STOKERS RUN TIMES and HOUR METERS

Ha. I type up my reply without seeing yours and when I post it, you posted yours 20 minutes ago. Didn't think the page was sitting there in the browser that long...

I bought some hour meters, now I just need to hook them up. And in looking at the wiring, I realize that I think my F-i-L - the ultimate tinkerer who never reads a manual - has the wiring on the stoker hooked up incorrectly so that it's firing whenever any zone calls for heat so the boiler's water temp is always bumping off the high-limit safety shutoff. He remodeled a room in the house and added some baseboard and I think he decided in his tuning, to fiddle with the circulator's wiring.

I don’t have one.

It may be nice to install one before I start to make weatherization improvements like double pane windows and insulation to track improvements but the weather is ever changing so I would have to track a ton of other information as well to keep it all relevant. If they were considered necessary the manufacturers would include them with your stoker but I also understand inquiring minds want to know. Hell, I date my flashlight batteries, not that they last any longer but I just have to know.

gaw wrote:I don’t have one.

It may be nice to install one before I start to make weatherization improvements like double pane windows and insulation to track improvements but the weather is ever changing so I would have to track a ton of other information as well to keep it all relevant. If they were considered necessary the manufacturers would include them with your stoker but I also understand inquiring minds want to know.

That's one of the reasons that I've tracked mine for the past couple of years. Since my memory isn't what it used to be, I can't remember exactly one winter from the next. As you said, if I put in new windows at the end of one season, then checked how much coal I used (roughly) at the end of the next season, I might be surprised to see that I burned the same amount of coal. That would seem to me that it was money down the drain on the windows. But, if I keep weather data as well, I would see (hopefully) that it was a much harsher winter and I would have burned more coal without the new windows.

gaw wrote:Hell, I date my flashlight batteries, not that they last any longer but I just have to know.

Do they put out on the first date? Couldn't resist that one. I record the date whenever I change razor blades, so I know where you're coming from. Going on four months with the latest, but I have the facial hair of a 14-year-old.

Stoker Hours per Day meters are useful for anticipating coal loading and ash removal times. We just set a new high record for our boiler Wednesday, over 18 hours stoker run time out of 24 hours. Boiler teeth are still on a setting of 5 out of 10 heating 4,200 sq. ft. of house in sub-zero temperatures.
Out fire timers that only fluff the fire when there has not been a natural call for fire for over the time set period are nice because they save coal and boiler wear and tear. Wednesday we had no out fire calls and today we had only one so far.
Dump timers are nice in that they automatically take care of excess boiler heat in the summer time without having an out fire. The timer is set 10 minutes longer than the out fire timer. The only way to reach the dump time is that the out fire timer called for a stoker run, but the stoker could not run as the boiler was in an over temp condition. The dump controller turns on a zone valve for 30 minutes to get the boiler back under the over temp condition. Then the out fire timer call for stoker run resets it (A stoker run resets both the out fire timer and the dump timer to 0). Having a dump counter allows you to tune your boiler settings until you find the right setting combination to have no dumps in the summertime.
Ash counters are nice in that they count stoker hours to tell (our in our case call) you when the ashes need to be taken out. You then reset the ash timer to 0 when you change the ash tub out.
Maintenance hour counters are nice for keeping track of boiler maintenance intervals. It alerts you when the boiler has reached it's maintenance interval.
McGiever is one of those out there with a LOGO.