Harman PB105 Owners

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The first few days i hardly used any pellets using for my hot water, but ever since im using probably a bag a day and every so often i am getting heat from my baseboards, when my thermostat is set for 60 and its already 70 in here. IS something wrong with it? Or is there some explanation?
 
Something could be wrong with the way it is piped to the oil boiler, meaning that a circulator running to circulate water between both boilers is opening flo-check(s) or maybe it's a bad zone valve if you have them which will allow heated water to circulate in the zone.Some photos showing the connection to the oil boiler would be helpful to determine what the cause may be.
 
The photo showing the circulator to circulate water between both boilers might be installed so the water in the pellet boiler is being pushed into the oil boiler which may cause the flo-check for your heating zone to open.Check to see which direction the flow is by looking at the arrow on the circulator body, the arrow should show the flow direction into the pellet boiler
 
What you described with turning up the thermostat and the pellet boiler not starting until it's water temperature dropped is exactly how it is supposed to work. The thermostat should only control the circulators. The pellet boiler will only monitor it's own water temperature and try to maintain that.

You definitely shouldn't have hot water circulating in your baseboards like that. I have no water circulating in my baseboards during the summer. The output from my pellet boiler is connected with a T to the input (on the bottom) of my oil boiler and the output of my oil boiler is connected with a T to the input of my pellet boiler. There is an expansion tank in the loop and a circulator pushing the water into the inlet of my pellet boiler and 2 shutoff valves near the oil boiler.

The water from my pellet boiler only circulates through my oil boiler and it's in the same direction of flow through the oil boiler as it would normally flow without the pellet boiler attached to the loop.
 
Plumber came today said a wire came lose and causing it to call for more heat and pellets than it needed.

How often does yours fire up to just heat hot water in summer?
 
I'm not sure. The cooldown cycle is so long that is seems like it's on whenever I go downstairs. But it uses about 2 bags a week. Sometimes a little more.
 
Been working fine since he fixed the wire. Will have keep track of bags burned better. We are a family of 5 so use a fair amount of water so we would probably burn more pellets
 
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Been working fine since he fixed the wire. Will have keep track of bags burned better. We are a family of 5 so use a fair amount of water so we would probably burn more pellets
Does your oil boiler get hot when the pellet boiler is on?
 
Ok question is this normal?

IT was 63 in here i turned thermostat to 67 heat came on and its now 68 in here so thermostat turned off, i go downstairs and look at the boiler and the temp on that is a little under 140 and theres a fire and pellets are feeding every 5 seconds.

If the heat was on shouldn't it have heated the water? Why is temp on boiler showing under 140 still which causes it to eat pellets and continue to run?
 
yeah i have it set at the minimum 140, and it seems to run alot. I also have the outdoor sensor installed, not really sure what it does if anything

Is it normal for the water temp to drop below 140 so often when nothing is using the water
 
I had a lot of trouble with the dial pressure and temperature gauge not reading the same as the probe in the boiler well. After the dealer messed with it for a long time, replacing ESPs and control boards and sensor wires, I gave up and just pulled my probe up off the bottom of the well slightly. I have a brother and a cousin both with PB105s and they didn't have that problem.
It also took me a few days before I noticed that the larger indicator on gauge was for pressure with the smaller indicator on the bottom of it for temperature.

I have my upper limit of 175 and lower limit between 140 and 145.

DHW is why I would buy a Kedel instead now if I had to do it all over again. It's capable of scaling its output down for just DHW use in the summer but it still has to keep the water hot all the time just like the Harman - just in case you want DHW like Sinnian mentioned. But, my Harman does the job.
Have you kept track of how much you're using for pellets since they fixed the wire?
 
I have been using it a little bit for heat in the mornings as well. Put 2 bags in an empty hopper Sunday morning and its close to empty now , i will have to add more tonight
 
With your lower limit set to 140 your boiler is going to cycle on just to maintain your setpoint. Also, the reason why the boiler was running after your call for heat was satisfied is the stored hot water in the boiler circulated through your house to satisfy your call for heat. That call for heat dropped the water temp in the boiler below the set point so the boiler is heating itself back up to be ready for your next call for heat. I found that cycling on and off does consume pellets so if you are heating your domestic hot water and maintaining boiler temp almost a bag every 24 hours may not be unrealistic consumption. When it gets cold out and your boiler is running frequently it will be more efficient and your domestic hot water will be heated constantly, not just on demand. The Harman isn't the most efficient boiler, but I'm pretty pleased with the performance and reliability. Like others, my far right cleaning rod does stick but if I cycle it a few times when the boiler is in standby mode it pulls easily. Sticks more when it is hot and expanded.

During the coldest part of the winter last year I burned about 3 bags of pellets every 24 hours. My boiler is in a remote building, with heated water pumped through about 100 feet of thermopex to my house. The house is about 3000 sq ft, very inefficient to heat due to cathedral ceilings and open floor plan. We keep the temp set at approximately 71 and leave the door to our sunroom open so our dogs can access their dog door. I figure I saved about $2800 last year by burning pellets instead of oil for the boiler and propane for the fireplace. Wife was much happier because the pellet boiler is set up to flow water slowly through the baseboards, providing a more constant steady heat that fills the rooms much better than the quick cycles we had with the oil boiler.
 
With your lower limit set to 140 your boiler is going to cycle on just to maintain your setpoint. Also, the reason why the boiler was running after your call for heat was satisfied is the stored hot water in the boiler circulated through your house to satisfy your call for heat. That call for heat dropped the water temp in the boiler below the set point so the boiler is heating itself back up to be ready for your next call for heat. I found that cycling on and off does consume pellets so if you are heating your domestic hot water and maintaining boiler temp almost a bag every 24 hours may not be unrealistic consumption. When it gets cold out and your boiler is running frequently it will be more efficient and your domestic hot water will be heated constantly, not just on demand. The Harman isn't the most efficient boiler, but I'm pretty pleased with the performance and reliability. Like others, my far right cleaning rod does stick but if I cycle it a few times when the boiler is in standby mode it pulls easily. Sticks more when it is hot and expanded.

During the coldest part of the winter last year I burned about 3 bags of pellets every 24 hours. My boiler is in a remote building, with heated water pumped through about 100 feet of thermopex to my house. The house is about 3000 sq ft, very inefficient to heat due to cathedral ceilings and open floor plan. We keep the temp set at approximately 71 and leave the door to our sunroom open so our dogs can access their dog door. I figure I saved about $2800 last year by burning pellets instead of oil for the boiler and propane for the fireplace. Wife was much happier because the pellet boiler is set up to flow water slowly through the baseboards, providing a more constant steady heat that fills the rooms much better than the quick cycles we had with the oil boiler.


140 is the lowest it goes
 
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