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December 27, 2007
Replace the boiler/How much are your gas bills?
Hi, we recently purchased a two story brick townhouse. The boiler is 50 years old. It works fine heating the house and hot water, but we were somewhat stunned to burn through $700 of fuel in just 5 weeks. Granted this is the height of the heating season, but we keep the heat down near 60 degrees most of the time. A guy from the fuel company said that the boiler is just very inefficient because its so old. Here's the question: is this just how expensive it is to heat an old house during the winter, or should we convert to gas to save on our bills? That is, what are folks out there with comparably sized (18x50) attached brick houses spending on gas per month these days to heat their homes and provide hot water? Would love to know. Thanks a lot.
Comments
Do you have a programable thermostat? I find they are better at dealing with inefficient boilers.
Other things to look at:
Is is surface of the hot water tank hot to the touch? If it is you are not properly insulated and losing heat.
Does the boiler constantly turn on and off while heating? Could indicate problems with the boiler or with the layout of the heating system.
Do you have insulated windows?
Do you have insulated walls/ floors/ ceiling?
Posted by: guest at December 27, 2007 12:31 PM
FWIW my highest gas bill this year was aprox. $741 for last Jan. & Feb. My latest reading THIS year was from the end of Oct. and I will not have another one until early Jan., so i have no comparable figures for this season.
My house is three stories, 20' X 45'.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at December 27, 2007 2:35 PM
FWIW my highest gas bill this year was aprox. $741 for last Jan. & Feb. My latest reading THIS year was from the end of Oct. and I will not have another one until early Jan., so i have no comparable figures for this season.
My house is three stories, 20' X 45'.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at December 27, 2007 2:36 PM
No boiler should be in service for 50 years.
Replacing it with either an oil or gas-fired unit will lower your usage if installed properly.
I understand the boiler makes hot water for domestic use but are are you heating the radiators with steam or hot water?
Posted by: Master Plvmber at December 27, 2007 3:23 PM
I also burn a lot of oil with an old boiler and I am trying to decided when I replace the boiler should I switch to gas or continue with oil. Could someone with a new oil boiler respond - of my house is steam heat
Posted by: Bette at December 27, 2007 3:51 PM
HI,
I just switched from a 35 yr old oil burner to gas. my old oil bill was about $400 Mo in the winter. I just got my first gas bill and it was $200. our house is 2 stories plus garden, 17 ft wide.
Posted by: guest at December 27, 2007 3:58 PM
Forgive me for jumping onto this thread but I have a follow up for Master Plumber. My oil boiler is a retrofit to a coal box done back in 1942 (no joke). When serviced this year, it had zero smoke and tested out at 81.5% efficiency. How much more efficiency would I get with a new boiler? Even the oil company says that I'd get little and since they'd at least be in the running as a potential supplier for a new boiler, I'm inclined to believe them. Is that naive?
Posted by: guest at December 27, 2007 5:36 PM
We have a 2 family semi detached brick with a gas boiler which is about 12 years old. We're on the Budget plan with Keyspan and pay $126 a month, and usually the gas company owes us money at the end of the year. We keep the temp set at 65 degrees, but we get a lot of sun all day, which warms the house. The highest bill I've seen in the winter is about $500 for two months.
Posted by: guest at December 27, 2007 7:14 PM
Something that bears pointing out is that we have had virtually no days where the temp dipped below 35 at all thus far this winter, and many days in the 50s and 40s. Does not seem like the kind of weather that should be socking a two-story house with a $700 a month bill. Something is wrong. My money is on your half-a-century old heating plant. And how's your weatherstripping?
Posted by: Rehab at December 27, 2007 10:30 PM
Oh, another thing: Do you have the heating pipes insulated in the basement? You can do this in a couple hours, really easily, with prepared pipe-wrap from Home Despot, and the temp in your cellar will drop 20 degrees instantly (thus dramatically increasing the amount of heat that's going where you need it--upstairs).
Posted by: Rehab at December 27, 2007 10:32 PM
If your boiler is hotwater, please do a heat loss calculation before you get a new boiler. Old boilers are often oversized and that can make them quite inefficient.
Posted by: ohiise at December 28, 2007 2:06 AM
Guest 5:36,
For reasons too numerous to list, I have serious doubts your 1942 oil-converted-to-coal-burning boiler is running at 81.5% efficiency even though the hand held meter the technician uses may be giving that high a reading.
A new steam boiler will top out around 83%, though.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at December 28, 2007 8:02 AM
When we moved into our house we had a 50 year old boiler as well. We replaced the boiler about 2 years ago and we found we used about 50% less oil than before. These days I would certainly get a new gas boiler. The gas company used to subsidize the cost of the new boiler. Also consider the fact that it is fifty years old, how much longer do you think it will last before stuff starts breaking. That is what led to us replacing ours. We had one winter where the boiler broke down every two weeks. Its no fun to wake up on a cold winter morning and have no heat (and in our case no hot water).
Posted by: mittens7922 at December 28, 2007 11:01 AM
Get an energy audit and ask for a detailed report with prioritization of the recommendations.
Posted by: guest at December 29, 2007 11:43 AM
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