Heating Conversion
I am planning an overhaul of the heating and hot water system in my 1920 2 family brick attached house. Currently, it’s a one pipe, oil burner steam setup with a tankless coil for domestic hot water. I am planning to replace my 42 year old oil steam boiler after it has developed a leak…
I am planning an overhaul of the heating and hot water system in my 1920 2 family brick attached house. Currently, it’s a one pipe, oil burner steam setup with a tankless coil for domestic hot water. I am planning to replace my 42 year old oil steam boiler after it has developed a leak in the hot water coil. I plan on taking advantage of the ConEd conversion rebate and switching to gas at this time (paperwork deadline: 2/28/11) I’ve done a bit of research and would appreciate any thoughts on my plans.
Plan A: 1) installation of new gas meter to accommodate the new boiler. 2) New gas steam boiler with separate on-demand or indirect hot water heater. 3) Plumbing of above with gas connections to existing first floor stove and relocated basement dryer. 4) Removal of oil tank.
Plan B: conversion of steam to recirculating hot water baseboards. 1) Meter and gas lines as above. 2) Installation of gas condensing boiler and on-demand or indirect h.w. heater. 3) Installation of baseboard radiators/ removal of 7 steam radiators and steam lines.
The decision of which plan will, of course, be dependant on the cost. I have a plumber I can work with and may be able to open up a few walls/ceilings for plumbing access and patch them myself later.
Anyone with thoughts on the cost/efficiency aspect of on-demand vs indirect hot water heating? Is a condensing boiler worth the additional cost?
Any thoughts would be very helpful, thanks in advance.
you probably will not be able to use your chimney for a gas condensing boiler…most need pvc or concentric venting
Switching to a forced hydronic system is a great idea in itself!! It’s more flexible, gives more comfort and also more abitlity to zone each floor/room, whatever. You can gain efficiency with the ability to zone and also by installing the indirect heater. I don’t know if condensing would be the way to go with high temp. baseboard/radiators. If you had radiant or planning to go radiant, then it would be a consideration. The lower you can go with the water temp. in the heating system, the more efficient the system. When your system needs 180 – 190 degrees to operate, the condensing doesn’t make sense. The most you would probably get out of a condensing system with hight temp. radiators would be around 86% – 88% (average). You can get 80% – 82% from a standard atmospheric hydronic boiler. At 6%+ savings on your gas bill, it might not be worth it. Your hydronic system would probably be about 30% more efficient than the existing steam system anyway. There might be other boilers that you could have installed (Burnham ES2) that might give you a little more efficiency without a lot more cost, but with the ConEd conversion, it’s not offered. And remember, as my Father (The ever wise Jerry)used to say….”act in haste, repent in leisure”. Take your time and make the right decision.
mopar, by ‘inefficient’ do you mean they don’t provide sufficient heat? because I don’t see how they could be ‘inefficient’ in the heat-producing sense and increase your bill, they are just convection elements that disperse all the heat they get.
Second option will be much more expensive, but gives you many good options for increased efficiency and other systems in the future. (And baseboards may be inefficient, but you can always upgrade in the future if you want – lots of options in development for hydronics right now. Also cast iron are more efficient.) We couldn’t afford anything but the first option when we had to choose a couple of years ago, but wish we could have. Check out freewatt and other chp options – they’re new and infrequent here, but cogeneration is likely where home heating/energy production will move. If I could, I would try to get something that will be a good framework for better energy systems in the future. Best of luck and get many quotes (tiresome as it is, very helpful!)
And whatever you do, get the chimney checked out first or it may blow later if the boiler is not the right size. (Plus if you switch to gas, you may need to alter it.)
Also if you do switch to hot water, I don’t recommend those baseboard heaters. They are inefficient and your gas bill will be sky high, not to mention they look atrocious.
Ditto … see previous heating thread.
Sounds like you’re weighing too many alternatives if you only have a week to get the job contracted. My suggestion is if your steam heating system was OK, and you want to hurry up and get the rebate then you should go w/ a new steam boiler and indirect dhw. It’s a less complicated & less expensive job done w/ work all in the basement.
Plan B makes sense if steam heat was not even; you want the better control of zones; you’re OK with a budget that’s easily double plan A; OK with the extra time and disruption of piping throughout the house; plan to live there a long time for a payback of your investment; have time to get the right contractor(s) for the much bigger job.
PLease review existing thread about 20 threads down about same topic.
The chimney was relined with a very expensive ss liner 4 years ago. The incoming gas line is sufficient(with a new meter.) My plumber’s very good and is available to submit and start work whenever I come up with a plan. I’m just learning of the newer appliances myself and am trying to have some input on the process; just looking for opinions on the options I described.