The background: In November 2013 I re plumbed the whole boiler (peerless WBV-04) and added zones for indirect water heater and father-in-laws room/bathroom. My tankless coil was leaking at gasket (and rusty). Since I was converting to indirect with cold start I replaced it with a blank plate. I bought the Beckett Aquasmart because it had the built in LWCO and heat manager. It was working pretty well but I found that it had A LOT of short cycling and I had some domestic hot water issues when 2 people shower which happens often with 2 teenagers and people getting ready for work. All zones controlled by Taco SR506 with superstor on priority.
The Aquasmart tries to keep low temperature which doesn’t coincide with Indirect needing BTU’s to reheat the water. It takes a while before it actually reaches 180 degrees, usually done with shower by then, or got out due to lack of HW.
This year I turned off the heat manager portion and tried the Intellidyne HW+ (since I already had it). One of the first things that I found with the HW+ was that the output temperature to my zones never reached 180 degrees, 170 was rare, normally 165 but Aquasmart showed 180 and heat soaked to 190+. I bought 3 different thermometers (2 oven remote sensor) and used the Flir thermal camera when I had it. I was getting a pretty consistent 20 degree delta T from output to return. All the thermometers matched the sensor from the Intellicon HW+ and very close to the temp pressure gauge mounted on boiler, all low as compared to Aquasmart Control readout.
What it appears to me is that the 5-6 gallons that used to surround the tankless coil (with cold water flowing through it) now heats up too fast and registers on the aquasmart accordingly to shut down. The water flowing through boiler eventually cools down, evens out and as the temperature drops it does so at a consistent rate that matches all the sensors down until it calls for heat.
I asked a couple plumbers I work with and even called Intellidyne about options (like adding a domestic sensor) with varying answers. Peerless said to contact a hvac/plumbing contractor. Checking through all different things I found that with this cold this year the water coming in to my supply was REAL cold which of course takes more BTU’s and time. The Superstor Aquastat Honeywell 4080 has a 15 degree differential (my old Boilermate had 10 degree). I turned off the Intellicon and left heat manager off. Of course this does nothing to help any fuel savings.
I had to turn the water temp up on the Superstor (I don’t have a tempering valve yet!) AND needed to turn boiler aquasmart to 190+ so I could actually get 180 out to my zones. This is definitely helping for the showers but not the wallet.
I’m not sure what options to try. I’m thinking replace the superstor aquastat with one that has a 10 degree differential so it will react quicker. Crazy thought of adding tankless coil back and piping it to cold supply of superstor. Try a different Aquastat? Wire up the Superstor differently to Aquasmart? Any where to relocate the Aquastat so it’s not sitting in such a large area of water? Would that cause other safety issues? Try different temp settings/diffs? New larger indirect water heater? All I know is I burned some serious oil the past 2.5 months and had domestic water issues. Heat worked fine.
The Intellicon HW+ was showing I was saving a HUGE .5% (just 9.5% shy of the guaranteed savings). The Aquasmart never showed anything except lots of short cycles when you went to history menu.
The Aquasmart tries to keep low temperature which doesn’t coincide with Indirect needing BTU’s to reheat the water. It takes a while before it actually reaches 180 degrees, usually done with shower by then, or got out due to lack of HW.
This year I turned off the heat manager portion and tried the Intellidyne HW+ (since I already had it). One of the first things that I found with the HW+ was that the output temperature to my zones never reached 180 degrees, 170 was rare, normally 165 but Aquasmart showed 180 and heat soaked to 190+. I bought 3 different thermometers (2 oven remote sensor) and used the Flir thermal camera when I had it. I was getting a pretty consistent 20 degree delta T from output to return. All the thermometers matched the sensor from the Intellicon HW+ and very close to the temp pressure gauge mounted on boiler, all low as compared to Aquasmart Control readout.
What it appears to me is that the 5-6 gallons that used to surround the tankless coil (with cold water flowing through it) now heats up too fast and registers on the aquasmart accordingly to shut down. The water flowing through boiler eventually cools down, evens out and as the temperature drops it does so at a consistent rate that matches all the sensors down until it calls for heat.
I asked a couple plumbers I work with and even called Intellidyne about options (like adding a domestic sensor) with varying answers. Peerless said to contact a hvac/plumbing contractor. Checking through all different things I found that with this cold this year the water coming in to my supply was REAL cold which of course takes more BTU’s and time. The Superstor Aquastat Honeywell 4080 has a 15 degree differential (my old Boilermate had 10 degree). I turned off the Intellicon and left heat manager off. Of course this does nothing to help any fuel savings.
I had to turn the water temp up on the Superstor (I don’t have a tempering valve yet!) AND needed to turn boiler aquasmart to 190+ so I could actually get 180 out to my zones. This is definitely helping for the showers but not the wallet.
I’m not sure what options to try. I’m thinking replace the superstor aquastat with one that has a 10 degree differential so it will react quicker. Crazy thought of adding tankless coil back and piping it to cold supply of superstor. Try a different Aquastat? Wire up the Superstor differently to Aquasmart? Any where to relocate the Aquastat so it’s not sitting in such a large area of water? Would that cause other safety issues? Try different temp settings/diffs? New larger indirect water heater? All I know is I burned some serious oil the past 2.5 months and had domestic water issues. Heat worked fine.
The Intellicon HW+ was showing I was saving a HUGE .5% (just 9.5% shy of the guaranteed savings). The Aquasmart never showed anything except lots of short cycles when you went to history menu.
Aquastat reaction time, add Tankless coil back?
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