boiler shuts off and on over and over

big red

hello all this site is a real find! i have a steam system
in my new house its fairly new a few years old. i noticed that it runs for few minutes and all the radiators get hot and are quiet -no hissing at all very nice since i expextted steam heat to be noisy- then the boiler shuts down for a couple of minutes and restarts and runs for a couple of minutes.

is that ok????? i thought furnaces/boilers ran until the thermstat was satisfied. doesnt doing that waste fuel? what should be done to make it run until temperature reaches desired level??

again all the radiators are hot and giving off heat so why would the boiler all of a sudden quit- shouldnt the steam be constant??

thanks
Big Red

Drod

Your system sounds just fine;

The boiler "kicks on and off" due to steam pressure build up and let down. It'll keep doing that until the thermostat is satisfied by getting to the set temperature. If the boiler didn't cycle off and on like this, you'd build too much pressure throughout your system.

Steamhead

Or

the boiler may be oversized, or the firing rate too high. In this case you're producing too much steam for your system. Have a pro take a look at it- try the Find a Contractor page of this site.

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

Fred Harwood

Also

your thermostat may be "anticipating" too strongly. Have a local heating person check to ensure that the thermostat anticipator setting permits sufficient run time.

Is the house not coming up to the set temperature? Or is the on-off happening at the set temperature? If the total time between on cycles is running between 8 to 15 minutes and every radiator heats adequately, all may be OK.