How to figure how much oil my boiler uses....

[mpilihp]

Hi, im going to be installing monitoring on my oil boiler and wood boiler to know temps and when circs are running and also when the oil burner is firing.

I want to be able to see before I get the wood boiler up and running, how often the oil burner is running and then more importantly how much oil its using. Does anyone know how to tell? Im thinking if I know the nozzle size there should be a table SOMEWHERE that states by nozzle size how many gallons per hour or whatever it uses for oil.

Thanks ~ Phil

 

[Nofossil]

The nozzle on mine has a rating directly in GPH stamped on it. Talk to your friendly neighborhood plumbing and heating guy.

 

[mpilihp]

Thanks, Ill look myself, no friendly neighborhood heating guys around here.... THey no like it when you do things yourself...

 

[pybyr]

pick up an AC-powered running total hour meter from one of the surplus vendors like www.surpluscenter.com and wire it in parallel with the blower motor on the oil burner's "burner head" - so that the hour meter runs whenever the oil burner's burner is firing

then get a clipboard and keep a log of cumulative hour readings on the hour meter on various dates-

And as nofossil says, you'll find the GPH rating of the oil nozzle right on the nozzle- from which, with simple math, you can derive gallons from hours- both at various points in time and as a running average, etc.

 

[EForest]

I used a tip from TCaldwell that worked fine. Take an old style electric analog clock and cut of the plug then wire into the burner.
check the clock every 24 hrs and record then do the math as stated above.

 

[velvetfoot]

My oil guy has records for how much oil I used per year.

 

[Valhalla]

Yes the nozzle jet is sized. Mine is a 0.85. That means 0.85 gallons per hour of the burner running time. An hour meter is a great idea, as one member mentioned. Or, do the math in reverse when you know the size to give you the running time from the gallons purchased.

When you get your furnace cleaned for your fall service, just ask the technician what size is in it and what the specification is of the maker for the BTU of the unit. If it is not shown, it may be on the data plate, depending on the brand. The burner nozzle may have been "tweaked" by a previous technician, so try to stay with the factory spec. The engineers that designed your unit know best.

 

[mpilihp]

Great ideas thanks guys, alot of clever folks on this forum. I will go with the hour meter idea as Im pretty absent minded and would forget to check every day. Ill also look into what nozzle im running, thanks!

 

[Redox]

I just wanted to add that the nozzle is rated at 100PSI oil pressure, but many newer oil burners run the pressure up higher for better atomization. The rating tag should show this.

Used to be the oil guy would mark down specifics on the unit when it is tuned up, ie: nozzle size and pattern, flue temp, CO2, calculated efficiency, etc. Aren't they doing this any more??

Chris

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

I just wanted to add that the nozzle is rated at 100PSI oil pressure, but many newer oil burners run the pressure up higher for better atomization. The rating tag should show this.

Used to be the oil guy would mark down specifics on the unit when it is tuned up, ie: nozzle size and pattern, flue temp, CO2, calculated efficiency, etc. Aren't they doing this any more??

They should be, especially in Maine (they're rather stringent about that).

Knowing the nozzle size and the fuel pressure are both key to knowing how much oil is flowing. Even then, nozzle ratings have a margin of error in them, sometimes up to 10% +/-, so take any numbers derived from run hours with a grain of salt.

Joe

 

[mpilihp]

I got my hour meter yesterday and got it installed, oil boiler belly was already hot so it didnt run after I put it in till this mornings showers, showed .2hr to reheat after them. I know its a wag trying to calculate it with the nozzle rating and an hour meter but want a large picture view of it before wood boiler and after... Hooking wood boiler into the system thsi weekend,hopefully if I have all the parts!

 

[mpilihp]

Well its been in since wednesday night and already its up to .9 hrs, with another to take a shower this mornig it will go over 1 hour running in 1 1/2s roughly. Appears to take about .1 -.2 running for a shower.

Rough figuring (ballpark) THe boiler nozzle is a .85 so thats .85 gallons per hour from what folks have state.

64 ozsx.84 = 54.4 Oz per hour of oil

A tenth of an hour is 6 mins so 54.4/6 = about 9 oz per every 10th of an hour burning, so its alittle over 2 cops of oil per shower its looking like.

ALso looks like it runs a 10th of an hour or so in the middle of the night.......

 

[Nofossil]

Pretty good starting estimate is 20 gallons per month for DHW for a family of four. Some of that is standby loss, so a family of two would be more than half of that. YMMV, depending on equipment, habits, etc.

Teenage girls are known to have a profound effect on DHW usage, for instance.

 

[mpilihp]

We are down to one teenage girl now, basically it looks like the burner runs for 1/10 for both my wife and my shower and it runs 2/10ths for our daughter! Im expecting hers to get shorter now that school is in and she needs to be quicker....

~ Phil

 

[Nofossil]

We are down to one teenage girl now, basically it looks like the burner runs for 1/10 for both my wife and my shower and it runs 2/10ths for our daughter! Im expecting hers to get shorter now that school is in and she needs to be quicker....

~ Phil

Works the other way for me. School is in so she needs to be perfect. She'll skip days in the summer - not when school is in session.

 

[mpilihp]

Yeah same here but in the summertime she'll even bring a radio in the bathroom, easily 40+ min showers. School days do require perfection but on a limited time schedule!

 

[Willman]

Is your boiler a cold start ?
Will

 

[mpilihp]

No its not, but it will be the next time it fires as Ive turned it off to connect the wood boiler up today!