Firing up my PB105 tonight!

[AndrewChurchill]

I finally got the Exhaust Sensor Probe in the mail yesterday. Mine was broken during delivery of my boiler. After waiting 8 weeks for the dealer I bought the boiler from to get me the parts under warranty I finally broke down and with the help of some Hearth members I was able to locate an ESP.

So tonight I'm going to fire up the PB105 and hopefully there is nothing else wrong with the boiler!

 

[Sting]

Great news -- big congrats

 

[AndrewChurchill]

The boiler fired up with no problems last night. I was impressed that the built in ignitor had a roaring flame in 4 minutes. The water temp went from 80F to 160F in 40 minutes. I've turned off the oil boiler and I am going to see how many pellets are being used to heat the indirect hot water tank over the next couple of days.

 

[IowaBrian]

keep us posted i am interested in how much you will use. also how much demand do you have for hot water lots of showers, laundry, dishwasher blah blah blah and how big is you tank?
thanks

 

[AndrewChurchill]

I have a 42 gallon indirect tank. Our hot water demand is pretty low. My wife and I take showers in the AM, we wash our clothes in cold water, we run our dish washer 3 times a week and wash our hands as necessary.

I have my hot water tank on a timer so it gets turned on in the morning before we shower and then it's turned off until about 6 PM and then the timer is set to let the tank call for heat for about 1/2 an hour just to warm up the tank for the evening.

I put in two bags of pellets last night so I'll see how long they last.

 

[Sting]

It will be interesting to see how long your igniter lasts. I assume you will allow the PB to go cold when the DHW demand is satisfied for the morning, and the appliance will relight ?? twice a day?

Others have claimed short life but as long as your dealer replaces them as necessary under warranty your covered.

 

[AndrewChurchill]

Once the boiler reaches its max temperature (which I set at 160 for the summer) it shuts off until it goes below the minimum temperature (set at 140). At that point the boiler will restart until it hits 160 again.

I haven't had a chance yet to see how long the boiler maintains it's temperature so I don't know how many times it's firing between calls for heat from the water heater. It would be nice if the control board would accept calls from heat directly from a zone valve rather than relying on the Aqua Stat temperature. That way it would only come on twice a day in my case.

I'm going to order a couple of ignitors just in case of failure.

 

[Sting]

This time of year you should be able to interrupt the call for heat to the control board with an isolation relay to open and close the signal from the Aqua Stat

A close on temperature drop (Honeywell Strap on??? or superstore control) for the signal


Then too -- you should consider just how often do you want you nice new boiler to go thru wide temperature fluctuations???

I prefer to let it idle fire all day at 140 and control the hi fire cycle if DHW demand exceeds idle fire potential. In that way the boiler stays - hot - clean - and healthy. Yes it take a few more pounds per day to idle fire - but them igniter's aren't cheep either.

 

[AndrewChurchill]

I have a oil boiler for a back up and there is a switch on both boilers so I can turn them off individually in case I need to have maintenance performed on them. I could put the same type of timer on the PB105 that I use for the water heater and program it so the boiler comes on an hour before the hot water heater and program it to turn off an hour after the water heater turns off.

That would ensure that the boiler only comes on twice a day as well.

Sting, what do you have for a pellet boiler?

 

[Sting]

Ancient -- Older than Dirt - on its second life - TRAEGER PB150 under a TJERNLUND SS2 draft inducer

http://forum.iburncorn.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=176

 

[AndrewChurchill]

Sting,

I just talked to my plumber about your suggestion and he said he doesn't believe it will work since my boiler uses a thermistor and because it does it knows the exact temperature of the boiler. So, if the control board gets a reading of no temperature he believes I will get an error since the control board would expect to see a temperature reading.

It would work if the control board expected only an on or off message though.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Sting]

Well there must be more than one way to skin that cat

your boiler uses an ODR reset -- its built into the control

Can you break that call for hi fire -- of some other signal - even line voltage to the appliance itself if the control doesn't require a hard launch from ahhhhhh- like a human finger on button or some sort of thing!

even that could be rigged with a ball on a string and a ferret scrambling after a food treat!