Just curious on opinions of the Becket Heat Manager. I can get one for $150 brand new. Is it worth the expense?

Thanks

 

I have the Beckett HM on my system. This will be my first full winter with it. From what I see I'm using less oil BUT it has been warmer so far this year then last year in NJ. I notice the circulator running longer before the boiler fires up wich is good.

 

I would be inclined to go with an actual outdoor reset control (I did, and I really really like it). As I understand it, the Heat Manager is basically a souped up differential-type control. An outdoor reset control would adjust the water temperature using the outdoor temperature as a reference point, monitor/adjust the differential, etc. Costs more than the HM up front, but saves more and over the long haul I think it's worth it.

 

I think either one on a boiler with a domestic hot water coil is not worth the expense. Because of the simplicity of the Heat Manager I prefer them on boilers with indirect water heaters or heat only. I wish the commercial one was not so expensive because there is savings to be had in that market but not with the residential one on a larger boiler according to Beckett.

Ken

 

Go to Becketthm.com

 

Thanks for the advise guys.

I figured opinions will vary but one of my friends also recommended it if you have an Indirect Water Heater ( Just installed a 42 Gallon Superstore) so I decided to give it a try. $150.00 in the scheme of things is not to much to experiment with.

Happy Holidays!

 

I would recommend taking a look at the Intellicon HW+ over the Beckett Heat Manager. They are both mfg by Intellicon which designed the heat manager for Beckett as a lower cost, stripped down, less sophisticated sibling to the Intellicon HW, it is worth the extra $75 to get the Intellicon with the more up to date micro-processor, in addition to an Led display that gives insight of the savings achieved for each cycle among other tuning parameter benifits that Heat Manager does not have. I have installed quite of few over the course of the past year and it absolutly holds true to its guarantee of savings of 10-20% or you get you money back.

 

We have a Weil-McLain Boiler Model P-468-WT (which is about 17-20 yrs. old), a Beckett Burner Model#AFG (which is about 17-20 yrs. old) and a Therma-Flow Hot Water Coil Model #WE625 with a rating of 5 GPM (which is 5 years old). We live in N.H. and burn 900 gals. of oil per year for heat and hot water. Through an energy cooperative that I am a member of, I can buy an Intellicon HW+ for $185 which I may be able to install myself, or pay $140 for installation. Should I buy the Intellicon HW+ ?

Sandy

 

Hi



It seems easy to install if you are OK with following an electrical print. After that you just install sensors. No plumbing involved. Both the beckett and the Intellicon HW+ are wired and installed the same as far as I can tell. The one thing I just found out is the Intellicon HW+ can be programmed for things like high limit and low limit settings. Which is good if your boiler does not match the default settings.

I was told they both work good with older over sized boilers with more than one zone. They are guaranteed to save at least 10%. I think payback would be quick. $185.00 is a good price.



I just bought the Beckett HM and I am thinking about returning it for the Intellicon HW+ because my high limit is set at 165 degrees and beckett recomends it be set at 180. My boiler has been set that way for years and I do not want to just bump it up to 180. I rather shoot for 170 and program that setting into the Intellicon. Any opinions here would be appreciated.



If you want to look at install directions here is beckett's instructions. If you can do that you can do the Intellicon HW+.



http://www.becketthm.com/pdf/7512%20...structions.pdf



Good Luck

 

I'm no expert at wiring, but would like to take a shot at this before I repeatedly call an electrician or my oil supply people to come out to install this.

I have a Honeywell L8124A with a W-M boiler and an Amtrol dhw tank. My oil supplier advertised the Beckett HM, which they would install for about $450. They had never heard of the Intellicon and I get a feeling they got such a good deal on the Beckett that they won't even install the IC.

I looked around and purchased the Intellicon HW from Patriot supply instead for $230 or so and thought I'd try installing it myself. I called Intellicon and the sales person I talked with said they're identical except that the Intellicon has the nifty display. Other posters seem to think it has more advanced algorithms ... maybe it does. I dunno. It seemed to make more sense to me to buy the manufacturer's own brand.

I downloaded the wiring diagram for the Beckett HM and compared it to the Intellicon's. It's more descriptive than the Intellicon, but it's basically the same, with even a couple identical figures.

