oil furnace pipe maintenance while burning pellets

[lass442]

Here's a question for those of you who have base board hot water/oil heating systems, but heat primarily with pellets. Do you make it a habit to turn your oil furnace thermostats on once in a while to move the water through the pipes? If so, how frequently? What are your reasons?

 

[kast]

http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/ - This is what I use

If you search the forum for THERMGUARD you will fine a lot of posts

 

[lass442]

Thanks, Kast. While I don't see 'forums' on that page, I did read the FAQ's. Those gave me the general idea.
Still wondering how many ppl on this forum do this manually.

 

[imacman]

I bought one of the ThermGuards for a part of the house that might be prone to a frozen pipe, and besides, how are people going to turn on their HW heat manually if, say, their not home during freezing weather? Thats why I got the ThermGuard....don't have to be here to do it.

It works exactly as advertised. I have it programmed to turn on the burner and circulate heat for 2 minutes every 2 hours....go probably go longer, but don't want to take a chance.

It's also great for those people that have 2nd homes, or "camps" that don't get used much during the winter.

EDIT: Lass..... Kast meant the search feature on this forum.

 

[Doocrew]

Here's a question for those of you who have base board hot water/oil heating systems, but heat primarily with pellets. Do you make it a habit to turn your oil furnace thermostats on once in a while to move the water through the pipes? If so, how frequently? What are your reasons?

I'm in the same boat Lass. I have a tankless hot water system so my furnace is kicking on several times a day for showers. On occasion, I will turn on a zone to let the water circulate. I also turn up the heat in the basement family room once in a while because my pellet stove is on the first floor.

 

[Xena]

I flip the heat up to around 70 in one zone that
has the potential for pipe freeze due to a dirt floor below
if it's really cold out.
In the rest of the house I turn on the furnace to warm
the place up then let the pellet stove maintain the temps.

 

[lass442]

Here's a question for those of you who have base board hot water/oil heating systems, but heat primarily with pellets. Do you make it a habit to turn your oil furnace thermostats on once in a while to move the water through the pipes? If so, how frequently? What are your reasons?

I'm in the same boat Lass. I have a tankless hot water system so my furnace is kicking on several times a day for showers. On occasion, I will turn on a zone to let the water circulate. I also turn up the heat in the basement family room once in a while because my pellet stove is on the first floor.

This is good. On occasion, you mean once a week, once every couple of weeks? To me, common sense would prevail at once every few weeks, depending on outdoor conditions. For example, we have a one car under garage with a family room over it, so opening up the first floor thermostat to let it flow once the outdoor temp reaches 20 for 2 or 3 days might be a time to let her rip. I wouldn't think that twice a day is necessary. Would you?
Last night I came in when it was pretty cold outside. The second floor was downright chilly, so I turned on the oil. Worked out nicely all the way around, kept me comfy and ran water through the pipes.

 

[kast]

The inventor of this product

I designed ThermGuard to use for my heating pipes, a run of pipe that went through the ceiling of an unheated garage and the pipe would freeze in the winter. It would freeze because the thermostat for that zone was located in the same room as my wood stove. When I ran the stove, the thermostat never called for hot water in that zone so the water just sat in the pipes getting colder and colder until it froze.

With a ThermGuard attached to the thermostat, I have it set to call for 2 minutes of hot water every 3 hours, no matter what the thermostat thinks the temperature is. The water no longer sits long enough to freeze and my problem solved.
Cheers,
John

Not sure how long 140-180 degree water stays hot in a pipe in 32 or below weather, but I’m guessing its not going 2-3 days before freezing.

 

[Doocrew]

Here's a question for those of you who have base board hot water/oil heating systems, but heat primarily with pellets. Do you make it a habit to turn your oil furnace thermostats on once in a while to move the water through the pipes? If so, how frequently? What are your reasons?

I'm in the same boat Lass. I have a tankless hot water system so my furnace is kicking on several times a day for showers. On occasion, I will turn on a zone to let the water circulate. I also turn up the heat in the basement family room once in a while because my pellet stove is on the first floor.

This is good. On occasion, you mean once a week, once every couple of weeks? To me, common sense would prevail at once every few weeks, depending on outdoor conditions. For example, we have a one car under garage with a family room over it, so opening up the first floor thermostat to let it flow once the outdoor temp reaches 20 for 2 or 3 days might be a time to let her rip. I wouldn't think that twice a day is necessary. Would you?
Last night I came in when it was pretty cold outside. The second floor was downright chilly, so I turned on the oil. Worked out nicely all the way around, kept me comfy and ran water through the pipes.

