New Controls for Church Steam System?

Jay_12

Hello,

Consider using a tekmar Steam Boiler Control 269. It varies the length the steam cycle on single steam boiler according to the current outdoor temperature which results in a reduction in your fuel usage. Attached is a PDF that explains the operation.

If you require a setback timer, I would suggest using a tekmar 032 Timer. This timer supports 24 hour, 5-1-1 and a 7 day schedules and has a built-in time clock backup.

If you have any further questions, please contact tekmar customer service.

Jay www.tekmarcontrols.com 250-545-7749

Judson Broome

Steam System Controls for Church

Our church has an old steam system. The biggest problem is with the control system. Several of the zone valves leak (just fixed one...but the others are difficult to get at) and the control system is old and confusing. The control system has multiple timers for days-of-the-week and time-of-day. And, of course, there are no schematics. So, when something goes wrong it takes a bunch of tinkering to determine what the problem is.

Several questions:
1) is there a good reference for learning more about control systems?
2) should we be looking into replacing the controls? Is there a relatively low-cost, central control system that could replace the mess we have now?
3) who is the best type of contractor to fix the zone valves? install a new control system?

Also, one of the old timers at the church says that the boiler used to operate at under 2 psi. Now, the heating oil company did some kind of adjustment and the boiler operates at 5psi. Should we leave it at 5psi or change back to something lower? How is that adjusted?

Thanks in advance for any help!

ed wallace

steam in church

you probably have a commercial boiler with 2 pressuretrols the main pressuretrol should be set for 1 2/2 lbs the backup should be set for 5lbs i bet the oil co tech never noticed the steam valves yes they can be replaced its a pain in tha neck but can be done i did it in a church in cambridge ma

Dave Meers

steam operating pressure

Hi Judson,

The operating pressure of your system should be adjusted back to the lower setting. Steam heating systems operate more efficiently at lower steam pressures. The adjustment is done with the operating pressure control. If you have two pressure controls, one acts as the operating control (the lower setting) and one acts as the safety or high limit (the higher setting). Adjustment depends on the make and type you have installed. Call the oil company back to make the adjustment for you.

I agree with the recommendation of the tekmar controls. The system has to operate correctly for the controls to work properly. You might want to check for a good heating or mechanical contractor in your area at the "Find a Proffesional" feature of this site. If you are in the Baltimore area, Steamhead is your man.

Best regards, Pat

ed wallace

steam in old church

another way to do it is with taco 501 controls wired to the zone valves then the end switches wired to the primary control on the boiler but the down side is boiler becomes a cold start boiler with no outdoor reset

Judson Broome

Controls at Church

Jay, Thank you for the info.

I downloaded the pdf and it helped. A little complex but I got the idea.

Further notes about our system. There are four zones. One for the main church w/ the pews, one for the nursery/Sunday school, one for the office, and one for a gymnasium that we rent out to a dance studio.

The church zone needs heat on Sunday...or during the week for special services...like funerals. The office is open only part time during the week and does not always operate on a set schedule. The function hall has several different users so that space needs heat only when its being used. The same basically goes for the dance studio, they need heat when they're there but the schedule isn't set in stone.

The way the system deals with the requirement that heat be on for only a fraction of the "occupied" hours is we have one hour timers that the occupants must manually twist to throw the heat on. We put the timers in beacuse people used to throw a switch and then forget to throw it off.

A main timer knows that the heat should only go on during the day (from 8am to 10pm) and then when one of the timers is set that particular zone then gets heat based on the thermostats. For the "unoccupied" hours each zone has a thermostat that triggers at something like 50 deg F just to keep pipes from freezing.

What I'd like to figure out now is, what are the basic controls components that I need to modernize the system we have now (so I can approximate the cost) ? Will installing new controls save on our fuel bill or will it just make it more reliable and easier to trouble shoot? Can we use existing thermostats or thermostat wires (to avoid running new wiring) ?