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Mobile View HEATING SYSTEMS ANODES & DIP TUBES on WATER HEATERS ANTI SCALD VALVES BACKFLOW PREVENTERS BAROMETRIC DAMPERS BLOWER DOORS & AIR INFILTRATION BLUERAY Recall BOILERS, HEATING BOILERS, HEATING BOILER CONTROLS & SWITCHES Air Bleeder Valves Air Separator Purge Valves Aquastat Functions BOILER LEAKS CORROSION STAINS BOILER OPERATING PROBLEMS BOILER PARTS LIST Boiler Pressure Controls & Settings Cad Cell Relay Switch Flame Sensors Circulator Pumps & Relays Draft Regulators, Barometric Dampers Expansion Tanks Gauges on Heating Equipment Limit Switches, Boilers Low Water Cutoff Valves, Boilers Mixing Valves Pressure Gauges, Boilers Relief Valves - TP Valves Reset Switch - Primary Control Reset Switch - electric motors Spill Switches Stack Relay Switch Thermostats Water Feeder Valves, Hydronic Boiler Zone Valves BOILER LEAKS CORROSION STAINS BOILER NOISE SMOKE ODORS BOILER OPERATING PROBLEMS BOILER OPERATION DETAILS BOILER PARTS LIST BOILER PRESSURE SETTINGS CARBON MONOXIDE/DIOXIDE CARBON MONOXIDE WARNING CHIMNEY INSPECTION DIAGNOSIS REPAIR CHIMNEYS & Flues - Asbestos Transite Pipe COOL OFF HEAT Thermostat Switch DRAFT REGULATORS - barometric dampers DUCT SYSTEMS DUST FROM HVAC? ELECTRIC HEAT ELECTRICAL POWER SWITCH FOR HEAT FLUE VENT CONNECTORS FREEZE-PROOF A BUILDING FURNACES, HEATING FURNACE CONTROLS & SWITCHES FURNACE OPERATION DETAILS GAS PIPING, VALVES, CONTROLS HEAT EXCHANGER LEAKS HEAT LOSS in BUILDINGS HEAT LOSS INDICATORS HEAT LOSS R U & K VALUE CALCULATION HOUSEWRAP AIR & VAPOR BARRIERS HEATING COST SAVINGS METHODS HEATING LOSS DIAGNOSIS-BOILERS HEATING LOSS DIAGNOSIS-FURNACES HEATING OIL CLOUD WAX GEL POINT HEATING OIL EXPOSURE HAZARDS, LIMITS HEATING OIL SLUDGE HEAT PUMPS HEATING SYSTEM INSPECTION DIAGNOSIS REPAIR DETAILED HEATING SYSTEM INSPECTION PROCEDURE HIGH EFFICIENCY BOILERS/FURNACES INSULATION MOTOR OVERLOAD RESET SWITCH NO HEAT - BOILER / FURNACE DIAGNOSIS OIL BURNER NOISE SMOKE ODORS OIL FUEL TYPES & CHARACTERISTICS OIL TANKS OIL TANK GAUGES OIL TANK SLUDGE OIL TANK TESTING OIL TANKS, BURIED PLASTIC HEATER VENT PULSE COMBUSTION HEATERS RADIANT HEAT Floor Mistakes to Avoid RADIATORS RELIEF VALVES - TP Valves on Boilers Relief Valves - Water Heaters SAFETY DURING HEATING INSPECTION Safety Recalls BLUERAY Recall CHIMNEYS & Flues - Asbestos Transite Goodman HTPV RECALL Heat Recovery Ventilator RECALL Lennox WARNING Weil McLain RECALL SPILL SWITCHES STACK RELAY SWITCHES STEAM HEATING SYSTEMS TANKLESS COILS THERMAL TRACKING THERMOSTATS Transite Pipes, Chimneys & Flues More Information InspectAPedia Blog - News Updates Air Conditioning & Heat Pumps Bookstore Electrical Environment Exteriors Heating Home Inspection Insulate Ventilate Interiors Mold Inspect/Test Plumbing Water Septic Roofing Structure Contact Us |
This website answers most questions about all types of heating systems: troubleshooting, inspection, diagnosis, maintenance and repairs. We describe how to inspect all types of residential heating systems to inform home owners, buyers, and home inspectors of common heating system defects. If you don't know what kind of heat your building uses, we explain how to figure out the answer in the introduction to this article. If your heating system is not working properly, see NO HEAT - BOILER / FURNACE DIAGNOSIS. The articles at this website describe the basic components of a home heating system, how to find the rated heating capacity of an heating system by examining various data tags and components, how to recognize common heating system operating or safety defects, and how to save money on home heating costs. We include product safety recall and other heating system hazards. The limitations of visual inspection of heating systems are described. We continue to add to and update this text as new details are provided. Contact us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution. © Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website. How to determine what type of heating system is installed:Warm Air Heating Systems - Furnaces: If the heat in your building is provided by warm air that flows out of ceiling, wall, or floor air supply registers into the occupied space, or if your heating system uses a water-to-air heating system then the air which warms the living space is probably being delivered through large or small diameter ducts, registers, air filters, and a furnace blower, and the air is being heated by a gas, oil, or electric furnace, or perhaps by a heat pump or a geo-thermal system. See FURNACES. Hot Water or Steam Heating Systems - Boilers: If the heat in your building is provided by warm or hot metal radiators, heating baseboards containing finned copper tubing, or wall convectors that look like a radiator but contain finned copper tubing, or if heat is provided by flexible rubber, plastic, or metal tubing run in building floors or ceilings, then the warm or hot water circulating in those devices is probably being delivered by piping circulating water heated by a heating boiler, or possibly by a steam boiler or a heat pump or geo-thermal system. See