Too many burner cycles?

R.H

My,one and only, thermostat can be set during the day to say 55 degrees while we are not home or sleeping. It will be reading in the sixties inside the house on the same thermostat, but my burner will still fire. My basement is consistantly the same temperature as the rest of my house. I have a steam system and the radiators seem to heat up just fine when I need them to. However, I am tearing through oil and I feel like it has something to do with the burner running off and on at least once an hour when the thermostat is not calling. I tried changing thermostat, with no result. Any one have any good ideas?

Firedragon_4

Burners can't tell time,

they operate based entirely on temperature and possibly a thermostat that can tell time (chronotherm).

It's cold out and to maintain 55F something has to put heat into the house, the operation could be just, normal.

steve_72

burner cycles

Your burner will fire to maintain a minimum boiler temperature even if the thermostat is not calling for heat. Your comment that the basement is as warm as the house suggests that you have a lot of standby heat loss either through a poorly insulated boiler or uninsulated piping. Insufficient insulation would cause the boiler to cool relatively quickly and then call for the burner to fire to maintain the minimum temperature. What is your boiler and how are the pipes insulated?

gehring_3

If you have a tankless in the boiler for DHW it will cause the burner to fire from time to time to maintain the heat of the HW supply notwithstanding the fact that the primary thermostat has not been turned up or touched.

Weezbo

its S.O.P.

however maybe a riello burner might help save some btus from escaping from the boiler...

jim_49

possibly you have a tankless coil, aquastat set to high and a leaky hot water faucet causing the boiler to run more and not make steam, or you have a crack in your boiler and auto feeder keeps putting in cold water to cause short cycling.