Time tracking operation on boiler OKOFEN

[Did67]

It's dangerous, so you stay on the side: you fill a large and hollow dish with it (like a gratin dish) and you microwave for short periods, while keeping an eye ... Between each heating, you ventilate to evacuate the humidity and you start again as long as it does not tan. There you stop (otherwise, risk of setting fire by self-ignition, just as happens in the boiler).

If you have a precision scale, you weigh first, then each time you dry. In the end, you will have by difference, your humidity rate ...

These "freshly roasted" pellets, you put them on the disc, until it touches the igniter. And you start the ignition cycle. If it lights up this time around, there is a presumption of excessive humidity in your batch (since when dried, it lights up). Otherwise, there is a bug on your boiler ...

[Lolo23]

It was in May the last delivery, it may have taken a little humidity.

[Lolo23]

I did the humidity test in the microwave. I get a humidity level of less than 10%, which seems normal.
The heating engineer came this morning, for him no heat on the igniter side. He said the heat I saw the other night may have been because the boiler was still hot, so the igniter was too. For him, this can also explain the unburnt I had recently, if the igniter is at the end of its life.
It has never changed on these models yet, but mine is from 2007 ... Small hole also at the level of the pellet inlet duct under the plate, which it has clogged. He sent the photo to Okofen for their opinion.
Cycle side, we were 66min on average (about a year ago) over 3000 hours of operation, so good also on what I read on this forum.
Small weird point, I noticed recently that it was having trouble reaching 75 ° and so I have the impression that it never stops and that it rotates continuously. No impact on the comfort side, however.

[Lolo23]

I made a mistake in the figures: 77min average cycle for about 10000 ignition and 13000 hours of operation

[Did67]

OKAY. So all is good.

This is the igniter - normal, it is a wearing part. Mine was also changed a few years ago (boiler from late 2007 also).

Less than 10% is okay.

Yes, unburnt particles are undoubtedly the consequence of "aborted" start-ups: the boiler fills the plate then the igniter operates for a certain time, with the ventilation fully flowing. Normally it lights up. If this does not come on, the boiler starts the cycle again: it refills the tray (in case there was not enough; but if there was enough, the one overflows!), Re-ignites, etc. ... I no longer know if she repeats once or more ... Then she notices that it does not heat up and goes into fault - red light.

Your average times are very correct.

So nothing to say. An igniter to change. And possibly the disc (if the air is badly distributed, on the other side of the "hole", there is not enough air, therefore incomplete combustion).

[Lolo23]

Thank you for your answer. Do you remember the price of the lighter?

What intrigues me is that it cannot reach 75 °. She is still on the same cycle since 7am this morning and she is at 73 °. It turned all night (to recover the degrees lost during the weekend) without stopping since it was working this morning and the igniter is hs ..

[Did67]

No, I don't remember. But it is not exorbitant. I have the impression that it was a story of 70 € (but I could be wrong) ...

You are a happy man and do not know it!

Your boiler regulates perfectly. The purpose of the boiler is not to reach the "maximum" - and to shut down. The goal is to regulate the fire so that it does not have to stop and restart. The software will therefore "modulate" the power, and tend towards a temperature which is not the maximum temperature, but towards a nominal temperature (which is around 70 ° C - this can be set).

So below 70 ° C, it "accelerates": increases the supply of pellets and ventilation, to tend towards 70 ° C.

Above, the boiler modulates downwards.

The maximum temperature is a high limit, not to be crossed: if the heating does not consume enough (it is too hot), then, at the lowest possible modulation, it still produces too much. The temp is rising. And the max temp ends the cycle.

What you observe is therefore a fairly ideal situation, where the modulation manages perfectly, and avoids steps / stops.

Unfortunately, this is rare, because our boilers are oversized 3/4 of the time. They are calculated to cope with - 20 ° C. If they were - I spent my time on the Okofen wires fighting against the heating engineers who installed boilers that were too powerful; mine, I imposed 15 kW on it, which we have since reconfigured to 12 and which is still too powerful; he wanted me to install the 25! If, in addition, the heating engineer takes a margin, they cannot modulate enough downwards (the minimum is 30% of their nominal power - below this, combustion is no longer good, pollution increases, efficiency s' collapses - this is the reason why the boiler cuts to restart later).

[Lolo23]

Yes it is correct as price.
I was well aware that the cycles must be long and that is why I had checked parameter 114. But I did not have the impression that they were so long last year!
I have a 15kw too, 250m2 to heat and properly insulated with inertia. We bought the house a year and a half ago so I don't have the history but it does indeed seem well sized. What I do know is that this is one of the first that the okofen technician has put into service in the corners, which perhaps explains the correct sizing!
We changed the burn pot last year. Other than that, RAS.
Thank you for your answers !

[Bedouin]

Hello,

For information :

After 17 years of operation of my Okofen condensing boiler (the first of this type):

- Average cycle time 50m
- number of starts 33232
- operating time 28240 hours

Very reliable !

I changed the on/off button once, that's all!
There, I will have to replace the combustion plate.

On the other hand, it is still difficult to find a good heating engineer to do the maintenance.

[AdrienAnnadu49]

Hello everybody

We just moved into our house at the end of October and it is equipped with an Okofen boiler installed in 2009.

There are

1) a heated floor downstairs (living room and kitchen) in heating 1

2) radiator heating for heating 2

There is a box with a dial in the living room.

The previous owner and a heating engineer came to explain the main points to me and then I spent a lot of time on this forum but I don't understand everything I think ^^

I took the measures advised by the experts of this forum, I downloaded the Excel file for calculating and monitoring the heating curve

beginning of November :
PE 112: 21470
PE 113: 9593
PE 114: 26 mins

I did tests to change the heating curve on the floor by passing the water law from 0,6 to 0,4 and the temperature from 20 to 25

1 month later (including two weeks with colder temperatures (5 to 10 degrees max) I obtain:

PE 112: 21938
PE113:9757
therefore P114: 21 minutes

we are not cold but the heated floor is stagnating around 18, 18,5 while the setpoint is 20 and the cycles have decreased and I have the impression that it is consuming more pellets.

I'm throwing a bottle into the sea to get the support of an expert!

Thank you so much!

Adrien