Have a situation with a heating system. The Burnham boiler is about 20 years old, tankless, forced hot-water baseboard, oil-fired system. There are three heat zones each with their own thermostat, two circulator pumps and 2 zone valves.
When the system was originally installed, there were 2 zones with 2 circulator pumps and there were no zone valves. One circulator pump for level 1, the other for level 2. No problems were ever experienced.
The attic was turned into living space and a 3rd zone added. For the 1st level, nothing changed; one circulator pump is dedicated to it. For the extra zone that was added, the plumbing circuit for the second level was branched off and 2 zone valves were added. The second circulator pump is now used to feed the 2nd level and attic. There is no issue with how the plumbing is configured. All of the work to add the 3rd zone was performed by the oil company.
All thermostats are operating properly and are level and when there is a demand for heat from one zone at a time, there are no issues. I believe that a problem occurs when heat is demanded from more than one zone at a time. The system will run for 15 seconds then everything will shut off. After several minutes, it will turn back on again and run again for 15 seconds then shut off. This will continue until the temperature is reached. From what I witnessed, the boiler, circulator pumps and zone valves will all be off during this time. I have not poked around with a meter to start checking things yet and still need to determine the exact sequence in which this situation occurs.
From what I see, when the 3rd zone was added, an additional box was added to the boiler and there is a spaghetti mess in and around it. I am extremely familiar with control systems but haven’t spent more than just a few minutes looking at this to troubleshoot. In the long-term, there is talk of doing an addition which will require an additional zone. In the short term, I’d like to straighten this mess out. Going with the plan that an additional zone will be added, would I be better off not dealing with this mess and just installing a new controller that could handle everything better? If so, would you have any recomendations? Thx.
When the system was originally installed, there were 2 zones with 2 circulator pumps and there were no zone valves. One circulator pump for level 1, the other for level 2. No problems were ever experienced.
The attic was turned into living space and a 3rd zone added. For the 1st level, nothing changed; one circulator pump is dedicated to it. For the extra zone that was added, the plumbing circuit for the second level was branched off and 2 zone valves were added. The second circulator pump is now used to feed the 2nd level and attic. There is no issue with how the plumbing is configured. All of the work to add the 3rd zone was performed by the oil company.
All thermostats are operating properly and are level and when there is a demand for heat from one zone at a time, there are no issues. I believe that a problem occurs when heat is demanded from more than one zone at a time. The system will run for 15 seconds then everything will shut off. After several minutes, it will turn back on again and run again for 15 seconds then shut off. This will continue until the temperature is reached. From what I witnessed, the boiler, circulator pumps and zone valves will all be off during this time. I have not poked around with a meter to start checking things yet and still need to determine the exact sequence in which this situation occurs.
From what I see, when the 3rd zone was added, an additional box was added to the boiler and there is a spaghetti mess in and around it. I am extremely familiar with control systems but haven’t spent more than just a few minutes looking at this to troubleshoot. In the long-term, there is talk of doing an addition which will require an additional zone. In the short term, I’d like to straighten this mess out. Going with the plan that an additional zone will be added, would I be better off not dealing with this mess and just installing a new controller that could handle everything better? If so, would you have any recomendations? Thx.