Proper Storage Setup Question

[eriesigtau]

Currently my gasser heats my home only when the house is calling for heat. If the house is not calling for heat, then the system turns on a circulator that injects water into the storage tank. If the boiler temp drops below 120deg, the storage circs kick on and the storage tank heats the house.

The problem here is that it is rare that house is not calling for heat so its rare that the storage ever gets heat injected. The boiler temp can be 180deg and idling and im not storing heat which obviously isn't an efficient way of running this system.

There must be a better way to configure this system. Who has ideas out there or how does your controls operate???

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

I heat off my tank so if its not hot I don't have a warm house. While I need to wait for heat if I have a cold tank it is not for long because my vertical tank stratifies well & I take system water off the near top. My system is really simple & works very well. I know others bypass the tank, as you mention, I just wanted the least parts in my setup possible, Randy

 

[RobC]

There are many ways to skin this cat but I think most setups run on the idea that.
1) fire is going in boiler and boiler comes up to temp, boiler circulator comes on and starts pumping, water goes from boiler to storage and this continues until fire goes out.
2) when zones call for heat, in the pipe that supplies water to and from boiler and storage there are Tee's. These feed your zones and have their own circulator(s). When there is a call for heat the zone circulator comes on and "steals" water going to and from boiler and storage, from the Tees.
3) when there is no fire and there is a call for heat the water circulates through zones and storage. You need to have a check valve over by your wood boiler.
1 & 2 are independent functions.
What do you have for a boiler ? and how large is your storage ?

 

[RobC]

On Randy's system his 2 functions are, 1) from boiler to tank and 2) from tank to zones. His system doesn't use Tees but still allows for two independent functions to happen.
Consider drawing out your system and posting. It may not be so much plumbing as controlling.

 

[mwk1000]

My system is a simple Y the bottom leg is hot in from the boiler , up to the right is the house and zones, up to the left is the tank (top). When the house is on the zone valves are open and the pump is on drawing 90% strait from the boiler since is is being pumped in if it is on. So most everything is up to the left. Nice if the tank is cold since I don,t wait for heating the tank. When the house is off the upper right is closed ( zone valves are shut ) and everything must go left to the tank. The tank charges, When the boiler is off/cold there is no flow from the bottom leg when the house zones open they pull water but it now must come from the upper left tank top. Much like the description above in RobC post.

Note:since the boiler pump has a higher flow rate than my zones the tank always gets some charging. Also the house return to the tank and the returns are often still warmer than the bottom of the tank.

 

[bigburner]

try throttling your house zones - put a larger % to the tank - might try bring the tank to a high temp first then play with it.

 

[woodsmaster]

try throttling your house zones - put a larger % to the tank - might try bring the tank to a high temp first then play with it.

That's what I'm experimenting with. It seems with zones wide open not much is going to the tank. I can easily heat my loads with cold tanks. I tried throttling a little and it still heats zones good and puts more in storage.
Mine is set up like rob was describing.

 

[eriesigtau]

I think I fixed my problem. I changed the relay so that the tank heats while the house is calling for heat as long as the boiler temp is higher than 160. If the wood burns out and the boiler temp drops to 135, the tank starts to heat the house. I may need to tweek this some but it seems to be working. It takes a while for the storage to charge but it gave me a more stabile heat.