When it’s brutal cold what to do????

[Harman Fifty Two i]

So I’ve been thinking about this all week. I’m up here in the Northeast and it’s been brutally cold this week and looks the same for next week. How often should I be using my oil forced hot water baseboard heat in these temperatures vs the pellet stove?
I have a good size colonial and some of the heating pipes which are insulated run along the exterior walls that go to the second floor. My dad built it in 1988 and at that time putting polly over the studs on the exterior walls was the in thing to do. The 52i heats the house no problem at all we have a very wide open floor plan and a wide open foyer for the heat to go upstairs. Should I be concerned at all when it’s below zero out and I’m not using my baseboard heat that the pipes in the exterior walls could potentially freeze. I’m sure the people north of me experience this every year so I’d love some expert advice on this. Ty

 

[JRemington]

Does your system have adequate anti freeze?

 

[Harman Fifty Two i]

That is an excellent question. To be totally honest with you I’d be willing to be that there is no anti-freeze in it. I put a Buderus boiler in about six years ago and I don’t recall any ant-freeze going into it. To me that sounds like it would make a lot of sense to have it in it. How would I go about adding some to it?

 

[Ssyko]

-32 this morning. I just turned the quad up to high and my furnace is set at 50deg if the pellet stove goes out or cant keep up furnace kicks in. My second stove will be back up this weekend. And then i don’t worry about heat

 

[peakbagger]

There is an individual that sells a timer that is attached to the circulator pumps of the forced hot water systems. It runs the pumps on occasion to keep the water from freezing in the cold spots.

 

[Harman Fifty Two i]

There is an individual that sells a timer that is attached to the circulator pumps of the forced hot water systems. It runs the pumps on occasion to keep the water from freezing in the cold spots.

That sounds like a great idea. Do you happen to know who that individual is? I actually have 5 Grundfos Alpha circulators, but I think that I would probably only need 2 for the zones on the second flooor

 

[Hiskid]

I do something similar to what Sysco does above. The propane furnace as a helper/backup. It worked when the stove cut off because of overheat at 6 AM after I bumped it to #4. I knew something happened because the furnace came on. Depends where your stat is and what heat it gets from the stove. You could have the furnace heat come on to help the stove and keep water running. You definitely need to keep some water flow going if the pipes can freeze. I imagine if there is warmth in the water from the rest of the house just having the circulators run would help the situation .

 

[zrock]

U could always turn the stoves down at night and let your heating system kick in and circulate for the night.

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[bbone]

Therm guard is what you are looking for, circulates water at your timed setting, hooks to t-stat rather quickly

 

[Light in the Dark]

U could always turn the stoves down at night and let your heating system kick in and circulate for the night.

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Yeah its cheap insurance (IMO). We use a Jotul for our primary heat on one side of the house (with a fan blowing that way all night, pushing heat back towards the bedrooms)... and keep the t-stats at 65, so they kick on during the coldest part of the early morning. Staves off the big heat dump, and keeps it all moving just enough to be happy and trouble free.

 

[Light in the Dark]

(in our case its propane fired, but the fuel does not matter)

 

[zrock]

I shut my stove down for the night and let the furnace run... I think with wind chill it's-22 give or take... all I know is it's bloody cold out...lol...sucks to be a smoker in this weather...lol

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[sportbikerider78]

Unless you have some serious insulation issues, inside your walls will not get below 32F. Piping does not normally run through walls, but rather down through the floor to the basement.

If you're concerned, run it a bit. I heat with a woodstove, but run the boiler at night to keep the house above 63F.

 

[JRemington]

That is an excellent question. To be totally honest with you I’d be willing to be that there is no anti-freeze in it. I put a Buderus boiler in about six years ago and I don’t recall any ant-freeze going into it. To me that sounds like it would make a lot of sense to have it in it. How would I go about adding some to it?

You would have to drain out some water and add the antifreeze. I'm assuming there is no domestic hot water so you can use regular antifreeze. Do you know how many gallon system it is and where is it located?

