Hello to all. New here and found a lot of good stuff. I have a monster system installed. Bought with the house and like it so far, only problem is I know nothing about it. NOTHING I do know some basic stuff. It looks like you open two valves and close one, turn the Honeywell stat on the oil boiler down. Has a hi and low side. Then I have the Stat on the wood boiler to 140 which heats the house all night. Since It's hot water I keep it a 75 which is nice for the 1600sf were heating. I go thourgh 4 big split logs a night. I like the system, but I dont like the way it's tied in to the oil burner 100%. I feel this has alot more to offer if I could find the right person to set it up. The big problem is I can't get hot water for a shower or other things? I have to kick up the stat on the oil buner to get hot water. Makes no sense to me at all that I have 150 degree water and can't get a hot shower with the oil burner kicking in. Any help will do. Also willin to pay if I could find someone to stop in. And can someone tell me what that thing is in the Sec pic?
Need the Experts in here!! No Hot Water.
- Thread starter gtu160
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jer427
ArboristSite Lurker
try and take some better pictures of the plumbing in the back so we can try to figure it out. there are different ways of hooking them so so that they work.
Ken05
ArboristSite Member
First off, maybe member "Y" lives in location "X". It really looks like a hands on fix to me.
jer427
ArboristSite Lurker
this is most likely the case, but it wouldn't hurt to see pictures of it.
gtu, your hot water comes off a coil in the oil boiler, you need to circulate the hot water from the wood unit through the oil one. Can't really see the pipe setup well in your pic. Mines done with 1 1/4" pipe, with a circulator pump on it. When the water in the wood boiler hits 140, an aquastat turns the circulator on & the hot water flows between the two. When the wood goes out [never now], the aquastat shuts off that circulator so the oil unit isn't trying to heat all the water in the wood unit. Try to trace those pipes out, see what goes where, or do some closer pics.
mga
wandering
there is a tag on the bottom of that. if you could either take a picture or write down what the tag says and any numbers that would be helpful.
also, as Mike Van pointed out, your hot water is not tied directly to your heat system. in other words, you are NOT using the same water. if, by any chance you are, this isn't healthy and should be changed. however, from the looks of the system, the person who installed it seems to have knowledge of what they were doing.
my "boiler", when running, heats the water to almost 195 degrees. if you set the temp too low, the system works harder to heat. if you set the temp too high, it's wasting energy.
remember, cold water is running thru the coils to be heated by surrounding hot water. if this water isn't how enough to heat the cold water, it will only feel warm to touch.
balancing that system is the key. but remember, as with anything, you have to give up something somewhere to gain elsewhere. right now, with what you posted, my feelings are that you have the temps on the heaters set too low. but, you have to give more info.
ericjeeper
Addicted to ArboristSite
we need better more detailed photos please
In order to see how they are tied together..
In order to see how they are tied together..
mga
wandering
from the picture, it looks like they piped the water in, then out, and tied it into the system. fairly simple.
i don't see a circulator on the wood burner, unless it's in back, so it must use the oil boiler's circulator pump. (i question what happens to the water in the wood burner when the system is not heating.) that hot water needs to circulate so that it won't sit there and boil in the pipes.
maybe that thing in the second picture senses the water temp in the wood burner and then kicks on the circulator pump. can you trace the wiring and see where they run?
i also don't see an expansion tank....is there one on the system?
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hanniedog
Addicted to ArboristSite
The system that I have has a pump on the wood burner that runs all the time. When the house calls for heat there are valves that open to allow water to circulate thru the wood boiler, another valve closes off the by pass. The pump on the propane unit runs as normal when ever heat is called for.
mga
wandering
that's the correct way to hook it up.
i saved the picture and enlarged it. i'm not sure, but it looks like his pipes to the wood burner don't allow a direct flow into it, but rather allows some of the the water to by pass it. it's hard to tell from the picture, but there appear to be an excess number of pipes too.
the return line is the large pipe to the left of the boiler. it looks to be about 1 1/4" and the pipes to the boiler look to be about 3/4". i'm not sure if he can run his water directly because of the pipe size difference...maybe that's why they plumbed it like they did? (i'm thinking out loud here)
the main feed looks to be on top of the oil burner to the right. maybe the circulator is located under that cover, bit if it is, it's in a bad place. the circulator pump should be on the return line (the large pipe to the left) just before it enters the boiler.
then again, maybe it's all gravity feed??? i hope not...waste of energy if that be the case.
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RaisedByWolves
Addicted to ArboristSite
I think the thing in the 2nd pic is a vacuum switch.
Does your heater draft through the wall or up a chimney?
.
Does your heater draft through the wall or up a chimney?
.
RaisedByWolves
Addicted to ArboristSite
Just looked again:
You have a power vent on your oil burner due to them robbing your heaters chimney for the wood burner. the item in the second pic is definitely a vacuum switch. This wont let the heater run before it senses the fans vacuum.
Im not sure how I feel about the chimneys or the plumbing, that big copper X just dosent look right....
.
You have a power vent on your oil burner due to them robbing your heaters chimney for the wood burner. the item in the second pic is definitely a vacuum switch. This wont let the heater run before it senses the fans vacuum.
Im not sure how I feel about the chimneys or the plumbing, that big copper X just dosent look right....
.
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mga
wandering
good call!!
i never saw the power vent in the pic, but it makes sense.
also, i stand corrected....the feed line is located in the back center. the front lines may be for the potable hot water since he said the unit heats his hot water.
man, trying to decipher all those pipes.....lol
maybe that wood boiler was hooked up to supplement the oil heat and not intended as a primary heat source?
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Thanks guys. I't's a mess. I will get more pic up Sun for yous, cause I really feel there more then what I'm getting. I feel that when needed or not at all I should run off of the wood boiler 100% if I want and there's no reason I have to be tied to the oil burner. I think I should take advise and call in someone to rework this. I can keep the stove at 140 for 8 to 13 hours, so why be tied into the oil boiler and have it kick on for a few min and shut off. I'm wasting wood 50% to 75% of the burn by not useing it. I would love to kick the stat up to 80, but what happens is if the call for heat takes to long then the oil burner kicks in which I don't care for. I can wait for the heat to get up in the house. also how much oil am I wasting away at 3.00 a gallon. Worst case if fire goes out I walk down stairs and turn a few valves on to kick the oil burner on.
I had a small mess down there one day. Water under the stove. There's a relief pipe if the pressure gets to high it will vent it self. Great system just flawed, but I think with your guys help I'll be good by next winter.
part 1
There is NO domestic hot water coil [that we know of] in the wood boiler, if you want hot water in your sink, shower, whatever, you have to be tied to the oil one. part 2 - If you can't get home for whatever reason to put wood in, or turn those valves, or kick the oil on, your house freezes up, pipes crack, etc. not a good picture -
ericjeeper
Addicted to ArboristSite
you need an expansion tank
Where is X? Maybe one of us is close enough to offer up some help.
Where is X? Maybe one of us is close enough to offer up some help.
GSP
ArboristSite Operative
Yeah the first part is good, and I wonder how I can fix it? The sec part is good to, but I need to add were only burning at night since were not home during the day much and I'm trying to make sure I have wood to make it through winter. I live in the Lehigh Vally area PA 18042.
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