I have Burnham oil furnace with a honeywell thermostat question

4 years ago

The Burnham oil furnace has a Honeywell thermostat attached to the side we have hot water baseboard heat. We live in a split level house. First level is basement area second level is our living space. On the second level we soon will be having a Mitsubishi 15k heating and cooling single unit ductless mini split installed. It will be installed on the living room wall facing down the hall to bedroom bathrooms. We live in Pennsylvania so the plan is to set the Mitsubishi unit to 70 degrees. We know it will heat living room dining room kitchen area approx 600 sq ft. and push some warm air back hall to bedrooms. The first two doors down the hall will remain closed the bathroom and a spare bedroom. The hope is living area heats to 70 degrees and bedrooms at end of hall are close to that too. We do have zone heating so we have one thermostat in living room and one in master bedroom. So we are thinking living room thermostat we can turn completely down. Master bed room thermostat maybe able to do the same in spring and fall but will have to experiment in winter may have to use the oil hot water baseboard heat occasionally. My question is about the Honeywell thermostat on the furnace it has two settings you can manually change a high and low setting to heat the water. Currently the high setting is at 180 and the low setting is at 160 to heat the water. If we are able to keep both thermostats upstairs turned off most of the year because of the use of the Mitsubishi unit. What can we adjust the Honeywell thermostat to? We need it hot enough for showers, laundry etc. But will not be using it for the hot water baseboard heat.

Any advise or additional questions are appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

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Comments (5)

mike_home
4 years ago
Oil prices have dropped to historic lows. So you want to make sure heating with the mini split with your electric rates will cost less than operating the oil boiler. Mostly likely it will but the savings may be much smaller than you originally thought.

i highly doubt the 15 BTU BTU mini split is able to heat your house to 70 degrees in during the winters of Pennsylvania. You will have to experiment with the three thermostats to find the best setting. I am curious why only a 15K BTU mini split. I don't think that will be enough to keep the house cool unless you have additional window AC units.

I am not an expert on integrated hot water heaters with oil fired boilers. However I would think there must be an independent hot water heating setting. I also think 180 degrees is too hot for your baseboard heating an it should be set at 160 degrees. Someone that has a similar set up may be able to provide guidance based on experience.
kevin kelleher
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks for the response Mike. Currently we are using 3 window AC units. Two small units in the bedrooms and a Larger 10k btu AC unit in the dining room window that cools living room, dining room and kitchen. So, the original thought was to put a 15k BTU AC only mini split on living room wall facing down hall to bedrooms. Replacing the bulky window AC unit and hoping some cool air will be pushed back to the bedrooms. We do plan to use the AC window units in the bedrooms as needed.

After getting some proposals we noticed there wasn't much of a difference in price between mini splits that are AC only compared to AC and heat. I do agree with the current logic of using oil over electric but just thinking through scenarios when the price of oil rises again.
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nexp
4 years ago
I can’t quite tell from your post if the boiler heats the domestic hot water or is just for space heating.

If you’re planning on not using a zone, you can most likely set the aquastat to 160.

If you intend to use the mini split for heat in a cold climate, make sure to get a hyper heat model. Standard ones drop off rapidly in capacity and efficiency below freezing. Many states and utilities offer rebates, sometimes substantial for these units. Your electric company likely has a beneficial rate if you go entirely electric for heating and abandon the oil entirely.
kevin kelleher
Original Author
4 years ago
Currently the boiler heats both domestic water and the baseboard heaters. The temperature is set at 180/160. In certain seasons we will be able to use the boiler just for domestic water and turn all the baseboard zones down. When we turn those zones down should I leave setting at 180/160 or are you suggestions lower the 180 to 160? If so should I turn the bottom number down too?

Thanks
nexp
4 years ago
I’m not familiar with you particular aquastat. Is the bottom number a separate setting for the DHW? For space heating, turning down high-limit on the aquastat should result in longer runtimes, as it will take longer to satisfy the room thermostat. This is usually a good thing, presuming it’s still keeping up. Feel free to turn it down, and if the rooms aren’t staying at the set point, turn it up some. Longer runtimes are better as they result in smaller temperature swings and less boiler cycling (and less heat loss to unconditioned space). I wouldn’t put it any lower, as a return temperature lower than 130 will cause sustained flue-gas condensation and corrode the heat exchanger.

I have Burnham oil furnace with a honeywell thermostat question

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I have Burnham oil furnace with a honeywell thermostat question

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mike_home

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