 

[DBCOOPER]

There is antifreeze specifically for hot water heating systems. It causes efficiency loss. The equipment need to be sized with the use of antifreeze anticipated.

 

[bogieb]

Therm guard is what you are looking for, circulates water at your timed setting, hooks to t-stat rather quickly

This is what I use and have it hooked directly to the thermostat (your SO may not like the looks of that and if you have the ability, you can hook it directly to the system). I set it to run 3x a day, for 8 minutes each cycle. My FHW pipes run thru the unheated garage (it was 29* out there yesterday). I have not had any issue. It does seem a bit expensive for what it is, but I certainly can't make my own and it saves me quite a bit more than if I got frozen pipes.

Until you get an automatic system, I would run the boiler (turn up thermostat (s) above room temp) for 10-15 minutes each morning and night.

 

[bogieb]

There is antifreeze specifically for hot water heating systems. It causes efficiency loss. The equipment need to be sized with the use of antifreeze anticipated.

I have a 950 sq/ft house (FHW run for main floor only) and I was quoted over $500 to have that done (back in 2014). Just saying if the OP decides to go that way, he shouldn't be surprised if it is very expensive.

 

[SESZOO]

Minus 19 here this morning and close to it the past few days and into the future , We moved the thermostat for the gas air heat into an unused room and set it to come on when it gets too cold , under 0 , just to keep the underneath pipes from freezeing up .,that and letting the water drip The pellet stove has been running full blast ,.. Feels like we're sitting in the tropics ,but better than the froze pipes . Once it gets back up above 0-5 we'll shut the furnace back down and live with just the stove..

 

[P51mustang]

I experienced frozen baseboard heat piping a few years ago as a result of simply allowing my pellet stove to run continuously over the course of a very cold winter and not running the boiler. One section of the pipe near the outside wall froze.

To avoid this happening again, my plumber did put some anti-freeze in my boiler. Also, my wife and I are very careful about running the boiler 2-3 times per day for 15-20 minutes or so at a time to avoid this problem. We ALWAYS do this just before bed when we typically get the real cold temps. I had considered installing the Therm Guard mentioned above but decided to simply be diligent about running the boiler in very cold temps. Finally, I also added some, what I discovered after the freezing incident, much needed insulation around the copper baseboard pipe where it froze.

 

[Orson_Yancey]

I experienced frozen baseboard heat piping a few years ago as a result of simply allowing my pellet stove to run continuously over the course of a very cold winter and not running the boiler. One section of the pipe near the outside wall froze.

To avoid this happening again, my plumber did put some anti-freeze in my boiler. Also, my wife and I are very careful about running the boiler 2-3 times per day for 15-20 minutes or so at a time to avoid this problem. We ALWAYS do this just before bed when we typically get the real cold temps. I had considered installing the Therm Guard mentioned above but decided to simply be diligent about running the boiler in very cold temps. Finally, I also added some, what I discovered after the freezing incident, much needed insulation around the copper baseboard pipe where it froze.

In some of the cold areas of my baseboard forced hot water pipes, I have ran electric pipe heating cable along the copper pipe, or back and forth
through the aluminum fins, that are attached to the copper pipe.

 

[phil san]

Hey, I posted this a while back. Got 6 zones forced hot water. Haven't used the boiler yet and have had this on all winter. No issues!

Same situation here in SE Mass with this sub zero freeze.. Running a Harman 52i insert and NOT using my oil forced hot water 6 zone burner at all. Looked at the Thermaguard but instead of spending the $, did a simple fix.
Utilized a $4 manual AC timer having 48 on off settings. Jumped it to the circulator contacts and switched each zone valve to constant manual open.
Now I can set the times to any combo (every 1 1/2 hour on for 30 min) and water circulates thru all zones with no freeze up. Took 10
mins to complete.
ps; changed from manual on to just wiring direct to the circulator and left all the thermostats on high.