Temperature Setting for Domestic hot water Boiler???

[fazzer]

Hello, just wondering If I can turn down my oil fired domestic boiler. The low setting is currently set at 180 degress. Some have said it could be turned down to 150 degrees or so. My goal is to save oil by firing less. Is there any truth to this, also does it have to maintain any special temp to burn off any potential problems. THANKS! Mark............

 

[WoodNotOil]

It's that time of year isn't it! I just turned mine down to swing between 150-160 and opened up the mixing valve to only let hot through. I saved a lot of oil last summer by turning it down! I plan to build heat storage in the next month and use my Tarm for DWH the rest of the summer. Oil is just too expensive

 

[webbie]

Depends sometimes on the brand, model and construction. Most boilers should not be turned down below 140, unless designed to do so. 150-160 should be fine for just about any type, but I'll let some folks with more experience chime in.

 

[mjstev01]

Would like to see some more comments on this topic. Was thinking about doing the same...Is it advantageous (burn less oil) to turn down the min/max temp settings on the aquastat? Have a Burnham C3 boiler, tankless.

 

[steam man]

You could turn it down and save some money but you may not like the recovery performance for DHW. It also depends on if you have a high mass boiler with a tankless coil vs a low mass with an indirect DHW tank. Outdoor reset controls can do this automatically since they intelligently analyze your heat loss verses the outdoor temperature and adjust the boiler firing accordingly to achieve the optimum temperature. Any modern install should have updated controls for energy efficiency. My system is a low mass boiler (about 6 gallons) with a DHW indirect tank. This winter I installed an Intellidyne heat manager (the big brother to the Beckett one) since I didn't have the outdoor reset control. I got it for about 100 bucks on ebay used. My boiler was set to fire up to 180 deg and since it is a cold start would only come on if heat was called for. Just using DHW in the summer always keeps the temperature high enough to prevent condensation. With the heat manager on the boiler will (with the circulator on) delay the burner on if the boiler is above about 140 deg to scavenge any heat out of the boiler. I see it economizing at times. Though a low mass boiler doesn't benefit as much as a high mass boiler with the heat manager, I have noticed the boiler cycles less during the day. In short, the boiler now cycles less often. Intellidyne claims up to 20% or so fuel savings. I am not sure what the Burnham C3 is. It does seem to work though I think outdoor reset is the way to go.

2 weeks and my solar panels will be up and running.