Guess what I found! Er...

Yeah...apparently I bought this last April but was stressing about figuring out what was wrong with my L8124A Triple Aquastat.

So here is going to be my upcoming project, likely next week.

Enjoy the pics
Upside of being forgetful...surprises all the time!

Easy swap if your wires are long enough.
Read the manual first.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Tue. Jan. 04, 2022 6:32 pm

Easy swap if your wires are long enough.
Read the manual first.

RTFM? Since when is that how this site works? LOL.

Yeah, looks pretty straightforward. I want to do it when I have time to troubleshoot and monitor.

That's pretty neat. Did you get the outdoor reset module with it? That would be Really Neat!

-Don

id be interested how a out door reset control would work with a efm 520 .I would think one must use a motorized hot water return mixing valve would be how i think it would done as reset temperature of boiler may be problematic with solid fuel boiler keeping the fire lite.
Outdoor reset is the key to fuel efficiency . my propane condensing boiler never shuts off but it only making the water hot enough to replace the heat loss of the house so it operates usually at 26 percent max out put usually

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 09, 2022 8:37 am

That's pretty neat. Did you get the outdoor reset module with it? That would be Really Neat!

No, but I looked it up. About $63 Billion dollars. LOL. Or something like $300+ depending where you look. I think it could be discontinued or in short supply.

I did find some on Ebay for less though. But $$ is tight at the moment and it really wouldn't come into play until warmer weather (Spring?), so it will wait.

I DID, however, look up what it would take to build my own outdoor reset. Not bad, just the EnviraCOM protocol is tricky and their serial adapter is discontinued. I *may* look into that later, but for now it is just a curiosity.

I have designed a coal level meter using ultrasonic sensor and tested in the simulator.

I have designed a flame sensor and tested it in the simulator as well. But I have to work out empirically how to attach it and determine the upper limit of infrared exposure it will get in the door and shade/blocking of it accordingly.

If anyone is interested, I can provide a link to the simulator to follow or test the project as I go.

The next step is to setup a ESP32 module based webserver that will give me a remote interface so I can read and chart that data, and any other data I start to collect, such as zone temps, pump runtime, boiler temp, whatever.

Logging and remote access to data is the last knowledge threshold I have to pass and then it is off to the races!

Interestingly, if one interfaces with EnviraCOM protocol as some other folks have done, you can read, set, and control ANY device that uses that protocol, including the triple aquastat. This part is on the back burner for me, but if anyone wants to jump in, I can point them towards the specifications and projects others have done.

Why?

I am planning to eliminate the preset timer and full time small fan running, in favor of a controlled fire and fan based on my own criteria.

Once these pieces of knowledge are in my bag of tricks, I can reuse it to monitor things like electrical usage for circuits, weather, power outages/surges/dips/etc, or pretty much anything.

Long post, but I know you are a connoisseur of all things coal and heat related and might find this interesting

franpipeman wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 09, 2022 11:00 am

id be interested how a out door reset control would work with a efm 520 .I would think one must use a motorized hot water return mixing valve would be how i think it would done as reset temperature of boiler may be problematic with solid fuel boiler keeping the fire lite.
Outdoor reset is the key to fuel efficiency . my propane condensing boiler never shuts off but it only making the water hot enough to replace the heat loss of the house so it operates usually at 26 percent max out put usually

You said it all right there!

I'm not sure about changing the hot water mixing valve, hadn't considered that. The usual setups I've read about primarily adjust the triple aquastat to lower temps when outdoors is warmer. I'd be interested if you know something different?

The project I wrote about above has the main purpose of keeping the fire 1) Lit, and then 2) Only fired as needed and only to the level needed. Only way I see that is 100% is measuring flame and coal supply.

If I can log and chart the data, the thresholds should become evident pretty quickly and allow for all kinds of analysis.

The secondary goal is to make it almost plug-n-play so anyone else can duplicate it quickly with minimal effort. I am planning to release it all as open source, including the development.

Any controls I implement are expected to fallback to the manual/original controls in the event of failure. Later on, might transition it to industrial hardware.

To be clear, The above mentioned modulating mixing valve is a automated return bypass valve adjusting as per changing outdoor temperatures.

McGiever wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 09, 2022 12:51 pm

To be clear, The above mentioned modulating mixing valve is a automated return bypass valve adjusting as per changing outdoor temperatures.

Yes. Is the thought here to continue firing the boiler at normal output, but mix for lower temps into the zones, thereby reducing the time fired? How is this different than circulating unmixed hot water to the zones for less time?

Or are they simply 2 different approaches, first being adjusting triple aquastat, the other adjusting the mixing valve?

If so, the mixing valve approach wouldn't address standby loss reductions by lower TA setting. It would work GREAT for cold-start boilers like a modulating gas boiler.

(I think I'm going to start an additional thread about the measuring and controls development for anyone interested)

It all depends...

Cold start, solid fuel, or even low temperature radiant yes, so many ways to get more for less OR just to have the ultimate in comfort with no real costs concerns.

So many different methods to configure our systems. Fascinating!

Here is link to new thread for electronic development: Electronic DEVELOPMENT thread for sensors, monitors, controls

INSTALLED today!!! Pretend pics are vertical.
I pushed the thermistor in quite a bit more. It seemed like it was bottomed out, but then as I was manipulating things, it went in about 3 more inches. (no comments ) Perhaps there was a spot of corrosion or something in the well. The bulb looked great when I removed the old one.

HL (high limit) set to 180F
LL (low limit) set to 165F (default was 130F ! )

Left both high and low differentials at default 10F

Checked the boiler temperature dial = 172F
Boiler temp = 172F

BTW, this thing needs a WINDOW to view the boiler temp!

neat, keep us posted on how its working.

Jkohanski wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 01, 2022 7:04 pm

neat, keep us posted on how its working.

Thanks. This is the one that uses EnviraCOM protocol we discussed in the Electronic Development thread. BTY, my ultrasonic sensors came today for my hopper sensor