BOILERS, HEATING and RADIANT HEAT Floor Mistakes to Avoid. What's the difference between a heating boiler and a furnace?In general, a "heating boiler" heats the building using hot water. A "furnace" heats a building using hot air or "warm air". Don't confuse the two since their means of making and distributing heat, their controls, and their equipment are mostly different. For a detailed guide to inspecting and maintaining warm air heating systems or furnaces, see FURNACES, HEATING. What's the difference between a hydronic (hot water) boiler and a steam boiler?A "steam boiler" delivers heat to the occupied space in the form of steam: the boiler literally "boils" water and sends steam rising up through steam riser pipes and through steam radiators in the occupied space. If your heating radiators have valves which hiss and let air escape as heat is coming on your heat is probably being delivered in pipes which circulate steam from the steam boiler up through radiators in the occupied space. For a detailed guide to inspecting and maintaining steam heat systems see STEAM HEATING SYSTEMS. How is heating boiler efficiency or economy measured? What does boiler AFUE mean?Each model of heating boiler is assigned an AFUE number. AFUE is an abbreviation for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. In short, the AFUE tells you, for each dollar you spend on energy for heating by gas, oil, or another fuel, just how much of your dollar shows up inside the occupied space of your building as heat. Higher AFUE is better. If your boiler has an AFUE rating of 90, that means that for every dollar you spend on fuel, 90 cents worth of heat is delivered into your building. The remaining 10 cents is lost in inefficiency such as heat that escapes up the chimney along with the products of combustion. AFUE is not the whole story of heating cost efficiency. A high-efficiency heating system that has not been cleaned and serviced may be running poorly and wasting money. In fact, an 85% AFUE heating boiler that has not been cleaned might be running at an efficiency much lower, perhaps 65%. Furthermore, if your building is drafty or poorly insulated, you may be delivering heat at high efficiency but losing it from the building much faster than necessary. These articles can help with a more complete approach to saving money on heat: First see HEATING COST SAVINGS METHODS then for more detail check out our articles at HEAT LOSS CALCULATIONS and HEAT LOSS INDICATORS and INSULATION IDENTIFICATION GUIDE What is a Hydronic or "hot water" Heating System?What are we looking at when we're talking about oil-fired hot water heat? It's helpful to form a simple working definition that helps understand the system. An oil-fired forced hot water or "hydronic" heating system is a collection of components which heats a building by heating and then circulating hot water through heat-radiating devices located in the occupied space. A "heating boiler" is a steel, copper, or cast iron "box" of hot water, connected to a loop of pipe (and radiators or baseboards) which runs around through the living area. The same physical water stays in the boiler and is circulated by a pump so that heat is delivered to the living area. Burning oil makes hot gases which are used to heat the water before being exhausted outside. Pumps move fluids through the system. Safety controls of various types are installed at various points protect against a number of potential hazards. How does a Heating Boiler Work?We discuss how heating boilers work in step-by-step detail at BOILER OPERATION DETAILS How to Inspect a Heating System using Physical Location of ComponentsThis approach broadens the scope of the heating system inspection and it may aid in heating system defect recognition or problem diagnosis, for example by observing that a heating boiler is located in a small, air-tight room (possible combustion air problems), or that the furnace is quite close to the oil storage tank. Below we give the basics of heating system inspection using the physical location "map" of components to assure completeness. See full details of heating system inspection procedures provided at HEATING SYSTEM INSPECTION DIAGNOSIS REPAIR
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Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website. BOILERS, HEATING |
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HEATING SYSTEMS BOILERS, HEATING BOILER CONTROLS & SWITCHES BOILER LEAKS CORROSION STAINS BOILER NOISE SMOKE ODORS BOILER OPERATING PROBLEMS BOILER OPERATION DETAILS BOILER PARTS LIST HEATING SYSTEM INSPECTION DIAGNOSIS REPAIR More Information InspectAPedia Blog - News Updates Air Conditioning & Heat Pumps Bookstore Electrical Environment Exteriors Heating Home Inspection Insulate Ventilate Interiors Mold Inspect/Test Plumbing Water Septic Roofing Structure Accuracy & Bias Pledge Contact Us |
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05/25/2009 - 09/05/1999 inspect-ny.com/heat/HeatBoilerOperation.htm - © 2009 - 1988 Copyright Daniel Friedman All Rights Reserved - InspectAPedia® is a Registered U.S. Trademark