# Boiler Room Temperature



## tom in maine (Oct 28, 2010)

Been wondering about heat loss off boiler jackets.
How warm does your boiler room get?


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## wood-engineer (Oct 28, 2010)

I have a 12 x 20 boiler room in the basement.  (2) 500 gallon tanks & a tarm boiler.  Gets in the mid 70's when the boiler is fired up.  If I don't clean my hx pipes in the boiler, it can get up to the high 70's (due to the increased stack temps).


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## twitch (Oct 28, 2010)

My boiler room is in the corner of my garage and is about 8X11.  When I keep the door to the garage shut, it can get into the 80's.  With it open about 6", low 70's


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## flyingcow (Oct 28, 2010)

Gets pretty warm, but the jacket of boiler is not hot, but all the black piping is the main heat. plus the stack pipe.


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## Medman (Oct 28, 2010)

I have a well insulated 14' x 24' boiler room; with the Eko burning full time in the winter it is mid 70's in the room. I have a fresh air make-up that dumps outside air into the room - it comes in under the boiler.  Before I installed the make-up air I had to leave a window open all the time for air, which made it a bit cooler in the room.  My attached, uninsulated double car garage stays above freezing in all but the coldest weather thanks to the heat coming from the insulated space.


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## sdrobertson (Oct 28, 2010)

twitch said:
			
		

> My boiler room is in the corner of my garage and is about 8X11.  When I keep the door to the garage shut, it can get into the 80's.  With it open about 6", low 70's



This is pretty close to my experience also.  I insulated the bottom of my boiler and I lay a piece of fiberglass insulation on the top of the boiler from the back to the controller.  I think I get most of my heat off the single walled chimney going to the ceiling (10' ceilings) and also quite a bit off the boiler doors.  I trade all this extra heat that would go in the house for a heated area out in a pole barn so I can sit in the boiler room by myself with a cup of coffee and watch the temp gauges and work on fixing the worlds problems in my own mind.


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## maplewood (Oct 28, 2010)

My new Econoburn threw so much ambient heat into my finished basement last winter that the kids often left a window cracked open to cool it down a bit.
I'm going to wall it off (wood room + boiler area = about 230 square feet) and put in a floor grate to the hallway above it.  It's not so much the boiler itself
that is heating up the space, it's all my black iron and copper piping.  I've thought about insulating it, but it would be a huge job, and it all just goes into the
house anyway....
I didn't put a thermometer in there, but I've got the basement thermostat set to about 70 degrees, and the boiler area is about 80 for sure.


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## Medman (Oct 28, 2010)

+1 Since I put the boiler in my workshop has also become my wife's craft room - it's nice that the crafting mess is now out of the house, but my "man-cave" now often smells like eucalyptus or potpourri. A new addition this year was the beer fridge; this has made the boiler room much more inviting. I agree that a warm shop with a comfortable chair is a good place to contemplate all those projects which I haven't yet started.


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## muncybob (Oct 28, 2010)

My unfinished basement also gets into the 70's even with windows cracked for fresh air and no insulation on the walls or door. Stack pipes gets fairly hot and have been contemplating insulating them to hopefully cut down on any build up in the chimney and the boiler itself emits most of it's heat loss from the rear which I have thought about insulating too but my tradeoff would be losing the heat rise into the living room above the boiler. So, I am actually undecided about insulating the boiler...on the one hand I guess I would save somewhat on fuel spent by keeping more heat within the boiler and maintaining water temps a bit longer but it sure is nice & toasty in the living room!


