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[ptt811]

My OWB is 80 feet from my house, I used insulated 1 in. pex.wrapped in the big plastic pipe about 24 feet under ground. About half way to the house it goes into the garage where it comes up through the floor where it goes to the pump, then back into the ground where it goes to the house. When the water returns it again enters the garage and goes up about 9 feet to a coil that I can heat my shop with if I desire.My question is...how much heat loss is acceptable from the boiler to the house ??  I bought a thermometer with probes and it is about 10 degrees less than the thermometer at the stove. I have the probes in the house just as it enters the first heat exchanger.

[homelite]

I live in northern Mi. my boiler is about 130' ft. from my house . I have the same temp and probe setup.
I loose exactly 10 degrees from the boiler to just inside the basment wall. I have the thermopex insulated pipe. I bought from central boiler.  $12.50 a lin.ft.

[Ridgekid]

I'm at 80' from OWF to basement wall. Another 15' to the first temp probe. I see a 3-4* difference on my X-300 and a 1-2* difference with a hand held temperature checker. I also have thermopex install. $12.00/ft

[Bull]

Some on here report only 1* difference from the OWB to the house. Can you check the accuracy of the thermometer by hooking it up to your pex at the owb the same way it is hooked up inside? I insulated my pipe and I seem to loose  1* to 6* depending on the temp.

[rhugg]

Heat loss will depend on a few variables so for comparisonyou might note where you are in the circulation cycle or if your circualator runs constantly.  My circulator only runs as required by the thermostat so clearly the beginning of the cycle will have more heat loss than the end of the cycle...especially if I have poorly insulated PEX from the boiler to the house.  If you have super insulated PEX I doubt you could measure any variation.  If you run your circulator constantly I'd expect less heat loss even with bad insulation because you keep the ground warm.

[RSI]

The thermometer in the boiler is probably in a drywell which will read a lot more accurate and higher. You will need to use the same thermometer at both ends of the pipe to get an accurate reading. You should also measure on the same type surface at both ends.

[BoilerHouse]

My OWB is 90 feet from the garage and 150 feet from the house.  Pump runs 24/7.  I have thermometers on both the supply and return lines at the boiler.  All lines are insulated PEX in 4 inch O tube.  Providing the heat exchanger fans are not running, the thermometers read essentially the same.  Even allowing for instrument error, the heat loss through the underground lines is low maybe a degree or two.

[martyinmi]

I lose 1*- 2* in and 1*- 2* out, as well as about 3*- 4* extra from water circulating through 60' of poorly insulated pex in my basement that goes to  the side arm(insulated) and water to air heat exchanger. That amount of loss seems to be fairly consistent with what my friends experience also.

   Happy New Year All!

[wiseass13]

Not impressed with my maverick remote therometer. Just got it and it reads 5-8 degrees less than my infrared temp gun

[Ridgekid]

I thought the maverick worked great when I had them.

What did you attach it to?
How did you attach it? ( wire ties? Aluminum tape?)
Did you insulate it?

Also make sure the complete probe is making contact with the surface area.

[ptt811]

I too Have the Maverick temperature dual probe. I used electrical tape to tape it to the pex tight then insulated over it. It is constantly about 10 degrees cooler than the boiler. I am just betting that its just not as accurate as the one on the stove. I just use it to see how low the temp is. Kind of gives me an Idea of how fast the Dog and I need to get our butts out there in the morning.

[martyinmi]

I think the little Maverick is very accurate when I consider what I am actually measuring. I have mine attached to the same color, same brand pex, and insulated as well as I can. My readings are consistently 18* cooler than what my digital control at the OWB says, and that is to be expected, as the pex itself acts as an insulator for the water. I especially like having it hooked up on weekend mornings. I wait until it reads  168* or so before I go out and add fuel. That tells me my boiler dosen't have sufficient wood to recover.
   One night last week I glanced at it before bed time and it said 155*. My Christmas tree lights weren't on, so I knew I had a problem. I had simply forgotten to flip my blower switch back on Well worth the small investment, plus I had the opportunity to get to know Ridgekid through my purchase.

[Ridgekid]

Feelings mutual Marty!   

[donahuej]

I'm in Southern NJ my boiler is about 80' ft. from my house. I have a temp probe at the boiler (dry well) and strap on probes on the line set in the crawl.  I used thermopex insulated pipe, from central boiler dealer here in Jersey - $10.50 a lin.ft.  Here are my readings and basic setup:

80' from house to boiler - water 185 at boiler.
Thru the foundation probe strapped to copper supply - water 184.
Return side at the foundation probe strapped to copper supply  - water 177.

Pump runs 24/7

50 plate DHW plate exchanger downstream of the water heater
16 x 24 water to air exchanger zone one
14 x 22 water to air exchanger zone two
Roughly 250' of copper 1' makes my single loop in the crawl.  I insulated my lines in the crawl with the 1” fiberglass with the plastic corners like you see on industrial steam lines.  Figured the money spent for the system, no reason to skimp on keeping the heat where I want it.

When I'm calling for heat and using hot water I see a 20-30 degree drop on the return side...system works perfect for me.  Always warm in the house, 4000 sq. foot rancher with 14 foot ceilings and never run out of hot water (three women in the house