Condensing Boilers: Educate Me
This is a continuation of the ongoing saga about my astoundingly high gas bills. At this point, I have talked to three plumbers in my basement who have all said that my problem is this older, conventional boiler hooked up to a hydronic radiant heat/indirect domestic hot water system. Master Plvmber, while he hasn’t been…
This is a continuation of the ongoing saga about my astoundingly high gas bills.
At this point, I have talked to three plumbers in my basement who have all said that my problem is this older, conventional boiler hooked up to a hydronic radiant heat/indirect domestic hot water system. Master Plvmber, while he hasn’t been in my basement, is a thoughtful and knowledgeable professional, and has written that he thinks there’s something else wrong–that an old boiler can’t be *that* much less efficient.
At this point, all due respect to MP, I am ready to believe the people who have actually been in my basement and seen my setup and all say the same thing, even when I press them and ask better questions than I asked of the first guy. It looks like if I want to see the efficiency of the stuff I already bought, it looks like I have to throw down for a condensing boiler.
Who among you, aside from Denton, has a condensing boiler? Does anyone know of a good website or formula for figuring out what size boiler you need to buy? Am I indulging in wishful thinking when I assume that I can get a much smaller boiler because the whole problem seems to be that my existing boiler is too powerful? What about tankless water heaters instead? Yes, I know that this would render my indirect tank useless, but John Hlad (who is a real gem, I must say) said that tankless might be even more efficient, and that they now make models that vent up a chimney.
Tell me your stories, give me your tips. It looks like I am about to go stimulate the economy!
From what you said on your previous post, the radiant heat had not even been turned on when you were getting the high gas bills so it seems like the problem is independent of the boiler being hooked up to the radiant heat.
However if you are about to spend more money on your system I would call a radiant heat specialist like radiantec.com or any number of other companies. I have used radiantec myself and they are super nice and happy to answer any questions you have before you ever spend a dime with them.
FYI, I don’t think you can use a tankless water system with radiant heating.
Suspect the reason there’s no responses is that there’s no more to say given your post and your old one. To reiterate: your boiler efficiency is NOT the problem (given what you wrote); size (is it short-cycling?), or other factors may be, so maybe that’s why they’re recommending new boiler. What EXACTLY did they say was the problem?