heat timers

[viceman]

has anyone used one of these lately ?

i am looking at a building with a steam system that has the traditional issues.

i am leaning towards a heat timer. i have used these in the past,before i was doing ddc, and had great success. they always seemed to work miracles.

i thought about using a programmable but there is a local plumbing/heating contractor that maintains the building and i feel he has the capabilities to operate and maintain a heat timer without alot interaction from me.

i haven't used one in awhile and i am interested in opinions.

[bob_scheel]

We take care of a couple of bldgs that we setup control to time the steam based on outside air temp. At 20 degrees we stay heated all the time. At 50 degrees we run steam for 15 minutes once every 90 min from 8am to 5pm. As the outdoor air gets colder the steam stays on longer every 90 min until its on continously at 20 degrees.

Its a kludge but the customer is unable to finance the repairs / upgrades needed to get better control. This works and keeps his tenants in an 8 story bldg. happy and he no longer has windows open in the winter time.

The steam is controlled via a pnuematic valve so the boilers stay hot and we don't run into condensation problems.

[viceman]

We take care of a couple of bldgs that we setup control to time the steam based on outside air temp. At 20 degrees we stay heated all the time. At 50 degrees we run steam for 15 minutes once every 90 min from 8am to 5pm. As the outdoor air gets colder the steam stays on longer every 90 min until its on continously at 20 degrees.

Its a kludge but the customer is unable to finance the repairs / upgrades needed to get better control. This works and keeps his tenants in an 8 story bldg. happy and he no longer has windows open in the winter time.

The steam is controlled via a pnuematic valve so the boilers stay hot and we don't run into condensation problems.

this is pretty similar to how the heat timers function. but the heat timers have a end of run strap on sensor that will not let the 'off timer' start counting until heat is sensed . it ensures that heat has made it to the furthest point in the system.