46 JANUARY 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
HVAC/ HYDRONICS
but also for very few ignition problems. But as I have shown you
they just know 'the secret.'
Three more things that you may also want to consider:
1. Most commercial/industrial burners are run on inter-
rupted ignition which generally, after proving flame on low or
pilot fire, shuts off in less than one second.
2. No burner manufacturer that I have spoken with has ever
recommended constant ignition on flame retention designs
except for just a couple of unusual problems. As always, the
manufacturer should be consulted first should you feel that you
have an unusual job.
3. If you can't get a burner to light and run on interrupted
ignition you have a draft (air-flow) problem, FACT!
So the original question here was—did they build transformers
better in the old days? I don't think so, but who knows? I guess the
burner men who do know are the ones who run their burners with
interrupted and not intermittent (constant) ignition.
Okay, so we're back to 2016. Amazing isn't it? At the time that
this article was originally published 24 years has passed and a few
things have changed. The PMEF book became the PMAA book
which became the NORA OTM. In 1992 there were only two
primary control manufacturers making controls available that
would provide interrupted ignition, now there are five: Beckett,
Carlin, Honeywell, ICM and Riello. Stack switches were made
illegal in Massachusetts on new installations in 1995, and in 2014
Massachusetts banned anything other than 15 second safety,
interrupted ignition controls. I'm still off my rocker making pre-
dictions, but some things never change. At this point, if you're
still wondering why people who use interrupted ignition are
having fewer problems than you are maybe now you know why.
See ya!
George Lanthier is the owner of Firedragon Academy, a
Massachusetts Certified School teaching both gas and oil. Firedragon
Academy now has multiple facilities in Massachusetts and New
England for teaching both their gas and oil "hands-on" schools and
seminars. Firedragon is also a publishing firm publishing George's
over 60 books and manuals on gas and oil heating and HVAC sub-
jects. He is a CETP, NATE, NORA, PMAA and PMEF Proctor and
has been a Massachusetts Certified Instructor since 1975. He can be
reached at 608 Moose Hill Road, Leicester, MA 01524. His phone is
508-421-3490 and his website is FiredragonEnt.com
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