Thermguard

[capecod]

These temps.have made me think about protection for freezing basement pipes. I heat almost exclusively with my Harman P68, located in my living space on the first floor,however, that leaves the basement with oil furnace and water heater a cold 45 degrees throughout the winter months. Would a Thermguard hookup order my 1st floor thermostat do the trick?
Thx, Marina

 

[reallyte]

My basement stays the same temp with no issues. Unless you are having issues is there any reason to heat it?

 

[gfreek]

I've also been consider a Thermguard with this extreme cold. I manually open the zone valve, crack open the shut off just above it so it circulates just enough to keep from freezing when the rest of the system calls for heat..

 

[capecod]

No problems, more of a preventative measure....

 

[gfreek]

Where my stove is the heat never comes on, so I don't want the pipes to freeze in crawl space in that outlying area

 

[capecod]

I just want something that would work considering my heat set up! Will it. Thx

 

[bridgerman]

I just want something that would work considering my heat set up! Will it. Thx

Hi CapeCod,

Yes, ThermGuard will do exactly what you are looking for. You can set it up like I have in my home. I circulate for 3 minutes every 3 hours. I have them on three zones in my house and the thermostats they are on, are turned off because my wood stove keeps the house warm enough for two of the zones, and the third is a spare bedroom. I keep the door closed in that bedroom with the thermostat off.

John

 

[bogieb]

I have a FHW boiler system where the pipes run thru an unheated garage for the bedrooms. I have the Tempguard set up to run every 8 hours for 8 or 10 minutes (I've forgotten which). I may change to more frequent settings for this week (very easy to change the settings), as the lows are consistently to be in the negative numbers this week and my garage this morning was in the +teens.

 

[woodmakesheat]

I have a FHW boiler system where the pipes run thru an unheated garage for the bedrooms. I have the Tempguard set up to run every 8 hours for 8 or 10 minutes (I've forgotten which). I may change to more frequent settings for this week (very easy to change the settings), as the lows are consistently to be in the negative numbers this week and my garage this morning was in the +teens.

I run the Thermguard for 10 minutes on, 1 hour off but I only switch it on at bedtime and turn it off in the morning. The added benefit for me is it keeps my bedroom (which is also on the basement circuit) a little warmer on especially cold nights - a win-win for me. During the day the basements gets sunshine though.

 

[velvetfoot]

I circulate for 3 minutes every 3 hours

So, this circulates heated water? The boiler has to come on once in a while?

 

[Tonyray]

These temps.have made me think about protection for freezing basement pipes. I heat almost exclusively with my Harman P68, located in my living space on the first floor,however, that leaves the basement with oil furnace and water heater a cold 45 degrees throughout the winter months. Would a Thermguard hookup order my 1st floor thermostat do the trick?
Thx, Marina

my basement get's around 45 degrees also and pretty sure it would have to be down in the mid 30's or lower constant for day or so in order to possibly freeze.
[Providing you don't have a cold air leak blowing directly on a water pipe or 90 degree angle heat pipe.]

 

[bogieb]

This activates the boiler like there is a call for heat (boiler comes on unless it is already to temp, then water circulates)

So, this circulates heated water? The boiler has to come on once in a while?

It depends on how he has it set up. I'm almost positive I read a way to just set it up to circulate water, without the boiler. However, the most common set up is to call the boiler for heat and the boiler decides if it needs to heat up the water for circulation or if it is warm enough.

 

[capecod]

I just ordered a Thermguard, thanks for the help!
Marina G.

 

[bridgerman]

This activates the boiler like there is a call for heat (boiler comes on unless it is already to temp, then water circulates)


It depends on how he has it set up. I'm almost positive I read a way to just set it up to circulate water, without the boiler. However, the most common set up is to call the boiler for heat and the boiler decides if it needs to heat up the water for circulation or if it is warm enough.

Hi Bogieb,

I put a drawing up that show a ThermGuard connected to a 4-pole relay. Three of the normally open poles were used to activate zones, while the last one was connected to the normally closed side. This connection was put in series with the ignition. If the ThermGuard activated, it would break this connection and inhibit the boiler from firing. If ThermGuard was not active, the boiler would function as normal.

John

 

[woodmakesheat]

So, this circulates heated water? The boiler has to come on once in a while?

Which is why I set mine for 10 minutes on as 3 minutes wouldn't be long enough to get the water up to temp and have the system circulate warm water.

 

[velvetfoot]

Is that a good way to run a boiler?

 

[woodmakesheat]

Is that a good way to run a boiler?

Not sure who you're talking to, but I don't know the definition of a "bad" way to run a boiler. Running it 10 on and 60 off keeps my bedroom warmer and keeps the pipes from freezing, sounds good to me.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Where my stove is the heat never comes on, so I don't want the pipes to freeze in crawl space in that outlying area

You are a prime candidate (pipes in the crawl space freezing) for a Thermguard. Understand it will impose a higher heat load on your stove because it cycles the blower only not the burner (and exchanging the colder air in the basement and crawl will impact your stove's ability to heat your living space....

I don't have one, I have a LUX CAG Clean Cycle T'stat (thats no longer made for some reason) that does the same thing and I have to supplement my heat with the furnace (LP) plus 90 Bryant from time to time because the heat load is too much for the biofuel stove to handle............

In this frigid cold, my furnace jumps the clean cycle (blower only) and goes into heat mode about one time every hour.

 

[bogieb]

I have a FHW boiler system where the pipes run thru an unheated garage for the bedrooms. I have the Tempguard set up to run every 8 hours for 8 or 10 minutes (I've forgotten which). I may change to more frequent settings for this week (very easy to change the settings), as the lows are consistently to be in the negative numbers this week and my garage this morning was in the +teens.

I changed my setting last night to running every 4 hours at 8 minutes each. Deciding factor was it was 0F when I got home before 5 PM, so know it never got out of single digitsw. With the -18 Sunday night, and not doing any appreciable warming this week (warmest day will be in low teens), I just don't want to take a chance on the pipes in the garage freezing.

 

[SidecarFlip]

One nice feature of the Thermguard is you can program the fav cycles. I cannot with the LUX CAG. I'm stuck with 5 on every 15 minutes. I like the fan only for another reason and that is when the fan is energized, the house air is being circulated through the furnace filter, in my case an electrostatic precipitation unit so it removes the airborne dust... a good thing.