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[Maxfli]

Totally new to the owb world.. It's been a week of - 20 to - 30 weather here and the old wood boiler is keeping the house warm..But the furnace fan blowing across the heat exchanger is running about 20 hours a day.. I have the aquastat set at 170..is there any advantage to turn it any higher.. This boiler is extremely old.. Want it to last the whole winter if I turned it up to 180 would it hurt it in any way.. Is it safer for longevity reason to run it at a cooler temp.. As I stated it's heating the house fine just burning lots of wood.  Thanks for any help or insight.

[new builder]

Wow...I hope you have a spare blower motor ready. I'd be looking real hard at my insulation in the house. I can't image running the blower that much. Mine run maybe twice a hour for about for minutes a cycle. I also have 24 inches of fiberglass in my attic. Also have r-30 in the walls. My homemade boiler is set at 160 and I load it once every 24 hours. I'm burning some really green wood right now. I absolutely love my boiler..my propane dealer on the other hand hates it...lol

[free heat]

180 is the standard off temp for most people I personally run mine 160 on 175 off. If your worried about your boiler just keep it where you have it or maybe bump it up just a few more degrees. It could be worse that 20 hours a day that your fan is on you could be burning lp or even worse fuel oil.

[willieG]

  although your blower running steady may not be desireable, you did say it was heating the house   bumping the water temp up more may help to some extent but i wonder what the difference is in  "water in and water out temps" perhaps your blower is not moving enough air.  if your water in temp and water out temp are around 20 degrees then  you are at about the maximum heat draw you want (you did say the hosue was heating fne)  but if it is less than 10 or 15 degrees lower on exit than you could consider changing yoru blwoer speed to move more air over the exchanger that would casue more het to be extracted and perhaps (likley) het your home on those extrememly cold days with a little more "down time" of the blower (and this would be insurance for even colder temps)

[juddspaintballs]

constant blower running is better than start/stop very often all day long.  if your blower is running long cycles it might actually be worse on your blower to increase the temperature so it has to cycle on and off more often

[Maxfli]

K.. Thanks for all the input.. Just bumped the boiler to 180...ill see how it goes.. Just checked my thermostat... My blower ran 20hours 12mins. Yesterday with the boiler set at 170..the house set at 21c..average outdoor temp.. Was - 18..

[victor6deep]

Haha holy smokes. He's saving money by burning wood but I bet thee ole electric bill is gonna be nice.

[hondaracer2oo4]

That is some damn cold temps. It's been 15-20 here during the day and around 0 at night. My blower has been running about 7.5 hours per day keeping the house at 70 during the day and 64 at night. Check your before and after temp if the water on each side of the heat exchanger and check what temp you have coming out of the vents.