New Burner is taking forever to heat house

tlharper

Two weeks ago I installed a programmable thermostat. Set to turn on wake up from 5:45-8:00 am and again from 3:45-10pm. While on the temp is set to 70, while away/asleep its set to 64.

This is an oil furnace with hot water baseboards in a small three bedroom bungalow. There hasn't been a major change in temperature outside the last week or so.

Before the new burner was installed by 6:30am the house was up to 70 and by 4:30 it was nice and cozy as well. We had a new Riello 40 Series (either an f3 or f5 model) installed yesterday and since then by the time i leave in the morning it still hasn't reach 70 and last night it was a little after 9 pm before it heated up to 70.

I had the installer come back this evening and he said everything looked good although he agreed it shouldn't take that long to heat the house.

- the pipe that returns water at the furnace is piping hot to touch
- no sound of air in pipes

He said to call again if it takes an extreme amout of time to heat again tonight. Mind you this was a 5:15, heat had been running since 3:30 today (set it a little earlier last night) and it had only gone up a degree by that point.

Any ideas?

beenthere

Is the new burner fired at the same rate as the old burner?

REP

It could be a dozen differant things.The first place I would look is the circulator pump.
I would also look at what the water temp is set for.Put it at 180 defrees if its lower.

ben's plumbing

yes beenthere and rep make good points....1st if old one was working why did you change it?make sure burnner is firing at the same btu rating....make sure water temp is same as old setting....Ican't think why circutator, or temp, would be disturbed at changing out burnner assy...if you changed thermostat is it shuting down burnner in shot cycles....

tlharper

Its a rental house. The old burner was 30+ years old and the owner wanted to install a more energy efficient unit, which I was completely happy with as I pay the oil bill. I do know that the temperature is currently set at 150, but I have no idea how to dial it up to 180.

The thermostat was changed two weeks before the burner and was functioning properly.

I am guessing that the age of the old burner and the new one that they likely aren't firing at the same rate. last night it took 4 1/2 hours to get up to 70. The water is nice and hot coming out of the taps as well, but it doesn't seem to circulate through the pipes very long so maybe it is the pump.

Now showing my ignorance, is the pump part of the burner unit or is it completely separate? If separate is it possible that the old pump isn't compatible with the new burner? How would changing the burner suddenly make the pump not work?

beenthere

Pump/circulator isn't part of the burner.

Ask the contractor if he lowered the water temp of the boiler. He may have set it lower in an attempt to save you money on the heating bill. At 150, it could take some time to heat up the house. Does the boiler also provide your domestic/potable hot water, or do you have a separate water heater.

tlharper

Yes the boiler also provides my domestic/potable hot water, I don't have a separate hot water tank.

beenthere

Good chance that the tech turned/changed the settings while he was setting up the burner. Post the temp settings of the control, both the high and low temp settings, along with temp differential.

tlharper

I will have a look when I get home (at work right now). Is it easy to locate where the high/low settings of the control are? I seen what I would say is akin to a pressure gauge that shows the water temperature being 150.

beenthere

Remove the cove, an you will see the temp setting dials.