can i use oil tstat like a thermoguard

[Cooper]

I was wondering if theres a way i can use my hot water boiler Programable tstat to act like a thermoguard im afraid with this pellet stove the tstat wont kick on and i will freeze pipes!! Any suggestions?
I have manually been kicking it up a degree past set point say 76 when im showing 75 just to cycle hot water a few times during the night?? But i guess i could set up a schedule of some sort? Thanks in advance

 

[mepellet]

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I have 3 hot water baseboard zones and have programmable thermostats for each zone.

 

[stejus]

This will work as I do this with my two forced hot water zones hanging off a oil burning furnace. I really only set this when the temps get colder like near 10 degrees or below at night. My Honeywell Tstat allows me to set Wake, Leave, Return, Sleep. I am less concerned during the day as day temps are much warmer than night temps.

Wake - 12:00AM
Leave - 12:05AM

Return - 3:00AM
Sleep - 3:05AM

Depending on how cold it is when I wake up, I may decide to cycle them manually one more time before the day temps start to rise.

 

[Cooper]

The duration would be the issue! the idea is to save oil!! My other thought is say the stat hovers at 75. You could set the overide for 76?? Glycol is expensive but an option ? Need some help before single digits??

 

[superchips]

Don't forget: Warm water freezes a lot quicker than cold water.
I don't know how well your house holds heat or how your pipe are exposed to the out side temps. Usually setting your oil burnner stat at 55 - 60` should protect you.

 

[Murphy118]

Here's what I did:

double pole 120v. coil relay,double throw,,,, interups upstairs and down stairs t-stats for gas furnace.

1 hour timer with trippers for every minute, set to close 3 times every hour for 4 minutes,,,,this powers up the relay.

all this is powered by a wall switch upstairs. when temps are expected to be below 20, and windy,, i turn the wall switch on, which energizes the timer, which truns both zones on for the times set by the trippers.

maybe the furnace is running longer than needed, but at least it's nat. gas, and not propane or oil.

therm-guard will do same thing, but I believe you would need one for each zone,,,,,, and it was a lot more fun figuring out and building my own.

John

 

[hoverfly]

You will have to do a search but there have been a number of times this has been brought up. There is a controller that will circulate the water around the system to prevent freezing.

Can any one else help out here on finding it?

 

[76brian]

You will have to do a search but there have been a number of times this has been brought up. There is a controller that will circulate the water around the system to prevent freezing.

Can any one else help out here on finding it?

Previous poster and OP himself mentioned it, ThermGuard: http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

He wants his thermostat to do it though... I dunno about that.

 

[nate379]

Seems to me that a programmable T Stat running a few times/day would do the trick, no? All my heat runs are in the floor so I don't worry about it freezing. The floor stays around the same temp as the air in the house.

 

[hoverfly]

You will have to do a search but there have been a number of times this has been brought up. There is a controller that will circulate the water around the system to prevent freezing.

Can any one else help out here on finding it?

Previous poster and OP himself mentioned it, ThermGuard: http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

He wants his thermostat to do it though... I dunno about that.

Opps, my bad.

But still, my issue would be that will it be enough to prevent freezing under extreme conditions? You may have to run it all the time under those conditions, other times you do not. To do it with only a T-stat you might run it more unnecessarily and shorten the life of the circulator(s). Also most programmable t-stats that I know of only go down to 50 degrees; again you may be running the circulator(s) unnecessarily. If you still want to run the ciculator off the t-stat then you just need to run t-stat wire to the relay(s) to close the circuit(s). Just make sure you don't wire it to 110/220 volt side.

Another suggestion is to have the pips insulated in the ares that are prone to freezing.

 

[hoverfly]

Seems to me that a programmable T Stat running a few times/day would do the trick, no? All my heat runs are in the floor so I don't worry about it freezing. The floor stays around the same temp as the air in the house.

Then in theory the water should circulate slowly under natural gravity conditions unless you have check valves on it. If the floor heats the water up, it expands, and contracts as it cools down in the lower basement, unless it warm all the time.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Don't forget: Warm water freezes a lot quicker than cold water

That is the most ridicules thing I have read on this site.

 

[imacman]

Don't forget: Warm water freezes a lot quicker than cold water

That is the most ridicules thing I have read on this site.

DB, I think you owe SuperChips an apology:

www.desy.de/user/projects/Physics/General/hot_water.html

 

[heat seeker]

Warm water will freeze faster only under certain conditions, per the article. All other factors being equal, the cooler water will freeze first, but the Mpemba effect allows for variations between the two samples.

