I am trying to do whatever I can to 'green' my house and heating system. I recently had a home energy audit and carried out the suggested work. I had a new oil boiler (WBV-03 with Riello F5 burner) installed 2 years ago. 2 zone hydronic baseboard heat. I currently have a single acting aquastat and a tankless coil for our domestic hot water. My wife and I have never had any 'lack of hot water' problems. The aquastat is currently set to 160. I haven't opened it up recently to see what the differential is set at, but - that's not too important now.

I am considering installing some sort of heat manager product to increase the efficiency and fuel economy of the boiler. I decided not to go the route of the ODR because of my tankless coil, and the high costs involved. I am currently between the Beckett Aquasmart, the Intellicon HW+, and the Hydrolevel Hydrostat 3250.

From my research, it seems to me that these three products are largely similar. I was wondering if anybody could steer me in a particular direction and help me to choose which of these three units to buy. From what I've read, the Beckett Aquasmart is 'less programmable,' so I've been leaning away from that. There is not much out there on the Hydrostat 3250 - partially because it is relatively new (I think). And, it seems that many people love their Intellicon HW+.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

 

I just installed a Hydrostat 3250 on my boiler. It was pretty simple to do. In order to get the fuel savings you will need an Electro-well make sure you get the right extension size. You can go to the HydroSTAT web site and download the instructions and see the different Electro's. I had an older model 3150 and it worked great so I have to believe I will get the same out of this one.

 

Just to set the record straight, the 'electro-well' has absolutely no effect on any alleged fuel savings that this control may or may not provide.

The electro-well ONLY is required if one wishes to take advantage of the built in Low Water Cut Off feature that this aquastat provides.

Low Water Cut Off (LWCO) has ZERO affect on fuel savings. It is a SAFETY feature that will shut the boiler down in the event the boiler runs low on water. That is ALL it does.

 

I am having the Hydrostat 3250 installed this weekend. I will keep you up to date as to fuel savings. I was *very* close to getting the Intellicon, but I heard about 'warranty nightmares' should the unit be defective.

 

I'm not going to comment again on my feelings about the technology of the Intellicon, that has been hashed and re-hashed here enough.

If I had my choice of all of them I would have made the same choice that you did!