Lass-I also have a garage under but the house is reversed-my bedrooms are over the garage. My feeling is that you have to guage your usage on the prevailing conditions. So far, I have not turned anything on yet this year because the temps have not been so cold that I would be worried about the pipes. So far, my stove, located in the family room/kitchen area, keeps the area it is in at a comfy 72, while the bedroom areas at the other end of the house stay around 65. I am running a small box fan in the hallway moving cold air towards the stove. I am sure that when the temps drop, this will all change. With the price of oil where it is, my plan is to set the bedroom zones at say 60 degrees, which will probably kick on once in a while to supplement the heat being generated by the pellet stove. Honestly, I am not really worried about the pipes freezing. My garage under temperature never drops below freezing. If I were you, I would pay closer attention to the temps in the garage space below your family room to determine what the proper course of action should be. If the temps in that area are below freezing, I would act accordingly.

 

[Doocrew]

Here's a question for those of you who have base board hot water/oil heating systems, but heat primarily with pellets. Do you make it a habit to turn your oil furnace thermostats on once in a while to move the water through the pipes? If so, how frequently? What are your reasons?

I'm in the same boat Lass. I have a tankless hot water system so my furnace is kicking on several times a day for showers. On occasion, I will turn on a zone to let the water circulate. I also turn up the heat in the basement family room once in a while because my pellet stove is on the first floor.

This is good. On occasion, you mean once a week, once every couple of weeks? To me, common sense would prevail at once every few weeks, depending on outdoor conditions. For example, we have a one car under garage with a family room over it, so opening up the first floor thermostat to let it flow once the outdoor temp reaches 20 for 2 or 3 days might be a time to let her rip. I wouldn't think that twice a day is necessary. Would you?
Last night I came in when it was pretty cold outside. The second floor was downright chilly, so I turned on the oil. Worked out nicely all the way around, kept me comfy and ran water through the pipes.

Lass-I also have a garage under but the house is reversed-my bedrooms are over the garage. My feeling is that you have to guage your usage on the prevailing conditions. So far, I have not turned anything on yet this year because the temps have not been so cold that I would be worried about the pipes. So far, my stove, located in the family room/kitchen area, keeps the area it is in at a comfy 72, while the bedroom areas at the other end of the house stay around 65. I am running a small box fan in the hallway moving cold air towards the stove. I am sure that when the temps drop, this will all change. With the price of oil where it is, my plan is to set the bedroom zones at say 60 degrees, which will probably kick on once in a while to supplement the heat being generated by the pellet stove. Honestly, I am not really worried about the pipes freezing. My garage under temperature never drops below freezing. If I were you, I would pay closer attention to the temps in the garage space below your family room to determine what the proper course of action should be. If the temps in that area are below freezing, I would act accordingly.

By the way, 3:20am????????? Geez.................

 

[kast]

hahah right! I thought I was up late, or early

 

[Lobstah]

I have 2 zones of FHW heat, and long ago put programmable tstats on both zones. Once the pellet stove was up and running, we just reprogrammed the tstats to come on for about an hour at 5am...then go to 60deg.

Jim

 

[lass442]

Here's a question for those of you who have base board hot water/oil heating systems, but heat primarily with pellets. Do you make it a habit to turn your oil furnace thermostats on once in a while to move the water through the pipes? If so, how frequently? What are your reasons?

I'm in the same boat Lass. I have a tankless hot water system so my furnace is kicking on several times a day for showers. On occasion, I will turn on a zone to let the water circulate. I also turn up the heat in the basement family room once in a while because my pellet stove is on the first floor.

This is good. On occasion, you mean once a week, once every couple of weeks? To me, common sense would prevail at once every few weeks, depending on outdoor conditions. For example, we have a one car under garage with a family room over it, so opening up the first floor thermostat to let it flow once the outdoor temp reaches 20 for 2 or 3 days might be a time to let her rip. I wouldn't think that twice a day is necessary. Would you?
Last night I came in when it was pretty cold outside. The second floor was downright chilly, so I turned on the oil. Worked out nicely all the way around, kept me comfy and ran water through the pipes.

Lass-I also have a garage under but the house is reversed-my bedrooms are over the garage. My feeling is that you have to guage your usage on the prevailing conditions. So far, I have not turned anything on yet this year because the temps have not been so cold that I would be worried about the pipes. So far, my stove, located in the family room/kitchen area, keeps the area it is in at a comfy 72, while the bedroom areas at the other end of the house stay around 65. I am running a small box fan in the hallway moving cold air towards the stove. I am sure that when the temps drop, this will all change. With the price of oil where it is, my plan is to set the bedroom zones at say 60 degrees, which will probably kick on once in a while to supplement the heat being generated by the pellet stove. Honestly, I am not really worried about the pipes freezing. My garage under temperature never drops below freezing. If I were you, I would pay closer attention to the temps in the garage space below your family room to determine what the proper course of action should be. If the temps in that area are below freezing, I would act accordingly.

By the way, 3:20am????????? Geez.................

yeah, it was a late one last night...had a friend over. I think it was 2:20, though. I was in bed by 3:15. (Slept 'til noon)

So this is good info. Helpful, indeed. Thanks.