add on new yorker wood boiler questions

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bjwme

New Member
Aug 19, 2008
20
northern maine
hey guys i am new to heating with wood and i recently had a new yorker wood boiler added on to my oil fired boiler. after my plumber installed the wood boiler i had some problems. first off the valves were open to the wood boiler (i know they dont need to be opened unless i am using the wood boiler but they were left on) and the first morning i woke up after it was installed it was 85 degrees in my bedroom. the registers were hot. so i went down cellar and was looking things over this is what i found. the circulator on the wood boiler was running constantly even thought there was no call for heat.there were no other circulators running but my bedroom registers were hot. it was pushing the water through the boilers and heating the returns lines. my bedroom is the shortest run so i guess that is why it would heat my room. i turned the valves off and unwired the circulator on the wood boiler and everything returned to normal. i have for zones and they are all run by circulators. one zone is the radiant heat in the cellar and that is were my wood boiler is supposed to dump the extra heat. any ideas what could be wrong. my plumber had to leave town and wont be back for a week or two. not a big deal but was just wondering if there was anything i could check

thanks guys

bryan
 
How has the boiler been since installation? Have you worked out the quirks?
Just wondering. I am install one as we speak.
 
No two are hooked up exactly the same. Mine will be finished this coming Monday. All piped and dressed, needs to be wired. The contractor did a full heating system for me in August, and left a valved "T" at the supply and return side of the boiler. To the return, he connected the return from the wood boiler. To the supply side he connected to the supply side of the wood boiler. The circulators are in the returns on the heat zones.

In the supply side from the wood boiler is an expansion tank, air trap, and gate valve. When the wood boiler is not in use, the gate valve has to be closed or the oil boiler will heat the wood boiler up passively, and the circulator between the two will start if the power is on to it. My new oil boiler is a cold start boiler, and won't try to maintain more than 120 degrees unless there is a demand, when it will heat up until the demand is satisfied or it reaches 180 degrees, whichever happens first.

In the return line from the wood boiler is the circulator and boiler drain. Both lines run alone the ceiling to the oil boiler.

When the wood boiler is hot, the circulator between the wood and oil boilers runs all the time. Sounds like your system... I think. The wood boiler was at least 160 degrees, so it kicked on and was running. When the wood boiler isn't being used, it has to be isolated and I would switch the power off to it as well.

Haven't seen your piping diagram, but wonder if the flocheck is left out there? With circulators in the supply side, "modern day application", without the flocheck the hot water would divert to the wood boiler, heat that up and then return to the oil boiler.

Heating the bedroom at the same time? Gravity feed? What was the temperature of your oil system?

Theory might go like this. Had wood boiler burning wood and running along just fine. It went out. There was a demand at some point, which caused the oil burner to fire. When the wood boiler went out, the circulator stopped running as it was less than 160 degrees. When the oil burner fired, and circulators started due to the demand, enough hot water diverted to the wood boiler to heat it to 160 degrees. This caused a much longer demand on the oil boiler, as it now has to heat the water in the wood boiler back up to the minimum...
 
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