So I need some help with the wiring. I can read basic diagrams, but some things don't seem to match up. I get that I'm to tape off the Intellicon's violet, gray, and blue wires, and that white -> common ground, yellow -> B1, red -> wire that was going to B1 (connects w/ burner), but I have nothing going to B2. The Beckett diagram seems to indicate that the brown should go to B2 and the Intellicon diagram says brown goes to common. I also have nothing going to C2, so is it possible that my aquastat got wired so that B2 and C2 went to common directly?

I took a picture of my wiring:


Here is a side-by-side of the Beckett and Honeywell aquastat diagrams:


Can anyone help?

Thanks --

 

For some unknown reason, the neutral wires are not connected where they should be on your control. They are all wire nutted together. Not that there is a problem with that, but it is unusual. The brown and white can also go under the wire nut for the neutrals. The black should go on L1. The yellow should go on B1 after taking the existing wire off. And the red should get tied to the wire you took off of B1. Tape the others off.

Ken

 

I just wanted to correct my post about the Intellicon HW+ Some info was wrong. I found the directions online.

There are some adjustments you can program in but it is not the high limit it is just low limit for tankless domestic hot water. Also for the Beckett heat manager the online website says in some areas your HL should be Min of 170 Deg but paper work that comes with the unit says Min of 180 Deg.

If anyone is intrested in reading directions for the Intellicon HW+ I found a link for it.

http://share.ovi.com/original.aspx?c...ize=extralarge

 

Does anyone know if this can be used on a gas water heater or if they make one for it? My landlord is asking me, and the first heat manager I put in was for my apartment building.

 

Because the thermostat is usually built into the gas valve on a water heater, there is no way to get between the two. In addition, the heat manager bypasses the saving routine whenever domestic hot water is needed. It is only for heat, where a few degrees in temp drop can go unnoticed. Not like in the shower.

Ken

 

I have quite a bit of exposure with both the Intellicon HW+ and the Beckett Heat Manager and I am of the opinion there is enough differences between the two that I would certainly suggest the Intellicon HW+ as the better choice. In a nutshell the Intellicon has the LCD Panel which the Heat Manager does not which leaves one guessing of what is really going on, The Heat Mangers Micro processor is not as current as the Intellicon as it is made for Beckett in a more mass produced generic manner additionally the instantaneous and average savings are displayed on the LCD so that you can actually see the data with regards to the claims that it will save you at least 10% of fuel costs ( I have experience with over a hundred installs and have seen savings anywhere from 10.5% for cold start boilers to over 22% for older oversized maintained type boilers) additionally the Intellicon allows you to adjust the prepurge which becomes really handy for riello's, the Intellicon also allows adjustment of the low limit for domestic water to ensure that comfort level for the individual is always satisfied, additionally the low limit for the boiler itself can be adjusted so that the Intellicon can pass back to the boilers operating control if the boiler goes below a temp level that savings can not be achieved. The intellicon also has the ability to display total run time and economizer time, both of which allows you to actually see the metrics associated with the advertised savings, I used this in conjustion to an in line timer and bounced the unit every other day to prove out the reduced boiler run time, sure enough it did. So overall I would strongly recommend using the Intellicon HW over the Heat Manger just based upon functionality alone, let alone the advantage that they both have a money back guarantee but the Intellicon also has a 15 year warranty, which is worth it's weight in gold, lastly there are several vendors on-line i purchase from and the cheapest prices found on e-bay, since i buy in quantity i worked some nice pricing with the Green Heating Systems guy who seems to know the Intellicon inside and out, I also tried Patriot Supplies however they seem to lack any technical expertise at all.

 

I recently purchased the HW+ and had it installed while I had my annual service done. It is not working correctly and I had to disable it. My boiler uses a Honeywell L8148A aquastat.

My problem symptom is that the HW+ never comes out of standby except when I disable/enable it at which point the boiler will fire using the aquastat settings. Then the HW+ will show heating mode until the call is satisfied at which point the burner stops and the HW+ shows standby again. I have never seen econ mode and ET is 0.0.

I've been looking at how it was wired in and comparing that to the instructions for the Beckett Heat Mgr and the HW+.

The checkout procedure says that if it does not come out of standby the likely cause is reversed yellow and red wires or improper common.

