ssinzig wrote: "- show quoted text -
Okay, that seems reasonable. Although I would argue that it is not
'pretty obvious' what is happening for a 'longer' period of time,
without already being familiar with its operation or consulting an
operating manual.
Is the scale (1.2 to .10) measured in seconds, minutes, or hours?"
No time bearing whatsoever. It's VOLTAGE.
"Is it a multipler, ie. 0.8 x burn duration? "
No.
"Is it the time the burner stays on? "
Yes!!
"Is it a time delay before the burner comes on? "
Sort of. You're starting to get it.
"Is it a time delay before the burner turns off? "
Getting warmer!(pardon the pun). It's function
is determined by voltage(the numbers on the
anticipator slider are in Volts).
A heat anticipator generates 'false heat' - it tricks a
traditional bulb-stat into firing the boiler in a more
energy efficient manner, by generating a small
amount of local heat within the wall unit itself.
The correct amount of false heat both prevents
the thermostat from calling for heat too soon after
it drops below set point(what you the user set it for),
and prevents thermostat from running so long that it
overshoots that set point by significant amount.
At its extremes, a heat anticipator could cause too
frequent and short boiler runs, or not so frequent boiler
runs between which the house gets too cold, and then
gets too hot before the boiler turns off. Set properly, the
anticipator will turn the unit off just before reaching the
setpoint, so that remaining hot water(or air) in the system
can be pushed through the system without a significant
overshoot.
Succinctly, you want neither a scenario where the boiler
turns on and off every three minutes, nor where it turns
on for one half hour, and is then off for nearly one half
hour. The anticipator, when properly calibrated, prevents
both situations, and keeps the temp. within a tolerable
range.
"Everything is always 'pretty obvious' when you are
already familiar with how it works. "
S. "
That's why we're here to share knowledge. ;)