Piwoslaw's conservation thread

Piwoslaw · 10-25-12, 03:40 PM

A month ago I cleaned out the boiler's heat exchanger, and I did it better than last year: I used an old bicycle spoke to remove the debris and deposits between the HX's fins. Lots of work, took lots of time, but I estimate that the clogged spaces between fins reduced the HX's surface area by 5-8%, so it was like new again

Unfortunately, a week ago the boiler stopped working. The serviceman said that one of the electronic modules is bad and the whole motherboard must be replaced. The boiler is 12 years old, the model has been out of production for a decade, so replacement boards are non-existent. Now I have a boiler hanging on my wall which probably only needs to have a resistor or relay replaced to be perfectly good, but nobody can tell what needs to be done. In fact, the serviceman said that (besides the bad board) the boiler is in very good shape, much better than most younger models.

So we spent a week struggling with a small electric heater to keep the temperature in the house above 15°C (59°F), we usually keep it 1.5-2°C warmer. But today we finally got a new boiler installed, which is ...
[drumroll]
a condensing model

It's been running for only an hour now, so we are all soaking in the heat, but I did get a chance to go through the manual. If I understand everything correctly, then the boiler's efficiency is over 97% with 80°/60°C supply/return temperatures, but 107% with 40°/30°C. My system's temperatures are close to 45°/38°C, so I should be taking advantage of the condensing effect. Every drop of condensate means more heat got extracted from the fuel

As I get used to this new boiler I'll post updates.

10-25-12, 03:40 PM	#21
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 961 Thanks: 188 Thanked 110 Times in 86 Posts	A month ago I cleaned out the boiler's heat exchanger, and I did it better than last year: I used an old bicycle spoke to remove the debris and deposits between the HX's fins. Lots of work, took lots of time, but I estimate that the clogged spaces between fins reduced the HX's surface area by 5-8%, so it was like new again Unfortunately, a week ago the boiler stopped working. The serviceman said that one of the electronic modules is bad and the whole motherboard must be replaced. The boiler is 12 years old, the model has been out of production for a decade, so replacement boards are non-existent. Now I have a boiler hanging on my wall which probably only needs to have a resistor or relay replaced to be perfectly good, but nobody can tell what needs to be done. In fact, the serviceman said that (besides the bad board) the boiler is in very good shape, much better than most younger models. So we spent a week struggling with a small electric heater to keep the temperature in the house above 15°C (59°F), we usually keep it 1.5-2°C warmer. But today we finally got a new boiler installed, which is ... [drumroll] a condensing model It's been running for only an hour now, so we are all soaking in the heat, but I did get a chance to go through the manual. If I understand everything correctly, then the boiler's efficiency is over 97% with 80°/60°C supply/return temperatures, but 107% with 40°/30°C. My system's temperatures are close to 45°/38°C, so I should be taking advantage of the condensing effect. Every drop of condensate means more heat got extracted from the fuel As I get used to this new boiler I'll post updates. __________________ Ecorenovation - the bottomless piggy bank that tries to tame the energy hog. Last edited by Piwoslaw; 10-25-12 at 03:42 PM..