However, a bit more tact would have been nice on DB's part…and now I'm getting out of the line of fire.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Did you read that? Its says it can, under certain conditions, it doesn't say it does. Read the whole thing.

 

[imacman]

Did you read that? Its says it can, under certain conditions, it doesn't say it does. Read the whole thing.

DUH...did you read what you just wrote???? If it CAN, then it CAN!

"Hot water can in fact freeze faster than cold water for a wide range of experimental conditions. This phenomenon is extremely counterintuitive, and surprising even to most scientists, but it is in fact real. It has been seen and studied in numerous experiments."

Now, what part of "it can" or "it is in fact real" didn't you read there????

 

[nate379]

I don't have a basement and yes all the runs have zone valves on them so no it's not flowing to anything.

Seems to me that a programmable T Stat running a few times/day would do the trick, no? All my heat runs are in the floor so I don't worry about it freezing. The floor stays around the same temp as the air in the house.

Then in theory the water should circulate slowly under natural gravity conditions unless you have check valves on it. If the floor heats the water up, it expands, and contracts as it cools down in the lower basement, unless it warm all the time.

 

[hoverfly]

I don't have a basement and yes all the runs have zone valves on them so no it's not flowing to anything.

Seems to me that a programmable T Stat running a few times/day would do the trick, no? All my heat runs are in the floor so I don't worry about it freezing. The floor stays around the same temp as the air in the house.

Then in theory the water should circulate slowly under natural gravity conditions unless you have check valves on it. If the floor heats the water up, it expands, and contracts as it cools down in the lower basement, unless it warm all the time.

Well that takes care of that idea, unless you want to manually open up the zone valves. But I bet your boiler is higher than the floor? So I don't think that will work either. The only way I can see it working is if burner is manual turned off, and set the t-stat to the lowest setting and then program it.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Did you read that? Its says it can, under certain conditions, it doesn't say it does. Read the whole thing.

DUH...did you read what you just wrote???? If it CAN, then it CAN!

"Hot water can in fact freeze faster than cold water for a wide range of experimental conditions. This phenomenon is extremely counterintuitive, and surprising even to most scientists, but it is in fact real. It has been seen and studied in numerous experiments."

Now, what part of "it can" or "it is in fact real" didn't you read there????

My Subaru can make 500 HP, but it doesn't.

I could make it make 500 HP but under normal conditions it only makes 227. Now under a wide range of experimental conditions I could have it make 500 HP.


Understand?

 

[76brian]

Don't forget: Warm water freezes a lot quicker than cold water

That is the most ridicules thing I have read on this site.

Not sure if I want to get my thermodynamics information from someone who can't spell "ridiculous"

 

[DBCOOPER]

Back to our regularly scheduled program.....

Here is what I would do in the OPs situation......

I would buy this digital timer or similar....
http://www.amazon.com/Intermatic-DT...ref=sr_1_4?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1323990261&sr=1-4

I would wire this relay or similar with a cord that I could plug into the timer ......
http://www.amazon.com/Packard-PR341...ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1323990565&sr=1-1

I would hook the normally open contacts on the relay to the thermostat contacts on the heater.

I would program it to come on as many times and for as long as I thought necessary. When it gets real cold out I would plug the relay into the timer.









And then I would run a hot water line to my ice maker...

 

[Cooper]

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[bridgerman]

Back to our regularly scheduled program.....

Here is what I would do in the OPs situation......

I would buy this digital timer or similar....
http://www.amazon.com/Intermatic-DT...ref=sr_1_4?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1323990261&sr=1-4

I would wire this relay or similar with a cord that I could plug into the timer ......
http://www.amazon.com/Packard-PR341...ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1323990565&sr=1-1

I would hook the normally open contacts on the relay to the thermostat contacts on the heater.

I would program it to come on as many times and for as long as I thought necessary. When it gets real cold out I would plug the relay into the timer.

.

The ThermGuard (www.bearmountaindesign.com) does what you need without any special wiring. You can set up any delay between running the boiler (in 15 minute increments) and specify how long to leave the boiler on (1 minute increments). When you don't want it to run, just turn it off. It remembers all your settings the next time you turn it on. Only two low voltage (24 Volt) wires to connect at the thermostat (or anywhere the thermostat wires are available like the boiler room) and it works like a champ.

You could do as you suggest, but you have to be comfortable with the 110V wiring and then you need to put the whole thing in a nice safe package. I have seen it done....someone here posted pictures...but time and effort have to fit in the cost equation.

Just my $0.02.

I got a kick out of your comment about the ice maker!...very funny

John