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## willworkforwood (Oct 28, 2010)

My EB has a full 1" mineral wool wrap, which is never more than just warm to the touch, even though the boiler jacket below would probably burn skin. And, like some of the other folks, piping has been a big focus for me. When the WB was first installed in the basement (in series with the OB), the heat was unbelievable - well over 80. I immediately insulated almost every pipe going to the BB loops. There is lots of loop piping down there, so that made a big difference, and took the basement down to 70+. Then after almost 2 years, I started thinking that there still was too much heat being wasted in the (unfinished) basement. The only other use is my workshop projects, and I have no problem working in 65 degrees. I felt that heating the basement slab, walls, floor joists, and floor surfaces under walls wasn't as effective as direct heat to the rooms upstairs. So, in late February I insulated most of the black near piping connecting the boilers, and the return protection loop. I have lots of "frothing" thermometers on various pipes, so it's easy to see the effect of any changes. The net of this extra insulation has been typically a 5 degree increase in water temp going out to the zones (correlated to the WB water temp). The basement temp is now cooler, but probably around the same as it was before the WB. It's been really helpful for me to know exactly how the heat is being distributed - without the instrumentation it's mainly just guesswork.


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## djbutt (Oct 28, 2010)

I found the following link helpful for figuring storage tank insulation and heat lose through pipe.

http://www.wbdg.org/design/midg_data.php

1 1/4 black pipe at 180 degrees gives off 102 btu per hour per foot.

Also using the "simple heat flow calcuator",  four 500 gal propane tanks with 3 inches of spray foam and 180 degree water gives off 1760 btu per hour.

No wonder its 80 degrees in my basement.


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## bigburner (Oct 28, 2010)

a 100 watt light bulb gives off +/- 350 BTU an hour. don't think 5 bulbs would make your basement 80F


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## vvvv (Oct 28, 2010)

i kinda wonder about the combbustion air requirements FOR THE BOILER


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## djbutt (Oct 28, 2010)

bigburner said:
			
		

> a 100 watt light bulb gives off +/- 350 BTU an hour. don't think 5 bulbs would make your basement 80F



Iron pipe   102 btu per hour per foot x 70 ft is 7140 btu per hour

Tanks        1760 btu per hour

Total  8900 btu per hour x 24 hours 213600 btu per day.

plus add the boiler itself and stove pipe and your right 5 light bulbs couldn't do it.

Just emphisizing the importance of insulation to keep the room cooler.


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## Justburnit (Oct 28, 2010)

My boiler is in a 12X15 room added to the back of the house. I also have added quite a bit of insulation to the boiler but even still if I close the door to the room it will get plenty warm in there. I am not sure just how warm since I have installed a duct to the far end of the house and use a thermostat on a wall near the boiler set to cooling. When the temp in the room climbs the duct fan starts and transfers heat to the far end of the house that has 53' of floor to ceiling windows. If the room gets smoky you just click off the thermostat so as to not blow the smoke through the house.


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## stee6043 (Oct 29, 2010)

My EKO and well insulated tanks give off just marginally more heat than my natural gas furnace does when running...


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## Fred61 (Oct 29, 2010)

I have one fire per day, usually in the afternoon and running into the evening. My unfinished walk out basement in my small ranch gets up to just under 70 while the unit is running and drops to a little over 60 over night and during the next day before the daily fire is lit. It's perfect for me so I wouldn't want to add any more pipe insulation nor add thickness to the storage tank. I only have about 30 percent of the near boiler piping insulated.


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## muncybob (Oct 29, 2010)

~*~vvv~*~ said:
			
		

> i kinda wonder about the combbustion air requirements FOR THE BOILER


I'm guessing your are referring to a jacket of insulation applied to the boiler itself? My boiler has a lenght of stove pipe that runs to the floor and serves as the air intake. The rest of the unit is completely sealed. I am thinking of insulating the  rear of the boiler but keeping the access door and air intake pipe clear...the rear of my boiler seems to be where the majority of the heat loss is and all I'm trying to do is keep the 60 gallons of onboard water hot longer. I'm just not sure if it is cost justified because let's say the boiler water does indeed stay hot longer but the main living area will get cooler quicker due to no residual heat loss heating up that area, now my thermostats will call for heat more often so maybe I don't gain anything at all?


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## jebatty (Oct 31, 2010)

Take a look at Horizontal Tank - Performance Data. It may help to better understand the magnitude of heat loss during a boiler firing into the boiler room and storage tank standby losses.


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## Hansson (Nov 2, 2010)

My boiler room gets to 26 Celsius in the summer.
Now it`s about 22.


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