Beckett AquaSmart Advanced Boiler Control

[perc-o-prince]

So, is anyone familiar with these? The boiler tech explained to me how they work, and it seems to make sense. They're guaranteeing a minimum 10% fuel savings the first full year. Heck, that would more than pay for the $425 installed price they're quoting. It's different from the Intellidyne (sp) one they used to install in the way it diddles with the low/high limits of the boiler.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone is using one or has had experience with them!

Chuck

http://beckettaquasmart.com/

 

[petek]

I'm not quite getting it? Say for instance when I set our T-stat to 72 and the boiler fires up and the circ pump fires up shortly thereafter the boiler will shut down automatically even before it reaches its max set point if the T-stat has been satisfied.

 

[arbilab]

Perfect sense to me. If the t'stat can be satisfied with less than the cutoff boiler temp, why heat it the rest of the way?

 

[wayupnorth]

I dont know much about that new product. But my boiler has a Beckett oil burner and it is quite efficient and reliable. Plus I have a power vent exhaust. As far as burning oil goes for heat, the burners should use the same amount of oil and electricity, regardless if it is a hot water or steam boiler or hot air system. But a hot air system uses a high wattage motor for the blower where the boiler uses a much lower wattage circulator. Thus baseboard heat is always slower than registers with the warm air. Accordingly to that website's calculator, I could make my investment back in 4-5 years. I have two 330 gallon oil tanks and just had them filled for the upcoming year. 450 gallons @ $3.57/gallon. 17 years ago when I totally remodeled this place, oil was 59.9 cents a gallon.

 

[tomturbomatic]

All I can say is Oy

I guess where you are up in Maine, you do not have any alternative to oil? I guess you have insulated the hell out of the place to reduce your heating costs.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Hey Pete,

The way it conserves is by not firing the burner if it senses that there's enough hot water to satisfy the call for heat. If then the boiler temp drops below the lower limit, it fires. Currently, if I'm running hot water in the kitchen for a minute or so to fill a bucket or the sink, the burner fires. It wouldn't do that with the new control on it.

We also have a cold start system where the burner won't fire at all until there's a call. The tank will go to room temp if there's no call. According to the tech, a warm start (doesn't let the tank go below a certain temp, say 110F) is more efficient.

Tim- is that going to hold you for the winter? We'll go through about 1000 gallons this winter (1200-1400 per calendar year). Hopefully the investment we've made in storm windows will help. We have two more orders coming in then all the windows will have them.

Chuck

 

[wayupnorth]

Yes, the two 330 gallon tanks of oil will last me for a year for my baseboard heat and domestic hot water. I am heating almost 2000 sq.ft of space and do have propane backups on both levels. Normally I keep the thermostats set at 55 on the lower level and 60 on the upper and fire up the propane if it gets real cold. Every possible way I could tighten this place up I have done from insulation, new windows and doors to using free passive solar. as I have 8 big windows that face the afternoon sun. The larger cities do have the option of natural gas, which right now is about a quarter the cost of heating oil. I am 9 miles to the nearest pipeline but will never see it. Many people do use wood here in Maine because of its abundance, but I found it is more work than it is worth. One new alternative starting to catch on is wood pellets, made from wood waste.