Here is how I see the wiring as wired now:

Grey, blue and violet are taped off and not used.
Red to B1.
Yellow back to the main burner off/on switch box.
Black goes to L1.
White and brown to white common which is also tied to L2.

The Beckett diagram for L8148A shows:
Grey, blue and violet are taped off and not used.
Red goes to Line.
Yellow to B1.
Brown to B2.
White to L2.
Black goes to L1.

According to the Beckett diagram the red and yellow are reversed but if I read it correctly the HW+ diagram shows it as wired.

What should it be?

 

I've not looked at the install for the HW+, don't know if it's different than the Beckett ... but,

The BROWN and WHITE can go together to the NEUTRAL (L2, WHITE), because inside the aquastat, B2 C2 and L2 are all connected together, same point.

From what I can see, you are correct that the RED and YELLOW are indeed reversed IF the HW+ is wired same as the Beckett.

One thing though, you said that Beckett said:

"Red goes to line."

and that's not correct, at least according to the installation manual that I have...

RED goes "To LINE VOLTAGE OIL BURNER RELAY OR GAS VALVE", in other words, that's the switched hot wire going to the burner primary control. If you have a newer burner primary (7184) then that's going to be the one that they call "LIMIT" on the control.

Would you happen to have a link to the HW+ install sheet handy ?

 

NJ Trooper,

Thanks for the reply. I do not have a link to the HW+ instructions but when I typed "line" I forgot to finish it. I went ahead and switched the yellow and red it functions now. However there may still be some problem.

The boiler runs and shuts off at the aquastat hi temp setting of 185 and the HW+ changes from heating to standby. Then around 175 the unsatisfied call for heat causes the HW+ to go into econ mode. It stays there until about 160 and then goes to heating mode and the boiler fires. The hlolim is set to 145 so why does the mode change at the 160-165 temp? Should it be in econ mode all the way down to 145? The max econ time is set to 30 mins but it was in econ mode for more than 7 minutes or so.

All the temp readings are from the HW+ heat sensor which closely reflect the analog gauge on the boiler. I have a Amtrol tank for dhw so I don't use the second dhw sensor.

As far as I can tell all the wire colors and functions are the same between both heat managers but the Beckett has several diagrams including one for the Honeywell L8148A on my system. The HW+ instructions don't offer many samples, just a generic diagram.

ON edit: I did find a set of scanned HW+ instructions online. Not the greatest but better than nothing.

http://share.ovi.com/media/schlussle...hlussler.10053
and
http://share.ovi.com/media/schlussle...hlussler.10056

 

Intellicom site ( Intellidynellc.com ) sucks
I did find this, maybe it will help
http://intellidynellc.com/art_PR/intelliCon-HWp.jpg

 

I'm confused about sumpin...

Regarding the domestic sensor:
The Beckett install sheet says:

"This sensor is not required if the domestic hot water is supplied by an indirect hot-water heater."

The Intellicon sheet doesn't say this exactly, but does say:

"For boilers which also supply domestic hot water through an internal coil...etc"

Which to me implies what the Beckett sheet says.

So, if you are running an indirect, why doesn't the HM or HW+ need to know this ? Won't it try to 'economize' the indirect heat and _compromise_ the recovery time of the water heater by doing so ?

Still thinking about the 'action' that you posted previously. I'm thinking that the unit needs to store 72 hours of activity before it begins acting 'normally'.

I haven't installed mine yet, so not sure how it should be acting...

 

I am going to take a stab and say that an indirect Water heater is designed just like any other heating zone, with the only difference being, it may be on priority, which will shut down the heat zones during the hot water call.

An immersion coil, (tankless) needs the boiler water at the boiler and is a quick recovery if you know what I mean so it requires another sensor to tell the control if the boiler water has gotten too low.

Does this make sense?

 

Heres my wiring for teh HW+ if its any help.

Yellow goes to the Aquastats Burner1 terminal. Red hooks back up to feed the Burner power from HW+. Brn/Wht splice into common. Black splices into '+' switched main power for your boiler/aquastat.



My question is this. The documentation is not clear in whether to take into account your differential when setting HLOLIM and DLOLIM for triple Aquastats. Single Aquastat (default) settings are discussed and differential settings are taken into account in the discussion, but not mentioned for dual or triple Aquastats.

For example: my Triple Astat is set for Lo 140 and High 200 with a 15 F diff.

