What should I set my water temp at for hot water, on my boiler?

Joe.G

It is a gray honey well box it has only adjustment as i can see I think it is at 160 right now, I it turn it down to 120 I know the water will not be as hot but will I run out of hot water sooner? right now I can take a1 hr shower and not run out of hot water.

And the other thing with the high and low what does that do? I think that may be on the side of the burner but I can't read it with out takeing th e whole burner encloer apart. thanks

Joe.G

Hi, I have a thermostat on the outside of my boiler for my hot water for teh shower and stuff like that, what should I sat it at? right now the water is real hot I was wondering if you guys have a setting like a default you always use, my boiler also heats my house. Thanks

Al Letellier

thermostat????

Not sure what you're refering to as a "thermostat", but it can only be one of two things. If you're refering to the aquastat, the gray box with wiring that's mounted on or near the coil, it has high and low settings. It depends where you live and how cold it gets, but here in Maine, we usually set the low at 170 and the high at 190 or so and the differential at 20. If it's the mixing valve, and I assume it is, that you're referring to, most plumbing codes set max hot water temp at 120 degrees. If you can't adjust it low enough, the element inside may be gone. Get a pro to replace it for you, or have you're heating company properly adjust the controls and check the mixer.

Terry

controls

the Lo & Hi on the operating Aquastat are the cut in & cut out points for the boiler itself. Remember that the Boiler should be hot. this is the water that heats the home & domestic water (presuming).

You should have another aquastat on the indirect watermaker (if thats what you have). 160F is too high for domestic!. turn down to 120F. OR the setting may be on your boiler controller (if it also controls domestic demand).

Can you confirm where you are getting the hot water from? (coil in the boiler, a separate tank, etc.) & identify what controls are on the system?


regards,
Terry

Joe.G

The hot water is in the boiler I guess you will call it a coil, ( I don't know much about this stuff) the boile is one unit there are no other tanks besides my extrol expansion tank. How do I know which is which how could I check? the one I can not see do to teh fact that it is on the side of the boiler and the boiler has a encloser around it. Thanks

Joe.G

The hot water is in the boiler I guess you will call it a coil, ( I don't know much about this stuff) the boile is one unit there are no other tanks besides my extrol expansion tank. How do I know which is which how could I check? the one I can not see do to teh fact that it is on the side of the boiler and the boiler has a encloser around it. Thanks

GaryDidier

water temps

Joe,
It sounds to me like you know very little about hydronics.
You should call in a competent tecknician to asess the situation and set up the boiler properly.
Gary from Granville

Terry

tempering valve

Is there a tempering valve on the domestic hot side?
(a 3 port valve; 1 port from Hot COil (boiler), 1 Port from COld Water, Last Port to send tempered water out to fixtures.

There should be a dial on this tempering valve for temperature adjustment.

A DIGI PIC would really help.

Terry

Joe.G

My boiler was made in 1947, I think it is york heat or somthing like that, burner motor was replaced with a beckett motor about 10 years ago, My boiler is a round unit about 4 foot tall. The wires from the honeywell box are in a round pieace of metal and they go in to the burn somewhere I just can't tell where. Sorry guys i want to rurn down my hot ater i just don't want to pay some one to do it if I can thanks

Joe.G

Hi was just wondering if anyone else had any input, thanks alot this site has saved me a lot of money.

Steamhead

If your boiler was made in 1947

you could probably cut your fuel consumption quite a bit by replacing it. Even with a Beckett burner that thing probably doesn't have an annual efficiency over 65 percent or so- unless it was an unusually good design.

At the very least, consider installing a tank to go with that coil. This way the hot water could be stored, and the boiler would not have to run unless the aquastat on the tank called for heat. You could set this aquastat wherever you wanted.

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"