Electrical question

[Chris S]

Can any of you electrical gurus point me to a supplier for a small light I can attach to a circulator so I know when it's on?
I know I read about this once, but could not find it.
Thanks, Chris

 

[ewdudley]

These might do the trick depending on where you want to mount the light:

https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=3516020612042387&catname;=&qty=1&item=11-3205

 

[Bad Wolf]

I picked up a couple at Radio Shack, for around a buck and a half. Did the same thing you want to do, wired it in parallel so I would know when its circulating.

Greg H

 

[jebatty]

Same with me, lamp similar to the link. Found enough room in the electrical box on the circulator to put the lamp right on the box - drill a hole, connect, done.

 

[in hot water]

This lamp from Radio Shack and a 9/32" drill bit.

I did learn that on a VS triac relay they never go completely out. Apparently triac's always bleed some voltage.

As quiet s the new circs are, it's nice to have an indicator light.

Been trying for years to get them included from the manufacture of pumps. Maybe the new Grundfos SuperBrute XLs will have lights

hr

 

[Gooserider]

I would note that putting a pilot light across the motor leads like that DOES have the potential to be slightly misleading... It is important to note that it will only tell you if the pump is getting power, but it will NOT tell you if the pump is running... If the motor burns out, or the pump locks up, etc., then the light will still come on, even if you aren't getting any pumping action... IOW, don't assume that all is well just because the light is on...

Still a useful diagnostic - if it tells you that the pump is seeing juice and you still aren't getting heat, that suggests that the problem is with the pump or plumbing, as opposed to the control circuitry...

Don't see any easy way to retrofit it, but one of the best indicator concepts I've seen is on our vacuum cleaner - they put a little bar magnet in the beater brush bar, and in the housing they have a little copper wire coil and an LED - in essence a nano-generator that makes just enough juice to power the LED if the beater bar is spinning... Suck up something that jams the brush, or break a belt, and the light goes out.... Simple and very effective...

Gooserider

 

[Fred61]

Any of you old enough to remember when all gas pumps had a flow meter on them? Basically a glass bubble on the side of the pump with an impeller or a bunch of marbles in it that activated upon pumping.
I've looked for flow meters on the net but haven't been satisfied with what I've found so far. They either appear to be restrictive to the flow or they look like just a sight glass. I don't know what flowing water with no air looks like and I don't want to do 2 hours of plumbing to find out.
As for the light, I have a light on my Ecoster 2 that indicates power to the circulator but I'm not using that feature as a control. I'm using a Tekmar 156 which displays "heat" when it powers up the circulator and I'm using Azel pump controllers for zones, which also have indicator lights. But as Goose said, they only tell me that there is power to the pump.

 

[Chris S]

In another thread, I posted on my primary secondary set up, and the need or not for a recirc loop on the near boiler piping for boiler protection. Hot Rod commented that without the recirc loop I may not have boiler protection in all situations.
The reason I want to put this light on is so that I can see how often the circulator pumping away from the primary loop is cycling. It is a 3 speed circulator controlled by an aquastat on the primary loop. It is only activated when heat is available. I will then fine tune the adjustments on my aqauastat, boiler control & possibly speed control to keep it running without too much on/off which I think is what is currently happening.
I undersatnd that it is only an indication of power to the circulator, this is what I want, troubleshooting is a different issue.
Thanks for the responses, I'm off to radio shack today

 

[Chris S]

I installed the light, and watched my boiler temp cycle from 158- 167, as the circ cycled on and off. I realized that by slowing the pump down to speed 1, which is 6gpm by interpretation of the pump curve, the pump is on 60-70% of the time. I could be getting slightly higher flow than that as the circulator in the house is also pulling. either way, at best i really think most of the time I'm getting less than 100K btu/hr out of the boiler.
This was a good add on though as I was running the pump on high speed which was not only unnecessary, but pulling larger temperature swings which I would prefer not to have.
My small engine mechanic stopped by yeaterday- anxious to see my system. He burns in a wood stove. he thought my wood looked great, said he'd burn it in his stove no problem, then I split a piece, and stuck it with the MM- 33%- still looked good to him. Maybe a greenhouse instead of a woodshed!!

 

[jebatty]

Glad you made progress on this. Due to the exponential relationship between flow and head, it is very difficult to take a pump curve and determine flow when pump speed changes. Basically, head increase by a power of 1.75 of the increase in flow. With my 15-58, I found that flow increased quite a bit (whatever that means) when moving from L to M, but there was very little increase in flow when moving from M to H. I have a flowmeter in my system so it is easy to see the result of changes. I would assume the opposite move would have a similar result: H to M small reduction in flow; M to L a much larger reduction in flow.