In practice, the Aquastat will fire for domestic at a drop to 114 F. (HW+ Dom. Display Temp) calculated back up this means my 140 is actually 129 F with a -15 diff drop for the 114 firing. This makes sense as the boiler will fire up to 144 F (HW+ Dom. Display Temp) and shut off, (this being for Domestic water calls) Sound right? Anyway, the HW+ setup guide does not specify exactly what "B Stat" setting is and fails to mention differential. Differential is covered for Single Aquastats, but we're left wondering for dual and triples.

Ive set my DLOLIM on the HW+ to 109 F ( 129-20F) and HLOLIM to 124 (129 - 5F) as the guide specs 20F and 5F below "B Stat".... but what about differntial, and what exactly is "B Stat"... maybe im assuming correct, but maybe not?

Anyone? Bueller?

 

Uploaded my HW+ Installation Sheets in (1) PDF file (4 pages).
NOTE: this is Rev K which is the latest revision ive seen. The only other one on the net is Rev.J.

If anyone has a newer set please scan them!

File is about 1.6 meg.
Intellicon HW Installation Sheet Rev-K.pdf

Also NOTE the rather ambiguous example given for dual / triple aquastats. Where does Differential come into play. and this Rev. K directly contradicts Rev J as far as where to set HLOLIM and DLOLIM in relation to "B" Stat! And how are they defining "B Stat" in their case. Ive only gone on a few general assumptions which might be correct but might also be very incorrect....

On a different note, my HW+ is sn 32500003409 Anyone know what or if any firmware or program differences there might have been implemented in the supposedly "better" 32500005000 and newer units?

 

Sorry to bump this up after all this time, but I just got an Intellicon, and installed it. Checked and rechecked the wiring as I have a L8124A aquastat. Burner kicked on Intellicon started up after being switched on and the unit started smoking. Shut off power rechecked wiring, put unit into bypass boiler worked fine. Turned unit on again same thing, unit started smoking then completly shut off. Had to remove unit. What now? Got it off Ebay. Im thinking unit is defective as I followed wiring here in this thread, and rechecked from the diagram. Any imput? Thanks

 

That doesn't sound good. Call the manufacturer next week and talk to them. They seem pretty good to talk to. Yours sounds like it is not going to work. All the smoke is out of it. You have to keep the smoke inside for it to keep on working. They will probably replace it for you.

Ken

 

Trooper sorry so late. If the HW source is an indirect you treat it like a zone and the control can stay off longer as it is still heating the tank. We are utilizing the volume of the indirect.
With a tankless coil in the boiler we see the hot water temperature changing more rapidly as the boiler water temp cools due to a transfer as opposed to hot water volume. The sensor goes on the tankless coil hot line. When there is hot water usage the extended off time is bypassed the aquastat differential takes over.

 

Thanks Ken. I found this thread while I was in the market to purchase the intellicon. I found some diagrams here: http://www.becketthm.com/pdf/7512%20...structions.pdf

And followed them, the intelleicon as I imagine is the same as the Heatmanager. Plus I followed your recommendations to Andy_MA in this thread as he seems to have the same aquastat. Only thing I seem to have different from him and from the pics in this thread he posted is that I have to wires comming off the top 2 screws to run to my thermostat which is the 2 T screws in the upper right corner of the L8124a aquastat. I followed your advice and the diagram to a t. What do you think happened? Is the intellicon wired different then the heatmanager? I sent the unit back to the seller he is sending another one out. Did I wire it wrong? Any imput is appreciated. I know basic wiring, was an apprentice electrician in my youth. So I can follow simple diagrams. Thanks again for any help.

 

Wanted to post these up here since I looked high and low to find these links: http://www.becketthm.com/pdf/7512%20...structions.pdf

http://www.becketthm.com/pdf/Install...structions.pdf


First link show the L8124A which is a very common Aquastat. Hope this helps any do it yourselfers out.

 

I installed a few Beckett managers this fall because they were being sold at cost by a wholesaler who decided to push Honeywell control systems.

I was installing a Burnham MPO so I called Burnham factory tech and asked what they thought. The tech rep said he used one at home and saved about 15%. He recommended the Beckett.

I agree that the Intellicon is nice but it would have cost me 2.5 times so I gave the Becketts a try.

