In any case, is 2 hours of boiler running in the AM about right on average? Im talking 2 hours of cycling on and off before heat hits the first rad? at least thats what the tstat is telling me.

Unknown

venting problem

If your boiler is going on and off on pressure, before the radiators begin to heat, that pressure is air pressure. The air can't get out fast enough to get heat into the radiators before the pressure control shuts off the fire.

I bet it costs a bunch to run, too.

Noel

Steamhead

I think Noel's got it

check your vents at the ends of the steam mains. If there aren't any, that's at least part of the problem. If you do have main vents they may be too small. Measure the length and diameter of your mains and tell us what (if any) vents are on them to be sure.

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Jim_10

I have one main that runs from the boiler in the front of my house to the rear of my house which is about 20 feet. I believe the pipe is 3 or 4 inch diameter. The main breaks off into 2 smaller pipes about 10 feet from the boiler at the front ,which Im guess feeds the three rads in the front of the house. Same thing at the end of that run in the back of the house, it branches off into three smaller pipes. Im guessing I do not have any main vents, unless they concealed them above the ceiling and in the walls?

For the record their are 7 rads in total. Three in the front of my house and 4 in the rear. I assume that in the rear of my house that those 3 smaller pipes are further split off since there are 4 rads, and same in the front, 2 pipes going up to feed 3 radiators. I have some pictures I took to clarify what I wrote, the first one shows the steam pipe in front coming from the boiler thats about 5 feet away and the two pipe the branch off it. The second pic is the same pipe at a wider shot to show its coming from the boiler which unseen in the pic. Thats it for the steam riser. It comes out the top of the boiler, makes a right and then another right (where Ive taken this pic) and continues straight down the length of the house.

Oh yeah, the pipes had asbestos insulation which was removed years ago and painted by a previous owner, I added the fiberglass insulation to 90% of this run after reading Dans book lost art 1.

Steamhead

Not sure

but that looks like 2-inch pipe to me. Measure the outside diameter of the short piece between the tee and the elbow in the above photo. It will be 1/4" or so larger than the inside diameter of the pipe, which is how pipe sizing is given in this type of system.

Given 2-inch pipe and 20 feet of length, a Gorton #1 or Hoffman #75 main vent is the right one to install.

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Unknown

Runs 11 hours

When you get temperatures close to 0 degrees your boiler has to run longer than when you are at 40 degrees.

Remember how the dead guy sized your heating system.

He used an outdoor temperature of 0 degrees and an indoor temperature of 70 degrees. Plus 10% just in case....

What that means is, if the boiler is on the money for the heating system that boile would run about 23 hours a day.

If you ran 11 hours at single digit your boiler is either oversized or the house is very well insulated ( upgraded over the years )

Remember the heating system puts heat into the building to offset the cold that infiltrated in.


jake