Cold Weather in Upstate Ny - Boiler Not Keeping up

I programmed my thermostat to be at 70 at night but when I wake up, it was at 61. Any suggestions.
Last two days were very cold, below 0 degrees.
I have K 8 Keystoker , and 4400 sq feet, one thermostat for the whole house.

Any suggestion will help

Thank you

That boiler has more than enough BTU's to heat 4,400 sq. ft. I'm heating 4,000 sq. ft. with a Harman VF3000 rated at 95,000 btu. If I'm not mistaken, your K8 is nearly twice that capacity. Can you describe your system, ie radiators, baseboard, water to air heat exchanger, radiant? What temperature do you run the boiler? What is your aquastat differential set at? How about your home? Well insulated, good windows?

It was 2 here this morning, coldest night in 5 years. All I did was jack up the boiler temp to 160. House was toasty.

thanks for your reply
My set is 170 to 190 and it helps a lot, now is running at 180
I have installed a new windows, but basement is not well insulated. I have radiators and baseboards. I have to put my thermostat to 80 in order for heat the house to 72, I can easily am spending like 2 tons or more a month.
Ihave only 1 thermostat for the whole house, a multifamily. Do you think that if I zoned it into two thermostat will help?

Thank you

Well there is a missing piece of this puzzle somewhere. That's twice the amount of coal I burn. Does your boiler also do domestic hot water? You said your home is multi-family. That makes for lots of baths, shoers, laundry, etc. You said your basement is not insulated. Is it heated? How about the insulation in the rest of your home? How old is your home? for the heat load you describe with radiators and baseboard, that boiler should be kicking ass and taking names.

Before you started using coal, did the oil boiler keep the house comfy cozy? How much oil would it use? On really cold nights, did the oil boiler keep the place 72 if set on 72?

The old furnance keep it nice and cozy, the new oil part keep it nice, the coal part wont do it, have tried everything I know of, with all new ducks and new insulation throught the house this past summer, it should be easyier for the coal furnance, the thermstat switch is on at 130, high at 165 and the cut off is at 200, the temp out side is 15 and the house is 71 and the thermostat is on 80, before this past summer, the house didnt have any insulation

Williamstown, NY

It sure seems like the boiler aquastat is set too low.Try 160 low, 180 high. If the low is at 130, then you have some relatively cool water circulating through your radiators and baseboards. The K8 should be snoozing keeping you at 72 degrees.

Yup, I think that's part of the solution, if not the whole answer. Turn the coal up to 160/180.

Is there a barometric damper on the coal unit?

duck49us wrote:The old furnance keep it nice and cozy,

what size what the old boiler?

duck49us wrote:the new oil part keep it nice, ,

Is this a part of the K8 or a new oil boiler and if a new oil boiler what size is it?

Turn you water temp. up. You will get warm. Mines at 180/200 with a 15 diff. As long as the boiler isn't loosing ground you will get warm. And my loosing ground I mean does the temp keep dropping as the boiler is running?

nunuvero , one easy way to make a comparison is one ton of coal is equal to 180 gallons of oil. If you know what your total cost for oil was over a season you can average the two. It's not completely scientific.... You'll have to figure in the insulation too as that can make a significant difference.

As a general rule assuming adequate insulation and decent windows you need about 2.5 tons per 1000 sq. foot for the entire year including hot water through the summer but there are many other factors so that is not exact either. Having said that I wouldn't consider using 2 tons per month overly excessive in house that size during cold weather months especially if you're only looking at this type of weather.

I'm not suggesting it isn't excessive either. Certainly possible something is wrong. If you can list how much oil you burned in previous seasons that would give a pretty good indicator. Lastly that boiler should not have any issues keeping up, what is strange is you need to keep the thermostat at 80 to maintain 70 which really makes no sense.

Richard S. wrote:what is strange is you need to keep the thermostat at 80 to maintain 70 which really makes no sense.

I agree. It makes no difference if the thermostat is set at 71 or 80. Either way it's running continuously trying to catch up.

There's something missing in the equation.

What is the supply and return temp at the coal boiler?

edit - If it's running continuously to try and catch up or keep up, how many turns out is your feed nut?

How long is the firebed when its been stoking for awhile?

Thank you everyone for your help
My house is 4400 sq feet. 3story house with only one thermostat.
The last 2 nights were fine, I am using a lot of coal but it is working very good, I will said that I am easily spending 3 bags of 50 pounds a day or a little more when temp is very cold.
My setting is 170 to 190 and it is working good.
Last year I spend like 2500 galons of oil, like $8000, so even if I spend 15 tons of coal @ 270 I will still be good 4050. almost 50% less.

Thank you again

Just for perspective. I'm heating 3200 sq feet with an EFM 520. In two months I've burned about 4 ton. So your not that bad actually.