I don't have savings numbers yet of course but I can see it allowing the system to circulate heat to the house while below aquastat settings without the burner running. It uses latent boiler heat a lot without firing so it is obviously saving fuel. How much we can't know since these are new boilers. I plan to install 2 soon on old boilers so data will be interesting.

As rbeck said, the domestic hot water sensor stops the mgr from saving while making dhw.

There was a long debate some months ago on the relative benefits of indoor vs outdoor reset controls. I have not searched for it but there are adamant advocates for both types.

I recently installed a Buderus with the expensive outdoor reset computer and also a Viessmann with an even more expensive computer. These are outrageously expensive, but the logic was to trust the boiler manufacturer's design for their boiler. By comparison it makes these cheap ones seem a sure bet.

 

Had it on since the 26th. I have the l8124A aquastat with dom hot water. Here are my settings:
140 Hilo lim
110 lolim
19 second prepurge
L8124A is set at 175 hi 150 lo with 20 diff

It really solved my short cycling problem. The unit is a Weil Mclain oil fired boiler, I have cast iron radiators. It seems to be nozzled at .85 gph. My savings are as of right now from the intellicon 11.9%. Its been steadily rising slowly every day since I installed it. My thermostat records total and previous day run times. Although its not a concreate way to tell I have been seeing drops in run times day to day in small increments. And although not a reliable meter on the short cycling problemn my girlfriend even commented the other day" boy that boiler runs a lot less since u installed that thing" if a women can notice a thing like that, well u know,lol. All in all I'm very happy. Definite improvement in reducing run time on the boiler. Plus before when u used the dom hot water the unit would always kick on after about 4 min of a shower. Now I've taken same length showers and the unit let's the boiler take the residual heat out of the boiler until lowest set dom value is reached. I've taken showers and the boiler never kick on at all. All in all very satisfied, would recommend it to anyone. My boiler is only 6 years old. Take care everyone

 

hi, I had a beckett hm with tankless coil for my domestic hw. recently i installed a super store indirect fire hot water tank. My question is about the existing beckett heat manager. Since it was designed for a tankless coil system will it still work on my new indirect fire system? The red light blinked when I unplugged the sensor from the unit, plugged it back in and the blinking stopped. Should I leave it plugged or unplugged ? Do I need a new heat manager that is not designed for a tankless coil ? Is the existing hm still effective ?

 

You still need the supply water sensor but won't need the domestic sensor. You shouldn't have to do anything else different.

Ken

 

I have a beckett Heat manager installed on my home heating boiler (The Heat manager is Less than 6 Months old) & am considering an upgrade to the Intellicon -HW+,
My question is do they use the same sensors?

 

Except for the display, I don't think there is any difference in the way they work. Unless you can get some of your money out of the Beckett unit, there isn't any reason to spend the money on the new unit. If there is anything that would be considerdd an upgrade it would be using the Beckett Aquasmart control instead of just the heat manager. Just my opinion.

Oh and to answer your questions. The sensors are the same because the units are the ame inside. Intellisys made them for Beckett before competing with them.

Ken

 

Hi Folks,
Plan on installing the Intellicon-HW on my Burnham RSA 110 with A 5 gpm tankless coil. One question (I think it's been asked before) is what is the "B" stat and how do I set this on a L7224 triple acting control. Thanks.

 

Can an Intellicon-HW+ be installed on a gas boiler? The literature states yes, but installation isn't clear.

I'm looking at it thinking the black and white wires clearly connect to 120VAC, and the yellow and red wires look like just a switch that completes a circuit to run the boiler.

If that's so, and I don't know if it is, the yellow and black wires could be connected across one of the TT wires going from the control (SR504) to the boiler. That way, the circulator would be on as long as there's a call for heat, and the HW+ would be controlling only the boiler.

My boiler short cycles because I'm only heating a small part of a large home, and I'm thinking this device might help resolve that and in addition provide some fuel savings.

Added:
I see schematics showing that the device is connected between the gas valve at the site linked below, but I'd rather not mess with the wiring within the boiler if using the TT wire will have the same effect. My assumption is that the gas valve is being tapped to allow the circulator to run, and I don't see any diagram within the many shown which include anything like the SR504.

http://www.arthomson.com/Literature/...n%20Manual.pdf