Energy Kinetics in a Part Time Home

JohnME · February 11

We are ready to replace our 30 year old Cast Iron boiler w/ Coil Tankless in our 2nd home in Maine. Our oil dealer is recommending an EK Ascent Combi for our 1600 sq ft home w/ 3 heat zones (upstairs, main floor, den).

As a recovering engineer, I’m impressed with the careful design and tech going into the System 2000, but the dependence on digital controls to make those work gives be pause about a couple of particulars in our situation:

I like the idea of not keeping the system just to maintain hot water when nobody’s here in warmer months. But I’m nervous about the statements that it “learns patterns” for when hot water is needed. We don’t really have any patterns to learn - the house sits empty several days, sometimes we’re here on weekends, sometimes alternate weekends, sometimes a couple of weeks at a time. Will we run into problems with hot water if the controller is confused? How does it work if we turn off the learning?
The digital control system seems really nice, but I wonder how well it will hold up in the hostile environment of my stone wall, dirt floor basement, with incredibly high humidity (and often standing water) for most of the year. It seems like most of the problems people have with these systems are related to the electronics - will this environment make it worse?
I will be controlling the zones with 3 ecobee thermostats, which each require C wires. I saw one comment that indicated that may be too much draw for the system to handle.
Not a doubt, but I wonder if there are any systems that allow remote access to the control panel. It would be great to be able to access that while not around.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

hot_rod · February 11

This possibility throws up some red flags! I think a humid or wet environment would be tough on all the components of any brand system? Any way to locate the equipment in a less hostile location?

Unless all components are NEMA listed for that "wet" application

The digital control system seems really nice, but I wonder how well it will hold up in the hostile environment of my stone wall, dirt floor basement, with incredibly high humidity (and often standing water) for most of the year. It seems like most of the problems people have with these systems are related to the electronics - will this environment make it worse?

Robertw · February 11

@JohnME

Thank for your interest in our Ascent combi boiler. I hope to address your concerns here.

The Hydro-level hydrostat has 4 different operating modes which can be set to learn or just standard on off type use. So no need to worry about that. As far as the basements go, Hydro=level has designed their controls for shall we say a "normal" damp basement. While your conditions aren't necessarily ideal, The control has seen very harsh environments out in the field. While some of the programming features are unique to our system, an off the shelf control can be used in pinch to keep the heat and hot water running.

The wiring for nest thermostats to the hydro-level control would be no different than most heating systems out there. As long as the transformer is sized correctly for your zone valves and thermostats it will have no effect on the operation of the hydrostat.

Other than Wi-Fi thermostat access and alarm terminals on the burner primary, I am not aware of any "interface" controls that will work with the hydrostat.

Feel free to message me directly with any questions.

Jamie Hall · February 11

I can't speak from personal experience — I've never taken the Energy Kinetics controls apart! — but their reputation is excellent. Based on that, I would expect that the control electronics would perform and survive at least as well in any given environment as any other set of controls and electronics on a newer boiler. That last phrase is italicized, as you are not going to be able to find any newer, high efficiency boiler which does not have a fairly complicated suite of electronic — "computerized" — controls on it.

You do have a harsh environment there — but the days of simple switching controls, often using sealed mercury switches, which would run reliably dripping wet are long gone. Yes, there was a time when so long as the burner and motor and controls were not actually under water the boiler would run, and when they were cast iron and would last until domesday,, but those days are long gone.

HVACNUT · February 11

How many bathrooms? How many people? What's the hot water demand while you're there? Any rain heads in the shower(s)? The Ascent is a nice boiler, but the EK-1 Frontier might suit your needs better. It offers a 40 gallon water heater that if you wire in a simple single pole toggle switch to the thermostat on the water heater, the boiler won't maintain any temperature while you're away. Turn it on when you arrive and wait a half hour. Its also more efficient than the Ascent combi. If space is an issue, EK offers a pedestal for the boiler with the water heater underneath.

Energy Kinetics in a Part Time Home

Comments

Categories