I don't want to pay to heat the whole house? How can I completely shut off one zone?

[McG]

I reconnected the thermostat early this morning. Is it possible to leave the thermostat wired to the circulator but disconnected from the boiler? I'm thinking this way the circulator would circulate but the boiler would not fire. Or does the boiler kick on when the store of water in it drops below a certain temperature and not when instructed by the remote thermostat? The system is not plumbed to bypass the boiler.

[Scuba_Dave]

My boiler does kick on when it calls for heat
And when the Temp falls below a certain point

What is the lowest setting for your thermostat ?
I've seen some that go down to 40/45
I'd think that's as low as I would want it to get

If you are losing that much heat keeping the Temp low then you need to insulate, replace the windows, or seal up leaks....or all of the above

[jadnashua]

Some boilers can run from cold...some maintain some minimum temperature, regardless of the call for heat. When there has been no call for heat for awhile, what temp is the boiler water? This is normally controlled by an aquastat. It sets the min/max of the boiler.

[McG]

The remote thermostat for the zone I want to shut down is a mercury triggered type with a minimum setting of 50 degrees. I thought of skewing the horizontal alignment of the mounting to over ride the settings. Anyone ever done this?

I am not familiar with the aquastat. Is it adjustable? The boiler is a Weil McClain Gold and about three years old. Can I disconnect the thermostat from the boiler and leave it connected to the circulator?

[HarlowBAshur]

I put a cycle timer on in series with the pump for the cold zone. In my case I run the pump 30 seconds once every half hour, but the space only gets down to the high twenties at the lowest.

It's hard to judge what will work in any given circumstance, but it can work quite nicely.

[jadnashua]

Letting that space get that cold could open you up to moisture damage. I'd try to keep it, and the water in the pipes at least 40 to 50 degrees. Letting it get into the 20's is just asking for trouble.

[HarlowBAshur]

Letting that space get that cold could open you up to moisture damage. I'd try to keep it, and the water in the pipes at least 40 to 50 degrees. Letting it get into the 20's is just asking for trouble.

No, not this time of year. It's called 'dry winter air' for a reason, which you can tell by glancing at a psychometric chart if you can find one that goes far enough off to the left.

If it's 0F outside and my controlled space is at 27F it's typical to see RH at around 45%, which is in no way troublesome to me. When it warms up at all outside, the inside temperature stays 25F or so warmer that the outside temperature with no dew point in sight.

The only trick is being confident the radiator pipes stay comfortably above 32F. I've monitored the situation by placing one of those radio outdoor sensors at different points of concern and it appears than in my situation, goosing the loop 30 seconds every half hour keeps the baseboards up over 40F at all times.

Cheers, hba