Looking for help from anyone that knows Taco Pumps and Wood boilers..

[gtu160]

Hello, my name is Tom. I'll give the short version of this. I have a EFM oil boiler setup. Tied to that is a wood boiler. Hot water off of the oil only. One 007 Taco pump and aquastat on oil side. When I call for heat the oil kicks in and get things started (wood boiler is running), when it gets to a high enough Temp the oil will kick off, but still run the pump giving me heat. Nice setup, but a big waste of money. With that Taco pump wired into the oil side I can't turn it on any other way. There's no reason for the oil to kick on. I've been banging my head, cause I hate running oil. I can keep this 1600sf house at 75-78 in the dead of winter on wood. I can't use a relay switch (may blow up), I can't jump it. Everyone I talk to looks at me like I have to heads. Can anyone solve this or tell me what to do.

1-I unhook the taco pump and hard wire it with a bus fuse and switch and run 24-7. Oil should run the same and should not kick on as long as there's hot water. Keep that TT at say 61. So if fire does goes out oil will jump in.

2-Cut open and install 2nd pump wired to a TT set at 75 to keep it running non stop.


And alittle more info, to low of water temp will kick system off till high temp's are reached. 2nd problem in trying to trick the system. 90* water on oil side and 175* on stove side, but wont turn on pump. Thats only when I'm playing with it. Learn the hard and cold way, but found out I'm good in till about 54* when woke up.

 

[ohbie1]

I'm guessing your pump is hooked up to the TT through the aquastat relay. If so, and your WB water runs through your OB, you could disconnect the pump from the aquastat relay and hook it to a separate relay run by the TT. Set your OB aquastat to kick on only when its water temp. hits say 140 (or whatever you determine is best through some trial and error). Thus if your WB fire runs down and is no longer heating the water, the OB will take over. The pump will only run when the TT calls for heat.
You can usually get some "official" OB type relays in tin enclosures on ebay pretty cheap.

 

[Gooserider]

Welcome to the forums, and I'm sure we can help you out... However it sounds like you have a less than optimal setup for both your electrical and plumbing configurations.... From what you are describing, it sounds like you are circulating all your water through both the wood and oil boilers in series - This is quite inefficient as you will loose a considerable amount of heat from the air drafting through the unused boiler's combustion chamber, not to mention the added flow resistance, etc... It is generally better to run the two boilers in parallel, so that you are only having to circulate water through the one that's in use.

It would really be helpful if you could post diagrams of your current plumbing and wiring setup, as that will make sure that we are all talking about the same thing when discussing how best to help you get the most out of your systems.

Gooserider