Hi\lo settings for oil fired boiler

Anthony Ferrer

We had the burner on our Burnham America V-15 boiler replaced with a Riello 40. The system is running much smoother now and the heating contractor thinks we should cut our oil bills by about 50%. When he finished tuning the system he set the lo at 140 and the hi at 160. Our problems with hot water were not solved, however. It was suggested the we might need to have the coil acid washed, but some plumbers I spoke to yesterday said that it would only help if we had a reduction in hot water volume, which really isn't the case. One of them asked what our hilo settings are and, when I told him, said that was the problem. He suggested that I change the settings to 170190. I tried that and this morning got the first hot shower I've had in months. So on the one hand I got a hot shower; on the other, I'm wondering if raising the boiler temperature will adversely affect the oil savings we're hoping to get. I'm going to monitor how often the burner kicks on with the higher settings but I'm looking for some experienced guidance. Right now we're just trying to get hot showers until we're ready to put in the indirect hot water heater.

Thanks,

Anthony