The boiler was installed in my father's home a few years ago. Until this year he spent most winters in Florida, and so heat issues in his house were not a problem. With this cold weather he is complaining that the boiler is constantly running in the morning before thermostats are satisfied.

House is a split level. Zone 1 is 4 bedrooms and a bath. Zone 2 is Living room and kitchen. Zone 3 is the den and bath, this in on the ground level.

He has a Burnham natural gas boiler (model ES24) with three separate zones and three separate circulators. The thermostats run to a Taco SR503 (have to check actual model number) controller. Domestic hot water is supplied by a separate gas fired hot water heater. All settings on the IQ boiler control (102289-01) are factory. The IQ option panel (102291-01) has no additional modules installed.

Here are my questions:
1. If there is no call for heat, does the boiler temp just drop, meaning there is no low limit that maintains boiler temp. (I think the answer is yes, because we never shut the boiler off during the summer, just shut the thermostat off and I recall the boiler temp was all the way down.)
2. If starting from cold (like in the morning) and there is a call for heat, at what temp does the circulators turn on at?

I have read through the literature that came with the boiler but I don’t see anywhere this is explained.

I tried calling Burnham but they would not talk to me. I found this forum doing a Google search and from some of the replies there seems to be some very knowledge people here. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tony

 

Hello and welcome....

#1 yes.... Its a cold start boiler so the boiler will cool down and not fire... It will only fire when there is a call for heat...

#2 The circs will turn on when the t stat calls for heat.. The circs will continue to run until the t stat is satisfied...

Additionally during the call for heat with the circ running the boiler may fire a few times on and off during this call..until the t stat is satisfied...

 

Thanks for the welcome!

For #2, does that mean the circulator could be pumping cool or warm water until the boiler comes up to temperature? I am use to oil fired system with storage tank, so boiler is always maintained at a low set temp.

I read in the lit that this boiler will allow 110 deg F water vs 160 deg F water and not damage the boiler, but it seems to me that the boiler could get below that temp especially at night before the call for heat in the morning. Do I need to be concerned about this?

 

Yes for question #2...

The 110F is for return temps back to the boiler from the heating system loop... The worry is for sustained cold returns coming back to the boiler causes condensation...

Your fathers bother although cold starts I am sure the temps rises quickly, right?

Or are you saying on a call for heat the boiler gauge will sit there at say 100 f for hours????

 

What type of heat emitters in the home? Cast iron rads or baseboard? Copper finned baseboard?

 

Is your father dropping the temp at night and recovering in the morning? We are experiencing record cold, near design temp of the heating systems. His heating system should be experiencing longer run times. Being he's able to satisfy t-stats in the morning, his system is doing pretty good!

 

To answer #2 the circ starts the minute you call for heat so yes, the boiler is trying to heat circulating water and the water is flowing through the zones at what temp it is at the start until it heats up.
There shouldn't be a concern about the boilers low temp. It was designed for this.

Without domestic hot water the oil boilers are set up this way also. It's called "cold start".

 

Temp does not sit at a low temp for hours, it rises pretty fast.

They are baseboard copper finned.

 

Well then if it takes a long time for the temp to satisfy the t stat I would say...

1. You dont have enough baseboard in the room to overcome the heat loss. ( Its been cold)
2. The baseboards fins are dirty/dusty and need cleaning or are bent up that the heat production from them are reduced by a large percentage.
3. The boiler cannot make 180F to sufficiently produce maximum heat from the baseboards...

 

Thanks everyone, you have given me some things to check.

This is a great forum.

 

Tell us what kind of heat emitters he has.

When the boiler is constantly running, is the water at 180 degrees?

Is your father trying to return from a night time set back in temperature?

 

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I know that Dad is going to protest ... it took me a long time and a lot of testing to get over the 'turn the thermostat way back at night' syndrome... but fact is the reality is that it's probably costing MORE to reheat the home then it would to not setback as far.

Try to convince him that any more than a 2-3 degree setback will cost more to reheat the home than he saved overnight... if that's possible.

ESPECIALLY in this cold weather!

Tis far safer to keep the home warmer than to risk having 'cold spots' that can freeze pipes...

 

Yes, living room/kitchen area is set to 62 at night and 70 in the morning.

This might be the best option, especially since it has been so cold. I will give that a try.

Thanks for the help.

 

Yesterday I went over to Dad's and adjusted the Living Room/Kitchen Zone from a setback of 62 to a setback of 66 with a morning set point of 70. Stopped over today and Mom was very happy, Kitchen was 70 when she came down. Then again this morning at 6AM temp in CT was about 20, and not the 5 it was the other day.

So I will continue to monitor Mom's happiness and adjust the setback as necessary.

Thanks to lawrosa, tomf63, spott, drooplug and NJ Trooper for all your help.

 

Good deal... Moms deserve to be happy... she worked hard and put up with all yer crap all those years! ha ha ha... just kidding... ummm, no I'm not...

Keep us posted...