Alpine 150 noisier after blower changed

[Cristian Iocin]

Hi,

The boiler is louder with this new blower. I noticed the settings of the blower speed are set at max 4000 rpm. The book said that the min is 2500 rpm. Can I play with this settings? I do not notice a change in noise before and after ignition so the blower itself can be that loud and is not a matter of the right mixture of gas and air into the boiler?

Thank you

 

[Dana]

There are all sorts of parameters that can be changed on that boiler, some of which could take it outside of the specified operating range. Spend some quality time with the manual before making big changes.

That boiler is 3x oversized for the heat loads of most homes in NY. It's worth running the napkin math on it's minimum output relative to the zone radiation, and on the heat load to be able to optimize performance.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Cristian Iocin]

There are all sorts of parameters that can be changed on that boiler, some of which could take it outside of the specified operating range. Spend some quality time with the manual before making big changes.

That boiler is 3x oversized for the heat loads of most homes in NY. It's worth running the napkin math on it's minimum output relative to the zone radiation, and on the heat load to be able to optimize performance.

I was hoping to find someone with some experience in running this boiler at lower blower speed and maybe be quieter. Like I said the noise is about the same thru the entire start-up.

The manual you referred is for bigger sizes of Alpine boilers. Mine is 150 and I am not looking to change it. I just want o make it less louder. Maybe some noise insulation for boiler room advice?

 

[Dana]

Sorry about linking to the wrong Alpine manual. Try this one.

Optimizing the operation of the boiler doesn't mean changing it. Reducing the blower speed to something lower will probably work, and indeed the current speed may be set sub-optimally high for efficient operation. At higher blower speed more fuel is being injected to keep the fuel/air mixture in the right proportion, so it's probably running at a much higher firing rate than it ever needs to, which has both efficiency and longevity consequences.

So for starters, really read the manual.

And when you think you understand how the thing needs to be set up, run the napkin math on the radiation to dial it in.

Who installed the new blower? Were any parameters changed?

 

[Mage182]

I have an Alpine 150. I run a max fan speed of 1750 for heating calls ( I have 2 zones), and 1950 for DHW calls (no priority set).

As Dana said, grossly oversized for NY but it works pretty well.

 

[Ron Beck]

you can change the blower speeds anywhere between min and max but do not change the minimum speeds. You can change the light-off speed which I beleive you were looking at, this is not the max input. The RPM's is 5000 Max and Min of 1300. You can reduce the max but do not try to reduce the min. The Alpine 150 will have a minimum input of 30K.
The Alpine 150 should not be noisy. With the door on you should barely know it is running. Two things that can make it noisy is
1) too high of O2. The O2 on any Alpine either LP or Natural gas should be 5.2%to 5.5% in high fire and low fire should be equal to high or a few tenths higher. 2) Fan/gas valve assembly was not installed in the correct orientation when replaced. The air intake should be at the 11 o'clock location and the electrical connector on the gas valve straight out towards you, not facing up or down.